This creative, clever video mashup of album covers must have taken a long time to put together. I’d say it’s rated PG 13 to R, so keep that in mind when viewing.

Recognized a lot of albums I like. Gotta love the Ozzy part! What do you think?

Yesterday I wrote a detailed rebuttal to Andy Ihnatko’s kevlar-piercing Zune review that made the rounds, and somebody sent it to him and he took time to stop by and comment personally in detail. I encourage you to follow that link and read his pensive reply before continuing with this post. I elevated my response to his comment to a new post because it highlighted several additional points that I think are important enough to cover in a new post.

(Rest assured, friendly readers, I’m not turning Hmm into an unofficial Zune fan blog. Following this post and the related comments, if any, I’m pretty much done speaking about the Zune for awhile unless/until/if I learn how to do some cool things or some major new Zune development breaks. And thanks for the note of review confidence, Thatedeguy, very kind.)

To summarize, Andy found my rebuttal post “very illuminating” and admits that he didn’t mention any of the positives of the Zune because he was “short on space” and seemed to agree with what I wrote more than disagree (Update 2:53pm PST: See Andy’s comment #10 below where he writes: “I do disagree with most of your points, while respecting your opinion.”). Later in his reply he refers to regular people as “consumer-oriented users.”

I am not a number, I’m a man
This is a common problem with professional technology reviewers and writers. They don’t call us what we are: customers. We aren’t consumer-oriented users. If we are contemplating a purchase we are ’shoppers’ or perhaps ‘prospective customers.’ Ironically, I think of most professional reviewers who get advanced loaner copies and don’t disclose this as non-consumer oriented writers. I enjoyed the writing style of Ihnatko’s review because it was loaded with passion. Although I disagree with all but two of the negative points he made about the Zune, I found his review spunky and engaging.

I think the whole ‘user’ term — which I’ve fallen into the trap of deploying on more than one occasion — is condescending to the vast majority of people in the world. It separates the geeks from the non-techie world. Sure, I’m a geek, but I am also a father of three teenage boys, a husband and an owner of a business offline that has nothing to do with anything tech.

I went out on launch day, reached into my wallet and bought a Zune player with hard-earned money. Was the experience as Ihnatko wrote: “about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face?” Absolutely not. Quite the opposite, I’ve been using it every day since. That’s one day shy of two weeks now, being the Zune launched on November 14.

The Christmas gift decision: Zune, iPod or neither?
Our youngest teenager wants a portable music player of some kind for Christmas and we’re currently trying to decide whether to buy him a Zune, iPod or neither. The choice seems obvious if you read the many negative reviews out there, but there is a more important choice: what does he like? He will be the customer and I don’t think he’d ever want to be regarded as a consumer-oriented user. Not in Chicago if we lived there where Andy Ihnatko’s piece ran or here in the greater Seattle area a couple thousand miles west.

What did other parents with children who want portable music players this holiday season think when they read Andy’s piece? Hard to imagine them thinking anything but the Zune is a complete piece of trash. He used the word “avoid” which suggests to me the Zune is some sort of electric fence. Couldn’t be further from the truth for those who have Windows computers in their house. For those with Apple computers I tend to agree with Andy. It’s too bad he didn’t draw this important distinction instead of painting it with a large brush.

A Bloomberg article points to the sales over the weekend:

About 33 percent of shoppers bought electronics over the weekend, including flat-panel television sets, Microsoft Corp.’s Zune digital music player and video-game consoles such as Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3, the NRF said.

Maybe shoppers at this time of year don’t vote with their wallets and purses based on reviews after all?

MP3 are the compatibility that matters
It’s important for any review of portable music players — which many people call portable MP3 players — to note the MP3 compatibility somewhere. Nowhere in Andy’s review does he mention that the Zune is fully compatible with your existing MP3 library. That’s out of the box ready. The format MP3 isn’t even mentioned. Not even once.

In fact, Andy writes:

My chief problem with the Zune is that even in a world without the iPod, it’s just not a good buy. It’s incompatible with WMP …

Ok, let’s consider a world without the iPod for a moment. Can any of the other players work as closely with the Live marketplace and Xbox 360? Most of what Andy referred to negatively with Microsoft Points and the Live network, I look at positively. Amazing how perspective changes everything.

The Zune is not incompatible with Windows Media Player in the way that most consumers will be interested in or care about. Yes, it cannot play the PlayForSure DRM files and that is a major misstep on Microsoft’s part but only for those who bought PlayForSure DRM files. I hope Microsoft fixes that so that those customers who purchased PlayForSure music can someday play these tracks on Zune. If they don’t, they are clearly turning their backs on customers and that is a very unwise business move. As a Zune customer I’m less likely to buy any Zune DRM-laden tracks because of this move.

