Best Selling MP3 & Media Players

Had to return 2 of them to Amazon...
Bought it... recieved it... locked up and wouldn't respond... sent it back... got another... recieved it... locked up and wouldn't respond... sent it back... for a refund.

Long story short... I ended up upgrading and buying the Zune 16. I just figured that the 16 GB hard drives wouldn't act up like the 8 GB hard drives. Turns out I was right. I love the Zune 16. I really don't have anything against the Zunes, except that the Zune 8's kept locking up. Go for the Zune 16 if you are having the same issues as me. Just released a new update with some more games. Keeps me busy in the down time.

Much Better Than I Expected
Benefits versus an iPod:
* Add music to an on-the-fly "Now Playing" list on the Zune itself. The iPod unit does not have the ability to build a now-playing list on the fly. You have to make the playlists in iTunes and sync to the unit. This a great feature if you're out and want to build a quick playlist to listen to.
* Wireless Sync. I really like not having to plug in.
* Background Image. The iPod menu is just plain white. My Zune can have any image I want in the background.
* "Resume" feature on PodCasts. This is my absolute favorite feature. If I'm listening to a Podcast on my Zune and have to pause it, I can quickly sync to my computer and continue listening to it on my PC at the exact point I left off. The Resume feature works across multiple Podcasts and Syncs between the PC and the unit itself. This is a HUGE plus for me because I tend to listen to lots and lots of Podcasts.
* The Zune Software monitors user-defined folders for new media whereas iTunes only knows what you manually add to its collection.
* The FM receiver works, though I'm not exactly sure how much I'll use this.

Cons:
* Automatic Playlists are not near as robust as iTunes. This is a simple fix that Microsoft will hopefully be addressing (can you hear me MS$)?
* Podcasts cannot be added to a Playlist (manually or automatically)
* On the Zune Unit, PodCasts cannot be added to a "Now Playing List". Oddly, you can add Podcasts to "Now Playing" in the Zune 3.0 PC software, though I can't find where that list can be viewed in the software.
* The Zune Marketplace is not near as robust as the iTunes Store. However, if you don't plan on purchasing a lot of music through the Zune Marketplace it's not a problem. Personally, I try to buy my MP3's through Amazon.com.
* Cover Flow on the iPod is very slick. The Zune has a similar browsing feature, but it's not near as nice as Cover Flow.
* MP3 Tag Editing in the Zune Software is not near as powerful as it is in iTunes. iTunes has features like "Grouping" and "Disc x of x", Notes, multiple images, etc. None of these exist in the Zune Software.

I purchased the Zune because I wasn't necessarily happy with the iPods. My wife has an 80GB iPod Classic and my son has an 8GB Nano. The Classic is great because it has our entire music collection, various videos, all of our family pictures, and other stuff. But, it's a bit heavy and has a Hard Drive that will eventually fail. The Nano is nice because it's small and slick. But for me, I needed something with more "control". The Zune is my first real MP3 player since the very very early days in the technology. Since then I've been using my Palm Pilot TX as an MP3 player along with all the other features the Palm supports.

Also, I gave this a 4 out of 5 because the first unit I received was DOA. On the plus side, Amazon.com replaced the unit for free in 3 days - over the Christmas holiday to boot.

A digital media player for Generation iPod
It seems that, since the iPod really caught on, modern media players have gone for style over substance, and the Zune is no exception. I have had no interest in the iPod or Zune, but then I heard about the Zune Marketplace, which is an 'all you can eat' sort of music 'rental' service. I've known about it for awhile, but they just started giving out 10 free tracks a month for a monthly fee. Ok, I kind of like the idea of a service like this, and with the 10 monthly free tracks, I decided to pull the trigger. The only problem is that if I want to take music from the Zune Marketplace on the go, I would need a Zune for that. Now, I knew the Zune was going to suck, but I thought I would at least be able to tolerate it so I could have ZM tunes on the road. I was wrong.

So, what exactly is wrong with the Zune? Geez, it's hard to even know where to begin. In many ways, the iAudio players that I own (U2/G3) blow the Zune out of the water, and those are over 4 years old. The Zune lacks many features found in these older players.. tools for audiobooks (such as bookmarking/track skipping disable), voice recording, line in EQ, support for OGG format, etc are nowhere to be found on the Zune. While the iAudios had a very easy to deal with joystick navigation system, the Zune has a touch pad which is just a nightmare to deal with. Many times I ended up skipping to the next/previous track when I meant to adjust the volume. Plus, I would end up selecting the wrong item in a menu because the touch pad is so sensitive. At least they give you the option of disabling it, but you've still only got the one huge button, so selecting items can still be a chore.

