The debut
is getting close! Set to hit the streets by November 14, Microsoft's portable media player will be offered at a price point beginning at $249 dollars US for a 30 gigabyte model that sports a 3 inch LCD screen. The Zune will even come pre-loaded with some music and video goodies, to get you started. In the meantime, here is an early look at the Microsoft PMP, designed to compete with the insanely popular Apple iPod.
Apparently, a writer for 2old2play was allowed to sit at a table with a MS rep and fondle one of the devices. There were three color variations presented to him, brown, off-white and black. The brown theme was his favorite. Below, we can read some snippage from the visit.
 Music Sharing
Clicking on the "community" button allowed me to see the other two Zunes nearby. I decided to send them my community member a song. Browsed to my music folder, found to a song and, instead of selecting to play it, I chose to send it. Prompted with a list of Zune's nearby, I chose one and sent it. Watching the other Zune, the user was prompted to download and accepted the request. It took less than 20 seconds to send the whole song which included album art. The other user sent me a folder of pictures with, roughly, a one-second per picture transfer rate. Upon a successful transfer, the music is wrapped with a digital rights management (DRM) layer which will give the user a three day or three-listen license. I don't know about many of our readers, but I can listen to a song over and over again. Three plays... please! Beyond that limitation, I asked the demo assistant if there was any means I could get a copy of the songs from my "community" Zunes to help me find new artists to listen to. He said there was no way to do this on a Zune, but you could send whole playlists to other Zunes and check out the artist list that way. I thought that was very nice. |
Overall, the writer was quite impressed with the device. The outside of the Zune had a leathery or rubberized feel and the face of the player was coated in a glassy surface. He liked the weight of it, as it seemed it was lighter than his 4th gen iPod, he also felt the interface was nice and responsive. Those interested can read the entire article by visiting this link to 2old2play.
Source: 2old2play