I think most consumers understand what an MP3 file is considering many, many devices including car stereos support the MP3 format. I think many consumers also understand — or learn quickly — that there can be compatibility issues when buying music and movies online. E.g. they will have problems using that file in a different player. This is going to cripple widespread adoption of DRM-laden strategies from all companies going forward. I realize iTMS has been a huge success for music but it is weak to date in movies/TV/video department. The Zune plays video better than the best iPod player you can buy right now. We have the 5g iPod and it isn’t as good as the Zune at playing video.

Neither Microsoft or Apple has done a very good job at breaking down the DRM walls. I do agree with Andy wholeheartedly about the problems of DRM but I think to lay the blame squarely at the feet of Zune 1.0 is wrong, and I totally disagree that the Zune is “a sucky 1.0 player.” If it didn’t play MP3 files it would be a sucky 1.0 player. I think that’s the most important feature of any portable music feature today.

What portable player will our son want?
Our teenage son cares that he can play music on the device and watch videos. He likes the bigger Zune screen and he is familiar with Windows. He enjoys playing the Xbox 360 and spends a lot of time playing live with his friends. Since we only have one Apple computer in our house and multiple Windows machines he’s more familiar with Windows. He will have an easier time dealing with the Zune than the iPod as far as loading new music onto the device, simply because he’s more familiar with the Windows OS than the Apple OS. In both cases the transfer/sync process is as easy as plugging in a USB cord and a two year old could do that.

We’re not making up our mind on the purchase for him, we’re giving him both devices to use for at least a week to try out and see which one he likes best. The one he likes we’ll most likely buy (don’t want to say yes or no, being that this is a possible Christmas present and he sometimes reads this blog). If it’s all about being cool and like everybody else at school he’ll probably opt for the iPod, but my guess is he’ll lean toward the Zune.

To get away from Microsoft vs. Apple for a moment, he also could look at the device we bought for his brother — the Sirius Stiletto 100 — but I don’t think he’s that interested in satellite radio.

What is it, really, that you look for in a portable device?
I look for the ability to interface with the hardware we already have and are using regularly. In our household we currently have two Xbox 360 that get daily, regular usage. Our single Mac gets used, but I see some problems — and maybe these problems aren’t a big deal — with having multiple iPods using the same Mac. Will we be able to create different profiles for each iPod on the same Mac? (I’m asking experienced Mac users this question, not making any sort of statement, please answer below).

We are thinking about buying a new intel based Mac and that could make another iPod purchase make more sense, but still we’d be sharing the same base music library. We can listen to music from the Zune in the Xbox 360 that we are subscribed to in the Zune marketplace. There is only one player out there that allows us to do that: Zune 1.0. So in our family that makes Zune 1.0 a great player, not a sucky 1.0 one.

Microsoft history, present time and future: the UMPC tie-in
Interesting that Andy mentions the Ultra Mobile Personal Computer (UMPC) in his comment this morning. Despite agreeing with him on the UMPC, I think he’s being way too judgemental on Microsoft with other products they’ve launched and underestimating what they plan to do with the Zune long term. Hey, that’s easy to do. Easy — and popular even — to blame Microsoft for everything evil in the world. As I was reminded yesterday and since I’ve come out speaking in defense of the Zune I’ve been seeing how unpopular it is firsthand. I’m being attacked and accused of things that have nothing to do with reality.

Microsoft’s history has — rightly in many cases — earned them the Death Star label. The fact that they won’t tell a reporter and reviewer what they plan to do in version 1.1, 2.0, etc, doesn’t surprise me. I think the tea leaves can be read fairly clearly and it seems from Andy’s conversations with other Zune customers, that many of them see the same things I’m seeing. Especially those who have and play Xbox 360 and use the Live Marketplace.

I’m very disappointed in Microsoft’s efforts to date concerning the UMPC. Bill promised to have $500 portable computers with the Tablet OS available and every one I’ve seen has been over $1,000 USD. Price will kill adoption of UMPC like it has hurt the Tablet PC, but when Vista comes out and the Tablet OS is included standard, I think you’ll see more convertible Tablet PC / Laptops and the price coming down in that department. The Tablet PC is an excellent device.

Also, if you want to point to 1.0 products from Microsoft that also got almost universally panned, look at the Xbox. Very few critics liked the Xbox and gave it similar doom and gloom predictions. What did Microsoft do? They listened and looked at the market and they improved. However, even back to 1.0 they had the underpinnings of a brilliant plan: the global arcade. I think the Zune — complete with its entertainment integration with the Xbox 360 and Live Marketplace — is poised to do something with micropayments that nobody else yet has been able to do. Nintendo still doesn’t understand the online game and from what I’ve read from customer reviews the Sony PS3 online answer to Live Marketplace is shaky at best.

I wrote much more about where I think this all is going and why in: Here’s what critics are missing about the Zune.

