Five Zune HD Features Apple Should Steal

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C|Net’s Digital Noise blog has posted a list of five Zune HD features Apple should steal. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think the Zune Pass is the way to go. For just under fifteen dollars a month you get to listen to all the music you want and you get ten songs to keep. On iTunes, you buy ten songs...you get ten songs.

Zune Pass Apple has long maintained that people want to own rather than rent their music. I counter that a subscription-based music service, combined with a state-of-the-art player, is one of those features that you have to try before you realize how fantastic it is.
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I'll get a Zune Pass when the Zune store has lossless codecs for download. Last I checked, I believe they had 192kbps WMA.

Hell, I think even iTunes store has lossless.
 
get to listen to all the music you want and you get ten songs to keep.
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That's my biggest gripe. The selection from these stores doesn't cover all my favorite music.
 
I would like wifi sync for my iPhone. They should really consider making the zune hd a phone as well, or maybe apple should throw a tegra in the next gen iPhone.

Thought I would point this out though, I was kind of shocked when I got to the end.
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff.
 
I'm still holding out for a Zune HD phone (or some other device that's not on AT&T). I've tried carrying around a phone + iPod touch, and I just can't spare the pocket real estate comfortably.
 
Except that once you stop your Zunepass subscription, you lose all the music access except for the 10 you choose to keep...

So you guys would rather pay MS $15 for 10 songs, rather than pay Apple $10 for 10 songs?
 
dark4181 said:
Except that once you stop your Zunepass subscription, you lose all the music access except for the 10 you choose to keep...

So you guys would rather pay MS $15 for 10 songs, rather than pay Apple $10 for 10 songs?
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if the extra $5 for unlimited access to all of the Zunepass library is worth it to the person, then yeah. Of course, in this day and age where everyone just downloads stuff for free to "preview" it :rolleyes:, it has debatable value.
 
Leman said:
I'll get a Zune Pass when the Zune store has lossless codecs for download. Last I checked, I believe they had 192kbps WMA.

Hell, I think even iTunes store has lossless.
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The average human can not discern the difference between 192kbps and 256kbps on high end sound systems, what is the point of lossless formats such as flac on ear buds?
 
Personally, I use FLAC and ALAC primarily for archiving, as I like to keep my CDs in pristine condition. I open them, rip them, and then pack them away. My ipod is loaded up with MP3s. Lossless archives are good when you want to burn a bit-perfect cd for your car stereo, or when you want to re-rip in a newer format.

As for lossless on earbuds; I hate earbuds. ^.^
 
From the Article said:
which I have plugged into a first-generation AV dock and connected to a Bose Wave player in my living room
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Oh, and then you lost me.
 
Leman said:
I'll get a Zune Pass when the Zune store has lossless codecs for download. Last I checked, I believe they had 192kbps WMA.

Hell, I think even iTunes store has lossless.
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They use 320 kbps MP3s for the cds marked as MP3 downloads now but I'm not sure about the other downloads. Not lossless but good enough for listening to at least.
 
Taxi said:
From the Article said:
which I have plugged into a first-generation AV dock and connected to a Bose Wave player in my living room
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Oh, and then you lost me.
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I know internet folk hate Bose, but you've got to be deaf not to recognize the sound quality of the Bose Wave stereo systems.

Say what you will about their value ($500!?!), but the Wave radio / CD player systems have fantastic sound quality that is far superior to the pathetic offerings of brick and mortar electronics stores like Best Buy, such as Logitech, JBL, and the big-box-mart-side of Klipsch.
 
prtzlboy said:
I'm still holding out for a Zune HD phone (or some other device that's not on AT&T). I've tried carrying around a phone + iPod touch, and I just can't spare the pocket real estate comfortably.
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Unlocking is your friend. I use my iPhone with T-Mobile, and it works very nicely.
 
Too bad OLEDs draw more power (= less battery life) because they are self illuminated (no backlight), and they only look good in rooms with low light. Take one out in the sun, it'll be totally washed out
 
dark4181 said:
Too bad OLEDs draw more power (= less battery life) because they are self illuminated (no backlight), and they only look good in rooms with low light. Take one out in the sun, it'll be totally washed out
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I thought they drew less power because of that?
 
IRSmurf said:
Say what you will about their value ($500!?!), but the Wave radio / CD player systems have fantastic sound quality that is far superior to the pathetic offerings of brick and mortar electronics stores like Best Buy, such as Logitech, JBL, and the big-box-mart-side of Klipsch.
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:rolleyes:

That is why you buy better stuff online for cheaper. Such as polk, m-Audio, onkyo, boston Acoustics, etc...
 
