Some folks have pointed out great reviews I didn’t like to. What’s my excuse for missing them? Well,

He didn’t care for the substance of your article either, Andy.

The answer might be to buy an Intel-based Mac to go along with a new iPod. I’m not sure which way our son wants to go (iPod, Zune or neither).

I provided all relevant links and encourage readers to visit and draw their own conclusions of the very public discussion including your unedited comments. I’m glad to see you use the comments to correct anything you feel I didn’t make clear and wish I had had the opportunity to do so on your Chicago Times-Sun piece. I’ll update the sentence above about “and you seemed to agree more than disagree” to reflect what you wrote in #10 comment above.

Bottom line, I’ll still be here, health willing of course, in May 2007 and we’ll see where the Zune is actually at and will be happy to reassess the Zune situation. It won’t be anywhere close to VHS dead or any other bogus prediction you are making about it — and yes bogus is the right word. You are not looking deeply into the long term Zune strategy and current possibilities (Xbox, xbox, xbox). It seems to me like you got hung up on the install process problems and couldn’t get past that. I understand that, we’ve all been there and it sucks, but you painted with way too broad a brush.

Of course in our case on two different machines we didn’t experience any installation problems and we are sharing a library on a FAT32 drive with both a Mac and Windows machine. So now there are three installations and only one of them went badly.

I’m looking at the Zune 1g the Xbox 1g. People bagged on the Xbox 1g too and look at Xbox 360 now. Time will tell if Microsoft executes in a similar manner with the Zune. We’ll see.

Long day with little time, but I thought I’d dash in to counter a few things:

1) I don’t think you summarized my response accurately. I do disagree with most of your points, while respecting your opinion; I didn’t mention the positives of the player because (as I said in my response) they were few, and weak, and did nothing to mitigate its vast negatives…and thus weren’t worth covering, in context;.

2) It’s possible that I simply don’t understand your (rather strong) objection to my mentioning the difference between geeks and general consumers. It’s not condescending; it’s a fact of life.

You and I (I gather) are geeks. When things don’t work correctly, we know how to fix them, or we know where to look to get the answers; we’re also able to see the larger picture. Realize that the average consumer doesn’t care _why_ something doesn’t work properly, or isn’t compatible with anything else, or offers no new features over Product B. This isn’t a hobby: they want a toaster where you put the bread in and slide a thingy down and then toast pops up a minute later. THAT’s their relationship with technology.

And that’s absolutely as it should be: tech should adapt to suit the people using them, and become as transparent as possible. If you bought a microwave and there was a huge green sticker over the door reading STOP! DO NOT INSTALL this device until you visit (url) and download revised drivers!

That’s what greeted me the other day, as I unpacked an unnamed device. You and I shrug and click over into Firefox. The average person wonders just exactly what this comapny is playing at.

As a columnist, it’s also my job to educate and illuminate and broaden people’s knowledge, but the fact remains: the average consumer isn’t going to sweat through a device’s growig pains for weeks. They’re going to put it back in the box on Day Two and take it back to the store.

Christmas Day is always very illustrative for me. I visit about a dozen houses of friends and family, and I always keep a backfull of cables and hard drives and software in the car as I make my rounds. Because at 8 AM that morning, dozens of digital cameras and music players and computers and the like were delightfully unwrapped, and by the time I’ve arrived, it’s likely that nobody’s managed to get the things working.

Again, always appreciate that there are folks out there who expect the Toaster Effect from consumer electronics. They’ve a right to expect that as an ideal, which is why products that get close to it are so valuable.

(And for the record, I’ve never had to set up someone’s iPod. Anecdotal, I know, but there it is.)

3) I also don’t know why you keep confusing the simple phrase “It’s not compatible with Windows Media Player” with other things. I never said or suggested that you couldn’t play WMA or MP3 content on it, yet your response seems to suggest that I did.

Lack of WMP compatibility is one of the true tragedies of Zune; MS has thrown away one of the biggest advantages of every iPod alternative. Buy whatever player you want. Shop at any store you want. Don’t worry, WMP will make it all work together. The iPod isn’t compatible with WMP either, but at least there’s a solid argument to be made that iTunes is a better app for managing a music library and a portable music player than WMP.

Not true of the Zune app; it’s a true downgrade.

4) I also don’t regard my deathwatch as bogus. I just wish I’d elaborated a bit. I don’t think that the Zune will be Betamax dead; just VHS dead. You can still buy yourself a VHS deck if you look, but it’s going to be tucked away at the back of the display, and the companies that haven’t dropped them from the price list aren’t really working very hard to promote them.

IMHO — and every review is just that, a personal opinion — 1.0 is a dog. It offers no advantages over any other Windows Media Player-based device, and offers many disadvantages. So: 1.0 isn’t worth the time or trouble. Should MS come out with a 2.0, I’ll be happy to write a second review and I certainly do hope that MS finally produces a worthwhile product. But I won’t need to take back anything I said about 1.0; it’s all 100% accurate.

I don’t have quite the collection you do, but most of mine are Asian flicks, my Jet Li collection, Battlestar Galactica (new one), and some other collections I’ve been slowly amassing over the years. I can’t stand not having a deal so I wait for my stuff that I’m trying to get to come down a bit in price. Unfortunately my Bond collection will be a few short again with this new movie out. hehe.

I agree that the rental thing is pretty nifty, especially since you don’t listen to old stuff always (especially with the new pop music). But somehow, it really doesn’t bother me. Probably because I can burn it to CD if I need it.