It’s interesting to note also in Andy’s response that he wishes he could have back the six month prediction of doom he laid on the Zune’s doorstep writing:

I’m confident that in six months’ time the Zune will have failed to make a serious dent against the iPod or the family of WMP-based players, and will have become irrelevant and mostly forgotten. But not dead and buried, not beyond revival with a terrific 2.0 firmware update.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a more balanced Zune-related review in the future from Andy.

I think Andy’s biggest mistake in his review, beyond the prediction which we both seem to acknowledge was bogus, is that he didn’t point out more clearly some of the things he wrote in his comment reply here. His comments won’t get nearly the readership of The Chicago Sun-Times audience. That’s too bad. Prospective Zune customers will miss out on these important extra details that were cut out based on editorial constraints (?).

Bottom line: the average person isn’t the ignorant digital music consumer any more. They may not know the terms for the different types of DRM, but many understand what an MP3 is and they know or learn quickly that these are friendly format files they can use to listen to music with the most amount of freedom in today’s digital world. Yes, there are other more free formats like Ogg Vorbis, but that gets into more geek-oriented territory.

Being that Andy’s article was aimed primarily at regular shoppers, not computer geeks, I think he did a large portion of these folks a disservice. Those who own Apple computers like I assume Andy does and don’t own an Xbox 360 should buy an iPod this Christmas, but the answer isn’t so clear for those who have kids with Xbox 360, Live and use Microsoft Windows (which more and more families are purchasing the 360 and Windows already has a huge percentage of the marketplace).

And then there’s Slashdot, gotta love ‘em
Yesterday I also took the brave — and perhaps patently suicidal — move of commenting on Slashdot with a link to this rebuttal. Practically any defense of products/services from Microsoft at Slashdot will be met with suspicion, condemnation and sometimes worse. Predictably, it took all of minutes for a Slashdotter to call me a Microsoft astroturfer and then in a follow up comment a $25 whore for Bill Gates.

I had to look up the definition of astroturfing (emphasis mine, via Wikipedia):

pejoratively describes formal public relations projects which deliberately seek to engineer the impression of spontaneous public reactions to a politician or political grouping, product, service, event, etc. by many diverse and distributed individuals acting of their own volition, when in fact the efforts are centrally coordinated.

So I’m being accused by a Slashdotter of being part of a centrally controlled Microsoft experiment? Obviously the slashdotter doesn’t know anything about me.

I also got flamed for making a parenthetical and admittedly dumb mistake about the iPod in the rebuttal post. I quickly fixed the mistake and credited the first person at Slashdot to mention it. I make mistakes, and do my best to fix them quickly when notified. I wish the rest of the internet worked that way, but that’s a story for another day.

Microsoft disclaimers
Just so it’s clear here and to clearly refute the bizarre, unfounded astroturfing accusation: I don’t know anybody who works on the Zune team. Despite the fact this is one of the few tech-oriented publications to positively review the Zune from an actual customer perspective, we’ve heard nothing from them. Not a single email, comment and I don’t even recall seeing a trackback from the Zune team blog (I might stand corrected on that one though). Honestly, I’m a bit surprised they haven’t reached out in any way to a rather obvious customer fan, but they haven’t as of this writing anyway.

We weren’t offered a review loaner copy of Zune and if I had and it came attached with some deal saying I couldn’t talk about it being a review copy like John Dvorak received I would have passed and sent it back. If they want to send us Zune version 2.0 to give it away to a reader after being reviewed, I’d agree to doing that but it’s obviously too late for version 1.0.

I don’t work at Microsoft, never have, nor do I have a family member or close friend who works there. I have known and know a few people who work there, and think highly of them, but I don’t know anybody personally on the Zune team.

I’ve done beta testing for Microsoft products in exchange for software which they send a 1099 for if it exceeds $600 USD per year, but never the Zune (player or marketplace). They call most the members in our family every 60-90 days to see if we qualify for a beta test. Sometimes we are invited, and sometimes they pass, but we’ll hear from them again in another 60-90 days.

I was also invited to the Microsoft Redmond campus to participate in Search Champs v4.0 which is about 45 minutes north of where our home and business are located. I gave them my honest, critical feedback about products they were working on or had already released publically under NDA. I try my best to give the same quality of feedback to any product, service or website I review. If I lived near Apple HQ and was offered the same opportunity to do periodic onsite beta testing in exchange for software or $$$ as payment (and they 1099 you), I’d sign up for it in a nanosecond.

That’s it for the conspiracy camp. I’m not in Bill’s back pocket on anything. Though I haven’t taken count, I probably dislike more Microsoft products than like. I give an honest opinion usually from a customer’s perspective on everything. If I have a conflict of interest, I disclose it.

Why do I care about Zune so much?
It might seem that I’m defending a colossal underdog with some sort of agenda or purpose, hence the astroturfing flak received from the Slashdotter, but I’m more about defending choice. If the only choice is the iPod, we as customers — not consumer-oriented users — lose. I would like to see Yahoo and Microsoft get their act together on search and better compete against Google. I appreciate and fully support the competition between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo on the console videogaming front. I don’t want there to be just Coke without Pepsi.