And then there's the software. It seems that in the past several years, both Microsoft and Apple have been in a race with each other to see who can write and even worse media player than what Real Networks managed to come up with. And I think the Zune software has the edge in this category. While iTunes is certainly horrible, the Zune software brings the suckage to a whole new level. First of all, when you try to install it, it says you have to go to Windows Update and update your machine. WTF? This is software for a MEDIA PLAYER, so why is this even needed? Besides, I'm already running service pack 3. Anyway, there's a download on the MS website where you can get the entire package in one executable, which is over 300MB. In case anybody missed that part, I'll say it again... the entire package is **** OVER 300MB!!!!! **** FOR A MEDIA PLAYER!?!?!?!?! If anybody at Microsoft is reading this, please get in contact with me, because I would like you to FedEx me whatever it is that you guys are smoking in Redmond. Once you get this beast up and running, you will see that it consumes nearly 100MB just to do nothing but play an mp3! I think the worst part of this is, when I want to transfer files to the Zune, why do I need this bloated piece of s*** of an application to do what amounts to a simple drag and drop operation? With the iAudios, when you plug them in, they just show up as a drive letter and you can drag files over to them like a USB thumb drive. Apparently though, this is just too complex for people to handle, so device makers have introduced monstrosities such as iTunes and the Zune software. But for the love of all that is holy... if you need the hand-holding that a program like the Zune software provides, check out a media manager that doesn't suck, such as MediaMonkey. It's a shame that a handful of developers can create a much better piece of software in this category than a billion dollar corporation. It's just too bad that software like this is not OPTIONAL for these modern players, as it should be.

And last but not least, the Zune software/hardware forces you to organize your music by artist/album/genre. This is alright for most people, but the newer iAudio players ALSO give you the option to organize your music by FOLDERS, but the Zune software (and all of its ilk, such as the iPod) take this decision out of the hands of the end user. And it sucks too, because when you put a bunch of music you own on the player, and then add a bunch of music from the Zune Marketplace to sample, how are you supposed to seperate them? On your hard drive, it puts all of the ZM music in a folder called 'Subscriptions', which would be really handy to be able to pull up on the player. But nope!!!

All in all, the Zune Marketplace service was just not worth enduring the suckage of the Zune hardware. This is just another example of how technology is being dumbed down for a generation of people who are more concerned with how many colors it comes in and how 'sexy' it is than how much control and functionality it's taking away from you.

Fortunately I found out that there are serveral programs out there that can decrypt the ZM tunes... my favorite being a program called MuvAudio2. Even if you're not into piracy (I'm not either), it's nice to be able to decrypt these songs and play them on whatever you want. I guess it goes without saying, but I have since returned the Zune.

Anyway, I apologize for my long-winded rant. Hopefully the information was useful to some of you out there :)

Great Slim Sleek Player
I took the plunge and bought a Zune and boy is this one fun little device.

The display is very crisp. The user interface is so intuitive that I can't believe it's a Microsoft product. The firmware updates bring free additional features, improvements and games. Wifi sync saves me yet another cable lying around. And for someone who just started working out, the slimmer 16GB works much better than the bulky 30, 80 or 120GB Zunes I see guys have strapped awkwardly to their arms.

With the built-in FM tuner, I get all the channels in the gym. Jumping to the next song is as easy as a simple tap - no need to pull it out and fiddle with it for most functions. The sync interface (Zune software) on the PC is really crisp and doesn't try to install additional browsers or software like a competing product. I'm getting tons of free audio and video podcasts, my own videos and over 1500 of my own songs and am only using half the space.

Minus 1 star for a lack of built-in Equalizer (EQ) or presets - and for the step down in earbud quality from previous models. Even with the lack of an EQ - normally a deal killer for me - the sound was good enough that I really couldn't gripe. After I picked up some JBuds J2 Premium Hi-FI Noise Isolating Earbuds (Black/Chrome Silver), the sound was so good, I didn't even notice the missing EQ.

Haven't used the social features (like trading files, friends lists, etc.) so I can't speak to those. But as a slim, sexy, very small MP3 player, this takes the cake.

Zune 8GB Black
I am very happy with my purchase. I haven't had any problems with this Zune and getting it up and running wasn't very hard. I had downloaded the Zune Software before I got my Zune, so loading songs was simple. I don't use the ear buds that came with the Zune so I couldn't tell you how they sound. My only complaint is that when I hook up my Zune to my computer, I can't play the music off the Zune. May have missed something though. All in all a very good buy.