[Alethinon61]

Hi Jason,

I thought I'd offer a final post with my iPod experience.

I purchased an iPod Classic (80 gb) tonight, and the final cost made me grind my teeth a little:-) $249.00 for the player; $3x.xx for the carrying case; and $59.00 for an extended warranty from Best Buy. I normally don't purchase extended warranties, but I've read too many reports of iPods dying after about a year, so I did this time.

My impression, based on physical appearance in handling the two devices, and the Youtube videos I watched, is that the Zune is a better made, more attractive player. The touch pad on the iPod is sticky, and this doesn't appear to be the case for the Zune. The iPod's headphones aren't quite as nice, and the Zune's packaging is just a bit more classy, IMO. The issue with the headphones isn't particularly important to me as I never use the ones that come with music players. I like quality sound, and so I normally get good headphones from Koss or Sony.

So, I liked the look, feel, and idea of the Zune, but since it didn't work at all for me, I can't recommend that device. Maybe by the time the 3rd generation is on the market they'll have resolved some of the issues I had (and others, per Amazon reviews). In the mean time, I downloaded iTunes software with no problems, charged and transferred music to the iPod with only minor issues (e.g. iPods seem to like making multiple copies of songs, for no explicable reason, which you have to delete before initiating the transfer), and I'm now listening to George Dalaras and Dulce Pontes sing O Morphe Poli. The sound is better than I anticipated after reading negative reviews of iPod's sound.

Maybe I'll be back with the 3rd generation is on the market:-)

Take care,

~Sean

______________________________________________

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Indeed, the Zune software installs everything you need - I've installed it probably six times now, on two different machines, and it's always 100% smooth. My complaints about the Zune software are about the features it lacks, not the fact that it doesn't work properly.



I understand your point, but I've heard even worse things about iPods - I hear of so many people with iPods that just die after a year or so. I think, ultimately, the build quality of many MP3 players has gotten worse, not better, over the past few years. Maybe you'll have better luck with an iPod, but I personal think the build quality of the Zunes is as good as, or even higher, than the iPod line.

[Alethinon61]

Hi Jason,

I thought I'd offer a final post with my iPod experience.

I purchased an iPod Classic (80 gb) tonight, and the final cost made me grind my teeth a little:-) $249.00 for the player; $3x.xx for the carrying case; and $59.00 for an extended warranty from Best Buy. I normally don't purchase extended warranties, but I've read too many reports of iPods dying after about a year, so I did this time.

My impression, based on physical appearance in handling the two devices, and the Youtube videos I watched, is that the Zune is a better made, more attractive player. The touch pad on the iPod is sticky, and this doesn't appear to be the case for the Zune. The iPod's headphones aren't quite as nice, and the Zune's packaging is just a bit more classy, IMO. The issue with the headphones isn't particularly important to me as I never use the ones that come with music players. I like quality sound, and so I normally get good headphones from Koss or Sony.

So, I liked the look, feel, and idea of the Zune, but since it didn't work at all for me, I can't recommend that device. Maybe by the time the 3rd generation is on the market they'll have resolved some of the issues I had (and others, per Amazon reviews). In the mean time, I downloaded iTunes software with no problems, charged and transferred music to the iPod with only minor issues (e.g. iPods seem to like making multiple copies of songs, for no explicable reason, which you have to delete before initiating the transfer), and I'm now listening to George Dalaras and Dulce Pontes sing O Morphe Poli. The sound is better than I anticipated after reading negative reviews of iPod's sound.

Maybe I'll be back with the 3rd generation is on the market:-)

Take care,

~Sean

______________________________________________

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Indeed, the Zune software installs everything you need - I've installed it probably six times now, on two different machines, and it's always 100% smooth. My complaints about the Zune software are about the features it lacks, not the fact that it doesn't work properly.



I understand your point, but I've heard even worse things about iPods - I hear of so many people with iPods that just die after a year or so. I think, ultimately, the build quality of many MP3 players has gotten worse, not better, over the past few years. Maybe you'll have better luck with an iPod, but I personal think the build quality of the Zunes is as good as, or even higher, than the iPod line.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Alethinon61

So, I liked the look, feel, and idea of the Zune, but since it didn't work at all for me, I can't recommend that device. Maybe by the time the 3rd generation is on the market they'll have resolved some of the issues I had (and others, per Amazon reviews). In the mean time, I downloaded iTunes software with no problems, charged and transferred music to the iPod with only minor issues...

Hi there Sean. I'm glad you found something that would work for you - sadly, this really comes down to the software itself and how it interacts with your computer. If the Zune software worked for you, I'm sure you'd be loving the Zune. But, for whatever reason iTunes was more compatible with your system than the Zune software...and now you're an iPod user. I'm going to be meeting with the Zune team this week at the Microsoft MVP Summit, and you can be sure I'm going to tell them about your experience - they need to do better!