I was fully prepared and willing to take the Zune back to the store if it sucked like many tech writers/reviewers were saying. I returned the Windows Media Center PC we bought back in December 2004.

The Zune reviewers turned out to be wrong and seemed to be out of touch with what really mattered to me. Consider pondering today and beyond if you write, review and/or speak with others about tech that non-techies and even some techies don’t care one iota about platform wars. When it comes to portable music/video players, most folks just want to listen to music and watch videos with the least possible hassle and most convenience. Listen in their home, car, boat, RV, where it enriches their lives.

I love to read real customer reviews. Don’t you?

Andy Ihnatko is the newest in the growing line of Zune bashers. I read his biting piece on the Zune entitled Avoid the loony Zune in the Chicago Sun-Times and although I found numerous bones of contention, I was entertained. I notice Mr. Ihnatko never mentions how he came into the Zune. Did he buy it? Was it a review loaner copy from Microsoft? My guess is that he didn’t buy one. I wish more reviewers would provide readers with this information so we could determine if this was the view from a customer or not.

Was his review useful and/or accurate to everyone who purchases a Zune? Nope. Not only has the Zune first generation been getting a good amount of use in our family, we are strongly considering buying a second one. And yes, we have an iPod fifth generation (black) too and like it. We’re a platform agnostic family. I think sometimes people get tied up in brands when most families don’t care. They look for solutions and convenience and to some degree every platform has its pros and cons. Mr. Ihnatko can’t seem to find anything good to say about the Zune which in some products and services might be justified, but isn’t here.

I’m going to look at every negative point made in Mr. Ihnatko’s piece and show you the other side of the story that was conveniently left out.

The setup process stands among the very worst experiences I’ve ever had with digital music players. The installer app failed, and an hour into the ordeal,

Two installs we’ve done have been flawless. One on Windows Media Center 2005 and another on Windows XP Pro. Zero problems. Nadda. Zilch. Neither my son nor I were asked to manually install any dll file. Even if we had, that’s not a complicated or time consuming undertaking.

Only the Zune software can sync music, video and pictures onto the device; Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player

This is only partially correct. Zune, like Windows Media Player, is compatible with MP3 files so if you do like our family does and buy CDs and rip them down to MP3, then use a shared folder, you can share these same files with multiple music programs including the Apple iTunes (on a Mac even if you use a FAT32 partition), Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.

What Mr. Ihnatko should have written in his article is the DRM-protected files that play on Windows Media Player will not currently play on the Zune. He doesn’t mention that neither will the DRM-protected files that play on the iPod, or the iRiver, or any non-Zune device.

The Zune app doesn’t even have as many features as WMP

Firstly, the Zune is a first generation device and player. Secondly did Mr. Ihanatko do a feature by feature comparison? I don’t care how many features an application has, I care how many useful features an app has. Also, too many features can negatively impact resources and experience. Lean and mean is better for me than fat and feature-ridden. Let’s compare the features in a music player that really matter:

play, stop, rewind or fast forward in the track (move a slider) - check both
replay the same track, shuffle (randomize) - check both
rip CD to MP3 in multiple bitrates - check both
ability to share music directory with other players - check both
create an unlimited number of playlists - check both
play DRM and MP3 files on Xbox 360 while playing a game (can’t do this on iPod) - check both

Additionally, Mr. Ihanatko adds pedantically:

And why (for the love of God) doesn’t it support podcasts? That’s pure insanity.

At this point I laughed out loud.

Podcasts are primarily MP3 files and thus fully supported by Zune. They can be moved into a directory shared with another player which manages podcasts without any conflict. In our case, we use iTunes on the Mac for podcast organization. When iTunes detects a new podcast it is moved into the shared MP3 directory and the next time Zune launches it sees the new podcasts and adds to the library automatically. Furthermore, there is a third party plugin — Windows Media Player has these too — called FeedYourZune which provides integrated podcast support for Zune. None of this is mentioned in Mr. Ihanatko’s piece.

It’s incompatible with Microsoft’s own PlaysForSure standard, too.

The apparent abandoning of PlayForSure initiative is a mistake. Ihanatko is right to criticize this one. Why Microsoft couldn’t make Zune work with its existing DRM was a bad move on their part. This is one of only two criticisms Ihanatko uses in the piece where I agree. That’s a major negative for those who already have PlayForSure DRM content and are looking at buying the Zune.

You’ll have to buy all-new content from the new Zune Marketplace.

Yes, this is true too. However, the same can be said for Xbox 360 and iTunes and a bunch of different legal movie download sites (Vongo, Cinemanow, etc). If someone switches from Windows to Mac tomorrow, can they take their DRM-music with them? Nope. This isn’t Microsoft’s fault, this is the fault of the copyright owners making it difficult for their customers to enjoy the movies and music freely for personal use. This is why we choose to buy DVDs and CDs which give us the option to make an archival copy in a format that we can enjoy in our home without restriction.