The average human can not discern the difference between 192kbps and 256kbps on high end sound systems, what is the point of lossless formats such as flac on ear buds?
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Like the other person said, I'm not using lossless for the quality, but for bit-perfect archival. If I bought the CD, I'd get as high quality as it gets. Why can't I get that if I buy the song through the internet?

Also, ABX testing. Can't ABX a 320->192 to a 320. You shouldn't, anyways.
 
apple people are like gays now, we just have to accept them and be politically correct. if we don't they sue us.....:)
 
dark4181 said:
Except that once you stop your Zunepass subscription, you lose all the music access except for the 10 you choose to keep...

So you guys would rather pay MS $15 for 10 songs, rather than pay Apple $10 for 10 songs?
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Considering most new tracks are $1.49 from iTunes... it's pretty much a wash.

I had Napster when it was also doing the all you can eat model (don't know if it still is) and well, it certainly was nice to be able to download and listen to almost any track they had in the catalogue. It introduced me to a lot of stuff I otherwise would never have bought.
 
IRSmurf said:
I know internet folk hate Bose, but you've got to be deaf not to recognize the sound quality of the Bose Wave stereo systems.

Say what you will about their value ($500!?!), but the Wave radio / CD player systems have fantastic sound quality that is far superior to the pathetic offerings of brick and mortar electronics stores like Best Buy, such as Logitech, JBL, and the big-box-mart-side of Klipsch.
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And in response I submit this:
IMG_1128.jpg

Total price, $60 and the Wave radio can eat it's heart out...ok, so it's not that good looking, but man, does it WAIL!!

As for the iPod and iTunes, there are pros and cons to them both. The iPod is so easy to use, and for the most part, iTunes is very user friendly, but I do find some things are missing. On the iPod, I'd like to be able to sort my music. There's no way to tell it to sort by file size or song length. Also, it would be really convenient if I could somehow take my whole library down to 256kbps. At 320 it takes up too much space, and I'm sorry, but with ear buds and the quality of the iPods D/A converter, there's no way you can hear the difference between 320 and 256.

I'd also like a bigger screen on my iPod Classic (120gb).

And how hard can it be to get a flash player with more than 32gb of space??? I don't get it. Put 2 64gb flash memory sticks in it. Presto. 128gb of music. Get on with it already. (yes, my iPod is full!)
 
VolvoR said:
And how hard can it be to get a flash player with more than 32gb of space??? I don't get it. Put 2 64gb flash memory sticks in it. Presto. 128gb of music. Get on with it already. (yes, my iPod is full!)
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I might be wrong, but I think the fundamental reason iPod/iPhone and Zune disk space is low is because they use a more energy efficient flash drive instead of solid state drive (which is why we can't use them in hard drive mode).

To remedy that, I think they need to add an MicroSD slot like my Blackberry Bold had. That way we can chose whether or not we use them while everyone else enjoy the longer battery life of not using it.
 
With the big speed increase in Zune 4.0 and Smart DJ, it has actually become my primary music player over MediaMonkey.
 
uclajd said:
You mean when Apple bought some of Xerox's GUI ideas for milions in stock that is now worth billions? That "stealing"? :rolleyes:
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Stealing IDEAS, not stealing software or permission. What he meant was Apple didn't come up with it. Xerox did. Try not to be too literal.
 
Sorry for being too accurate.

Microsoft pays its developers to develop ideas. Apple paid Xerox for some of its developers' ideas.

Neither is "stealing."

BTW, you should thank Apple, unless you liked those eerily glowing, green text phosphor DOS days, because Xerox sure as hell wouldn't have brought anything to market for Microsoft to steal.

Yes, MS is the one that stole ideas, from Apple.

Azhar said:
Stealing IDEAS, not stealing software or permission. What he meant was Apple didn't come up with it. Xerox did. Try not to be too literal.
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uclajd said:
Sorry for being too accurate.

Microsoft pays its developers to develop ideas. Apple paid Xerox for some of its developers' ideas.

Neither is "stealing."

BTW, you should thank Apple, unless you liked those eerily glowing, green text phosphor DOS days, because Xerox sure as hell wouldn't have brought anything to market for Microsoft to steal.

Yes, MS is the one that stole ideas, from Apple.
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/facepalm

"stealing" has more than one connotations. It doesn't necessarily mean take from someone without rights or permissions. It can also mean to use someone else's idea rather than your own. I'm not saying Apple is bad because they stole something. I'm saying Apple wasn't the first and they're not an innovator in making a desktop GUI. Someone else made it first. Apple went from there and improved on it.

And nowhere did I say anything about Microsoft. Stop implying that I'm a Microsoft fanboy because you misinterpret my meaning of the phrase "stealing an idea".

All ideas has been used in one form or another when it comes to computers. It's always in a constant state of improvement.
 
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