[SoundMix]

Hi Jason,

Since you asked.

I do not believe a touch screen is better than hard buttons. I own a Cowon D2. The screen is always smudgy with fingerprints. It is much harder to navigate while being active (exercise).

Memory....the new Zune is a mentally deprived...with only 16GB..it is extemely limited. It won't hold very many Podcasts/family pictures/videos/movies/or music. I do not want to juggle my content.

No external memory card support. Even my $40 Sandisk supports external memory. This is a huge mistake.

Still no hardware EQ. The first MP3 players had EQ. And all of the good sounding ones still do.

No Ogg. A better audio compresser than MP3 or wma. Again all the better sounding players support ogg.

The best part of Zune is it's PC software...it forgives some of the shortcomings of the hardware, but it doesn't communicate well with MS Media Center or Media Player and it will not allow me to transfer anything to my other players.

WMC and WMP allow me to play all my content through my network and see/listen to it on my TV, DirecTV or Blu-ray player and they work with all of my players except Zune.

Zune software works ONLY with the Zune and Xbox. And the Zune will not play/convert DRM video files that play in ALL my other players, TV, DirecTV, and in WMC and WMP. Why doesn't Microsoft support the Zune in WMP. I expect this from Apple, not MS Zune.

What good is an oled screen for playing music? I did not buy an MP3 player to play games. And have fun playing without buttons. I can't play some of the video content I own (I can on my D2), so what good is higher resolution? If I want something to play HQ video and audio, I want at least 120gb.

IMHO, this new Zune has made a big jump forward and a huge jump back. That said, I expect they will release a 120GB or larger version. If not I'll buy another brand, probably Cowan that has a user replaceable battery.

Paul

PS. I love Zune's wireless sync.