Oh, and the Zune Marketplace doesn’t even take real money, proving that on the Zune Planet there’s no operation so simple that it can’t be turned into a confusing ordeal.

Confusing for who? 1.25 Microsoft points = 1 penny. It’s not a difficult calculation and as I mentioned in detail in the past, it offers the advantage of being able to charge less than a penny for something.

You’ll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry’s Bizarro World, where users aren’t allowed to do anything that isn’t in the industry’s direct interests.

DRM sucks, no argument from me there, but again, if you pay the $15/month at Zune (and you don’t use Microsoft Points to pay for that, BTW) you can listen through over a million songs — regretably not every song in the database — and decide which music you want to buy. Ihanatko’s complaints about DRM are justified, but as long as the player supports the most widely used format — MP3 — Zune and the iPod are in the clear. I’m frustrated that Apple won’t let me listen to more than 30 seconds of a song so I can really decide if I want to buy the track. I would pay extra for this service if they offered it, but apparently Apple doesn’t think music fans want to try before they buy — beyond 30 seconds that they choose as a snippet.

the Zune’s sole wireless feature is “squirting” — I know, I know, it’s Microsoft’s term, not mine — music and pictures to any other Zune device within direct Wi-Fi range. Even if the track is inherently free (like a podcast) the Zune wraps it in a DRM scheme that causes the track to self-destruct after three days or three plays, whichever comes first.

“Squirting” is a terrible name. Warner doesn’t like it either and neither did anybody he queried.

I haven’t tried the sharing functions because I haven’t run into anybody else with a Zune yet to try that out so is this a practical argument against the Zune yet? If/when we buy a Zune for our son than we’ll have two Zunes and can work with the Wi-Fi sharing. Since our entire music collection is available in a shared directory on our LAN, I don’t see why we’d need the sharing feature at home anyway. If I go out to an event with other folks with Zune then I’d like to get music recommendations from others. It wouldn’t bother me that these were time sensitive files I needed to make a choice on. If the files were tied to the Zune all you can listen to store since we are subscribers, we could listen to the song more than the limited number of times.

As for sharing MP3 and other files through the Zune, somebody has already hacked that. I suspect this will become a futile cat and mouse game like Sony has been doing with the PSP crowd.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to surf the Zune store from within the Zune via Wi-Fi. I hope that is coming in a future version. Why should I need the PC to select music from the store if Wi-Fi can already tap into the internet connection?

And lastly the review ends with Ihnatko’s bogus prediction:

Result: The Zune will be dead and gone within six months.

Mark your calendars, friendly readers because this is an example of a snarky prediction that won’t come true. There is no way the Zune will be gone in May 2007. In fact if Microsoft follows the way Apple works its product lifecycle, we’re more likely to see a second generation Zune next year — or at least a few nice firmware upgrades. Don’t expect blind Apple loyalists like Andy Ihnatko to point to any of this in a future piece.

With that said, the Zune definitely has flaws. I think the accessories are way overpriced. The picture at the top of this post shows how we used an existing (cheap) FM transmitter plugged into the standard headphone jack (why doesn’t the iPod use standard headphone jacks? Update 1:33pm PST: it does, thanks for the correction JackAxe) and it works great. Spending $100 for an auto kit seems like a great way to bilk your customers for something they should throw in for free or for under $20. If you want people to listen to your device everywhere, make it easy for them to listen in the car, boat, RV, etc.

We are happy with our Zune experience thus far. As with any other critical writing out there, there are always more than one side to the story.

Readers might remember my ill-fated attempt experiment performing karaoke online at Bix.com but did make a couple comedy shorts, which succeeded in receiving more thumbs down and thumbs up votes. I particularly enjoyed feedback like:

“oh wow this video should be baned” - AdrianSchittu
“wow man that is so so so not funny and this is in the comedy section wow you need to think your things over and plus this is not a magic show” - funnyman101

Ok, maybe my first two efforts sucked and didn’t make me that many friends or fans, but look who’s one of my friends? American Idol’s Kimberly Caldwell. Woohoo, neener, neener!

(Actually Caldwell works/worked for Bix, so she made everybody here “friend”)

I was so inspired by this negative energy that I’m working in my head on some new short comedy routines. I’m committed to making a few people in the world at least crack a smile. I love a good challenge.

Apparently, Yahoo does too and has agreed to acquire Bix and see if they can find some American Idol-style talent in the world. They also have a Yahoo Talent search in progress where contest entries end November 27. I wonder if I’ll have enough time to enter? Hmm …

I also just noticed that Bix broke the links to my original comedy skits. I sure hope that wasn’t intentional. That’s a good way to get a really bad rap. And I don’t mean in the Karaoke sense.

