12-12-2006, 08:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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C|NET Editor Goes Looking for Zunes, Doesn't Find Any
"Welcome to the social. That's the promise Microsoft makes with its new Zune. Unlike the solitary iPods, the digital music player lets you make new friends and discover new music. Using its built-in Wi-Fi, it can send a song to another Zune, and that song can be played up to three times before the recipient has to either buy it or lose it. Well, it had been two weeks since the Zune had hit stores, and I was ready to sample a stranger's tunes. Equipped with a demonstration unit--courtesy of the folks in Redmond--I set out to try to find some fellow Zunes and their playlists."
Look, I can appreciate (but not understand) the media's need to bash Microsoft and their products, but this is just getting ridiculous. The Zune was launched a little under 30 days ago, and it's not selling like hotcakes, so there are a limited number of Zunes out in the wild. It also has a wireless range of around 40 feet or so (I haven't tested this yet), so even if someone on my street had a Zune, if they were more than one house away from me I couldn't detect it. Most Zune users also understand that until there are more Zunes around, keeping the WiFi turned on is a battery drain - so they turn it off (like I did). Those three factors put together mean this article is about as valid as me writing an article about how I couldn't find any rattlesnakes in my backyard...which is now covered in snow. It's just basic math, and while it's worth pointing out that the value of the network is directly proportional to the number of nodes it contains, to write an article article like this is disingenuous at best and insulting at worse. No one, including the author, honestly expected to find Zunes to connect with a few weeks after launch - the entire article was an exercise in mockery and is a farce.
This is the email I sent to Ina Fried:
"Hi there - I have an idea for your next article: rattlesnakes. You can walk around, looking for rattlesnakes, and write an article about how you didn't find any. Should be gripping reading, no?"
I'm not expecting a response.
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