03-23-2007, 10:45 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Misconceptions About Zune WiFi Sharing: Random versus Purposeful
There was a comment in our forums a few weeks ago that got me thinking:
"Unless people do carry their Zune everywhere, and leave WiFi on, song sharing is just not going to gain any steam."
Like any technology, the WiFi song sharing on the Zune can be used in many different ways - but I suspect the Zune team designed it mostly for a specific scenario. The assumption that the person who made that comment above is that the WiFi sharing is meant for sharing songs with strangers - random Zunes that you might encounter in your travels. Is that really what was intended? Let's look at the way the WiFi sharing was implemented. First, your Zune has to be powered on for the WiFi to work. WiFi also has to be turned on. Next, you have to be within 30 or perhaps 50 feet of another Zune. And if you're listening to music on your Zune, I don't believe there's any sort of audible prompt or interrupt in your music telling you that someone is trying to share music with you (I haven't tested that yet mind you). Barring people-clumping scenarios such as being on a bus or train, and all those Zune owners looking at their Zunes, how often is that really going to happen?
The far more common scenario, and the one I believe the Zune was really designed for, is the purposeful sharing of music via WiFi with friends in a social setting. I've done this several times, and it involves two friends, each with a Zune, each with some music they want the other person to check out because they think it's cool. In that scenario, headphones aren't even involved - each person turns on their Zune, finds the music they want to share, and sends it over. It's fast, easy, and I've discovered some really amazing new music that way - music that I never would have discovered if my friend hadn't shared with me.
Can you tell your friends about new music and bands in other ways? Sure - email, IM, SMS, whatever. But when you send over an actual song, there's something visceral about it - something tangible. When you know that you have the song on your device, you're more likely to listen to it, rather than having to track down the 30 second samples of a band's music online somewhere. Granted, I still think the song sharing DRM is too harsh: three plays is fine, but three days? Not every Zune owner uses their Zune every day - at least once I've had music shared with me that has timed out before I've even listened to it once. I can't fathom why there's a three day limit - why not seven days? Or 30 days? The real limit should be the number of listens, not the time it's been sitting on the Zune. I hope the Zune team can re-negotiate that limit at some point.
But back to the original premise: if the Zune team really wants to enable the "random Zune song sharing" scenarios, they'd have to make a few changes. First, WiFi should be active even when the Zune is in sleep mode (which would cause a battery problem). Next, they'd have to create some sort of interrupt to tell the user that someone wants to share music with them - a gentle ping in a song, or an actual pausing of the song perhaps (that's fraught with user experience problems though of course). They'd also have to increase the power on the WiFi, boosting range to 100 feet or more. And they might even allow a person to set up their Zune for automatic sharing: sending a particular song, album or playlist with any Zune in range, automatically. Automatic receiving of songs could also be added (as a user option of course) - it might be neat to look at your Zune when you get to work and find that it had received five new songs. And maybe there would be an opt-in way for you to get in touch with the person who sent you that song.
There are lots of interesting ways to enable song sharing with random Zunes, but none of them are in place today: and as such, I believe it's an error to look at WiFi sharing on the Zune and think it's designed for sharing music with random people. The Zune is all about "the social" and that means sharing tunes with your pals - which is just fine with me.
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03-24-2007, 02:44 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 59
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Bingo! Someone who gets it... 
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03-25-2007, 01:13 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
There was a comment in our forums a few weeks ago that got me thinking:
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I believe that was my comment, actually. And while your response is technically correct, it's not actually what I was trying to say. What I was trying to say is the following:
1. Let's say I go to a location where I might actually share music with my friends, e.g., a party. I have to make sure that a) people actually have Zunes; and b) that they remember to bring them. Part of the problem with this is that the Zune isn't particularly small. A Zune Mini might be far better in this regard.