View my Zune Flickr set (new window)

Like some (most?) of you, I’ve been reading how much the Zune sucks everywhere (Infoworld). Note the first reader and Zune customer comment following that Infoworld story which makes the absurd comparison to the collosal Microsoft BOB failure that begins with: “I bought the Zune and I love it.”

How many Microsoft products generate these type of comments? A lot of love has been felt from the Tablet PC community while critics have mocked the device and dismissed as little more than an expensive laptop.

It’s a good thing critics aren’t always right. The negativity doesn’t end with mainstream media, bloggers have picked up on it too.

Om Malik was put off being one of the last media guys to receive a Zune review copy and can’t make up his mind whether to review it or not. Worse, he wants readers to help him. Lame. No matter what anybody else says or writes, you still have your own opinion, Om, right? Maybe there are gigabytes worth of reviews out there, but until there is a Gigaom review your readers won’t know what you think. As a reader and somebody who goes out and pays for the gadgets with my hard earned money, I’m put off by this kind of reader polling.

Engadget’s Ryan Block put together a series of screenshots of how awful his installation experience was and it was front page dugg and linked up like crazy, but you know what happened when I installed my Zune after unboxing it?

It worked flawlessly. No error messages. No lockups. No hangups. No problems.

And then there is the grandfather of trolling, John Dvorak, who has arguably been wrong more than right about technology adding his complaints about the Zune review criteria (why should PC Magazine readers care, John, really?) and without actually reviewing the unit coming to the following realization: Microsoft’s music player has no future. After Dvorak admitted to Dave Winer intentionally trolling my admiration and respect for him as a writer vaporized. Who knows or can trust what Dvorak really thinks these days? This is kind of sad because at one time I used to enjoy reading his perpetually snarky columns. Keep in mind Dvorak is also the same guy who called blogging a “niche market and called us conformists.

I don’t know about you, friendly readers, but I’d like to see more of these reviewers actually buy more of these gadgets with their own money thus putting some of their own wallets in the game, and then hear what their perspective is from a customer, instead of somebody just paid to review a free loaner copy of the gadget. And in some cases bitch and moan about the review process (big yawn).

Also, some of the reviews involve the Zune before the marketplace was available thus crippling a major function of the device. The Zune marketplace is a vital part of the device just as iTunes is to the iPod.

I’ve been extremely critical of Microsoft in the past on a number of fronts and have absolutely zero problem criticizing them, but instead of being just another lemming rolling out the Microsoft sucks line, I actually went to the store and bought the Zune on launch day and kept an open mind about the device. Sure, I couldn’t help thinking I was going to take it home and be tortured by how poorly the device and software worked, but to summarize in three words what I found?

I liked it.

I’ll give several reasons why I like it and point to something that I’ve yet to read a Zune critic speak about (I can’t be the first mention it). Now let’s get the comparison stuff out of the way first.

No, it’s not the iPod
I never expected the Zune to be an iPod and don’t want it to be. Ever. No more than I expect the PS3 to be the Xbox 360 or Wii. Can we listen to (most) complete songs in the iTunes Music Store database? No. You get a lousy 30 second preview. I’ve written extensively about how the unlimited rental plans help our family decide what music we’d like to buy on CD so that we can rip into a format (MP3) that we can use on many different devices (DVD players, car stereo, portable devices, etc). Apple would rather give me a 30 second clip to decide if I should then drop a buck on a song that can only be played on their system and devices. What do I do when I want to take that music to listen in the car? I need to bring along the iPod and hook into the car with other accessories.

And then there’s the Xbox 360
Our family owns two Xbox 360 that are used almost constantly when the kids are home. They enjoy playing and as parents we like that we can juice the accounts with Microsoft Points. It’s a responsibility lesson leaving them with points. Now they could go in and buy points and hit our credit cards (something I don’t like about the Microsoft marketplace, they need to force some sort of password check on that) but fortunately are children are responsible and ask first.

Now we can buy music with the same points that are used to buy games and Xbox Live content. Can I do that with iPod/iTunes? No. They have games, but the games only play in the 5g iPod (which we have) and they don’t come anywhere close to comparing to Xbox 360 games (nor are they intended to compete).

And while playing games on the Xbox 360 I can stream music from Zune. How cool is that? I can’t do that with the music on my wife’s iPod. That gives me a library of well over a million songs to peruse through at my convenience, picking and choosing the music I like and ultimately whittle down and buy my most favorite. I’m not interested in quantity when buying CDs, music and movies, I’m interested in something I enjoy.

For those who think managing a huge music collection with tens of thousands of songs ripped in MP3 format is practical, read what Davis Freeberg has to say who is considering Napster and the Sonos music system with a rental vs. MP3 music strategy:

In retrospect, had I been able to think forward five years, I would have been better off putting off innovation and using Rhapsody (or more likely Yahoo! music because Real Network sucks), then to try and assemble a collection on my own.

