A Big Welcome to All Our New Users

[Jason Dunn]

I wanted to give a very special welcome to all of the new people who have registered in our forums and are reading Zune Thoughts for the first time. The team (me, David, Adam, and Darius) all strive to make Zune Thoughts the best Zune resource we possibly can. Our community (the forums) are as good as YOU want to make them - so register, ask questions, answer questions, get involved. The best communities are created when like-minded individuals come together to share information about things they care about - which, in this case, is the Zune. Join the social right here at Zune Thoughts! <br /><br />I'm on the lookout for new Contributing Editors as well (the people who post the front page news), and I recruit based on the level and quality of contributions in the forums. So if you're interested in joining our front-page team, do your part to contribute to our community and I'll be watching... ;-)

[randalllewis]

I've been lurking here periodically for a while, but with the announcement of the V2 Zunes, I got a little more interested. I just couldn't bring myself to buy something as homely as the V1 Zune, but V2 has caught my eye...and my wallet. I just finished setting up my Zune 8 (the black one).

I have a new favorite MP3 player. I've got several Creative devices and most of those are pretty good. I've helped family members set up Sensas, which are not quite as nice as the Creative Zens.

My Zune connected, did whatever it needed and was ready for my use within a few minutes (I forgot to time it.) With no instructions or guidance I figured out how to sync just the music I wanted to the device. It took a while because I have around 1200 songs to load. I also loaded some pictures, a video, deleted most of the sample content and even tried out Marketplace with the purchase of a DRM free song. Everything just worked.

The Zune feels good in my hand. I like the rough finish which keep the device from feeling slick and slippery. It is thin, but not too thin so as to flex like certain iPods do. The controls are intuitive. The earphones, while not as nice as the ones that come with the Zune 80, are decent and actually fit me better than the Creative Zen. I wish the earphone jack was on top and the lanyard slot on the upper side, but those are not killer design issues.

I had similar positive feelings about my first Zen too, but after syncing it the first time, some of the luster faded. No such problems with the Zune. Nothing has made me wince yet. (I have plenty of portable storage available so using the Zune as a hard drive isn't a big deal to me. The first Zen's did that and I never used the feature.)

Now, I just have to find someone else with a Zune so I can try out the wireless swapping. Or, I might just buy another one.