2. Unless I'm misunderstanding Microsoft's marketing, Microsoft itself seems to suggest that Zune's sharing is supposed to be done amongst groups of (possibly) strangers, or at least random acquaintances -- that's the imagery a "social" conjures for me. Maybe it's a regional language thing, but the only time I've heard the term "social" being actively used is in academia, where we'd have "grad student socials" and the like where the intention was, actually, to meet random people. If my friends and I go out, we "go out" or "go to a party".
3. How much work is involved in toggling WiFi on? One of the things that always got me about IR beaming on the Pocket PC is that it simply took too much work, and I just stopped doing it. If the WiFi sharing scenario, given a turned-off Zune with its WiFi setting off, takes more than a few seconds at most, I doubt an average consumer will bother.
And, last, given that Zune adoption is pretty low (and will remain so for at least the immediate future... it's far more likely that any Zune encounters I have will actually be random. I have a lot of friends in New York, and, of everyone I've seen this year, not a single one of them owns a Zune. In fact, I have exactly one friend who owns a Zune, and he lives in Redmond. 
Quote:
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Granted, I still think the song sharing DRM is too harsh: three plays is fine, but three days?
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Actually, I think both three plays and three days are far too harsh.
--janak
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05-18-2007, 06:04 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 3
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Sharing and Info. (IMO)
first of all I think a lot of people are underestimating the growth of the Zune population. I've currently deployed and I go to the gym about 5 days a wk. and I see about an average of 5-6 Zune out of 20-30 people, and about 15-25 Ipod users.
No. I dont walk around with my Wifi on. If it wasnt a battery drainer I would. But it also drains batteries on the PSP too.. so there's no getting round that.
No. there's isn't an audible tune that pops up when someone is trying to send something if you're listening to music or viewing a video, but a box does pop up and ask you if you want to recieve from that person. IF someone does have there Wifi on and you have yours, you are able to see what they are doing on their Zune. ie: Watching _______ video or movie, Viewing Pictures or Listening to _____. So that can be a plus or a minus, it depends no how you look at it.
Yes. I've met people with Zune and ask them what they're listening to. And must Zuners are cool and are more then willing to send you a single or the whole album (cuz it take maybe 2-3mins for a 17 track album to transfer). And it takes maybe a few sec.s to turn on the Wifi, except when you're viewing video, cause then the video is stop due to the use of the back button. but music does keep playing. Video and Audio is also stopped when you agree or say "YES" to recieve a file from the individual. Overall I love the feature, YES it can be put to better use and more can come from it. But it make all my iPod friends jealous when I can get an whole album from someone without the use of a computer and iTunes.
So as long as the population of Zune continues to grow and people are not afraid to ask another Zuner(stranger) to share with them, the growth of sharing via Wifi will get more popular than ever. IMO
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05-18-2007, 06:52 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Freakwncy
first of all I think a lot of people are underestimating the growth of the Zune population. I've currently deployed and I go to the gym about 5 days a wk. and I see about an average of 5-6 Zune out of 20-30 people, and about 15-25 Ipod users.
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Cool. Out of curiosity, where is this? In midtown Manhattan, I've seen exactly one Zune in the last few months.
--janak
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05-22-2007, 06:45 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 67
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Freakwncy
Yes. I've met people with Zune and ask them what they're listening to. And must Zuners are cool and are more then willing to send you a single or the whole album (cuz it take maybe 2-3mins for a 17 track album to transfer). And it takes maybe a few sec.s to turn on the Wifi, except when you're viewing video, cause then the video is stop due to the use of the back button. but music does keep playing. Video and Audio is also stopped when you agree or say "YES" to recieve a file from the individual. Overall I love the feature, YES it can be put to better use and more can come from it. But it make all my iPod friends jealous when I can get an whole album from someone without the use of a computer and iTunes.
So as long as the population of Zune continues to grow and people are not afraid to ask another Zuner(stranger) to share with them, the growth of sharing via Wifi will get more popular than ever. IMO |
Most of the other Zune owners I have run into are more than happy to share music and just talk about the Zune.
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