Interestingly, Davis is so disappointed in the WiFi capabilities of the Zune and DRM strategy that he won’t be buying one. Davis, like many others, must wrongly see the Zune as nothing more than a glorified portable music player trying to compete against the iPod.

Microsoft Points: pain or pleasure?
There is an old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some think Microsoft Points are an unnecessary hassle, but for those already actively using the Live Marketplace Microsoft Points are convenient. Did I have any trouble getting Zune to see how many Microsoft Points we had on our family Xbox Live account?

No problem.

Do I have problems figuring out what the Linden dollar converts to in the MMO Second Life? No. Somebody should remind the Microsoft Points detractors to harken back to their middle school math classes. Despite being a programmer, I didn’t get good math grades and yet I can still figure out that 1.25 Microsoft Points = 1 penny. Why didn’t Microsoft make it easier and just use pennies? Perhaps so they can sell stuff through the Marketplace for less than one penny.

The lack of uncrippled WiFi complaint
The Zune has WiFi, which has been another source of early ridicule. Sure, I’d like to be able to surf the music store from within the Zune but can I do that with the iPod? No. I believe someday Zune with the built-in WiFi is better positioned to give me that experience. Why should I need to sync through the PC? Somebody will give me the store in the device directly and I hope that’s on the Zune feature road map.

I’m not trying to diminish how cool a device the iPod is but it’s wrong to make blanket comparisons to the Zune at this point. Sure the iPod is the hot device that most people are buying, but on Windows, I’ve never cared for iTunes. I like it much better on the Mac. Maybe it’s because iTunes on Windows feels like something they had to do, not something they wanted to do for the Mac. I realize the software is meant to be similar to the Mac version and maybe it’s just me, but the Windows version of iTunes feels wrong.

The Zune and iPod can live together
We are a platform agnostic family. We own and use in either business, home or both the following OS: Tablet PC (700+ days now), Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Media Center 2005 and Mac OS X Tiger. Recently my wife wanted an iPod, so we went out and bought her the fifth generation iPod (black) 80GB. Our oldest son has the Sirius Stiletto 100 and yesterday Tuesday as mentioned above, I bought the Zune.

I could have gone out and bought an iPod for me like my wife has (maybe a different color) but I’ve already seen what the iPod has to offer. I was curious what the Zune was like and how having a Zune on Windows and iPod with Mac sharing the same MP3 directory would work. It works great and I shared the details earlier today so other platform agnostic families can use.

Zune video looks sharp
The Zune player comes with a few demo videos to watch. I like being able to watch them like UMDs on a PSP in wide format and prefer video on the Zune screen to the 5g iPod video. In fact, we’ve been using an iPod clock radio with TV out to watch the video for the iPod.

Adcenter, Zune, and micropayments
Here’s the part to put aside Zune as merely a music/video player. Microsoft has quietly been building the biggest and best micropayment processor in the world. For non Xbox Live gamers, this might be surprising, but Microsoft continue to embrace and build a platform which could allow cutting in affiliates (think Adcenter) for very small payments. Imagine being paid to promote TV, music, videos, games and indie content with a single affiliate account? One place Google won’t be able to slap its ads.

Though I’m merely speculating on this part, I see within five years Microsoft being able to take a shot at iTunes, Skype, PayPal, Google Checkout and possibly even eBay all with a single product: Live Marketplace. The Zune is an intregal part of the portable puzzle that other portable devices they’ve had to date didn’t quite fit. This explains why they have turned their back on some past technologies. Yeah, that will hack off partners and customers but they had to make a decision to flounder with less than 10% of the market or do something that could make them a serious competitor in the future. I don’t believe they will turn their back on the zune Zune, despite the significant amount of negativity already swirling around the device.

It’s worth remembering that the Zune is still a first generation device. I remember what people thought about the Xbox when it first came out a little over five years ago. It wasn’t hailed as a success and yet five years later it’s in a strong second position and is a serious contender to Sony’s PlayStation. Time and effort can enact a change in perception and value.

It’s all too easy to dismiss the Zune as another failed Microsoft portable device, which is the trap I’m reading from too many critics who don’t see this underlying, prosperous growing micropayment network. Almost every Wednesday Xbox Live enjoys a nice healthy hit for classic games that take hundreds of thousands or less to build versus the millions it takes to produce full fledged commercial games. Our kids look forward to these games every Wednesday and the comradarie with their friends as they explore these games. Meanwhile, the cash register rings.

Apple might posture in public, but what is their response to the gaming side? One would be to buy Nintendo, which I think would be a smart counter for them, but I’m not sure they will give gaming enough credit. Apple can be blinded by arrogance like Sony has sometimes and that might be their undoing. Microsoft certainly isn’t without arrogance of their own, but it seems more subdued than Apple.

Where does the UMPC fit?
I don’t see the UMPC being the right device because:

1) not readily available in retail stores
2) too expensive

Sound similar to the Tablet PC?

We still haven’t seen the lower end promised $500 UMPC. People aren’t going to drop over $1,000 for a portable PC en masse. Microsoft has another nice portable device on their hands if they can’t get the price at and below $500.

The Zune is enterting at about the right price point ($250) and it’s only first generation. Sure, they should eventually make a cheaper, smaller Zune, but not if it doesn’t provide all/most the features of the bigger model. The iPod Shuffle didn’t work for me because I missed having the screen.

History has proven that next generation devices don’t become less expensive unless they have more widespread market penetration (good) or are being dumped in a fire sale (bad). This has been the problem plaguing the Tablet PC. Not enough people buy them to get the prices down. Hopefully with Vista including the Tablet PC OS we’ll see a tablet form factor resurgence. I hope so because the tablet experience has played the underdog role — just like the Xbox — for several years.

Respect takes time with Microsoft because people resent some of their less than stellar business moves. Especially those who bought into former DRM-laden strategies. I can understand people being hesitant to get behind the Zune. I’m not sure we’ll be doing much purchasing of DRM-laden tracks or albums, but will I be using their unlimited music system to rent music and decide what to buy? Yes, I’m planning on renewing the free 14 day trial. For how long I’ll keep renewing, time will tell. Admittedly with two Sirius Satelllite subscriptions, podcasts, videos, movies, terrestrial radio and now the Zune there’s too much content for me to absorb. Something will have to give eventually.

“You can’t win, Rock!”
Microsoft has learned something valuable with the Xbox. Reminds me of the Rocky story, which Stallone is heading up for sixth sequel next month. Who would have thought following the abomination that was Rocky 5 Stallone would try another sequel? I wouldn’t be shocked if it is successful either (Hollywood can be more unpredictable than technology). Though the Xbox division still isn’t profitable — and I’m sure somebody will remind me of that after reading this — the future is very bright for them and I see where Zune fits a strong future strategy. Right now it’s taking a beating like Mr. T gave the Rock in Rocky III, but Rocky came back swinging.

Bill Gates, despite his pending retirement status, continues to look ahead:

[Gates told] Charlie Rose and Stanford University audience at TechNet conference that ‘we’re at the beginning of something important again’ in development of technology — just as in the 1980s with the advent of the PC.

I think Gates is right.

This commentary caused Read/Write Web to ponder:

If all goes well for Microsoft (a big ‘if’), in 10 years time they will be the software that powers a lot of connected entertainment - just as in the 80’s and 90’s they provided the OS for the majority of PCs. The multi-billion dollar question is: can they get the same kind of dominance in connected entertainment as in the PC?

Sure they can. They already are, but they are going in the backdoor with something people love to do: play games. They’ve had less success with their efforts on the TV with Media Center but things keep improving on that front. A different kind of TV is the future, a more interactive and involving one that isn’t just a static tube that people sit and watch passively. The television of the future could still be several years away but just as VoIP is eating into the cell phone business, watch what happens with TV and the internet.

The Zune plan looks like swiss cheese at the moment, thanks mostly to folks judging Microsoft more on their business strategy and past success than their ability to stay with something where they are losing money (Xbox). This is one time where I think Microsoft’s wait and see approach actually makes very good business sense. If you can look at the Zune as something to watch, rather than something to dismiss, I think you’ll see this plan shaping in the distance as I’m seeing.

Waiting before exhaling: the grade
I held off a couple days before writing this review because I wanted to spend time playing with the Zune and marketplace in depth as well as enjoying listening to the wide selection of music. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Zune team comes up with future generations. While there are clearly a number of things I’d like to see added — let developers create Zune apps for one (API, API, API) — I see a much brighter future 4-5 years down the road than many critics and those heralding slow Zune launch sales see. Zune first generation is merely the beginning and part of a much grander scale. I’m not taking the Zune back and paying the restocking fee. Grade: B-

When buying a Zune one of the first things I wanted to do was use the same MP3 directory we’re using with my wife’s Mac. We have a pretty extensive CD collection that we have partially ripped to MP3 and store on an external Hard Drive (250GB) attached via USB to one of the Windows XP machines on our home network in a FAT32 partition we call WINMAC. In this partition, we store all our MP3 and album artwork and inside iTunes on our Apple Mac we have the iTunes preferences set to use this as the primary directory, see: iTUNES -> PREFERENCES -> General -> “iTunes Music Folder location.”

We also changed the “importing” section, particularly “Import Using” to MP3 Encoder and the “Setting” to ‘Higher Quality’ as shown below:

Setting the sync directory on the Zune was equally straightforward:

STEP 1. In the Zune player click on the up down circular arrow to make the inline sync window visible.
STEP 2. Click on “Sync Options”
STEP 3. Choose “more options” and the Options box will appear shown below.

STEP 4. In “Rip music to this location” section (#1) is where you change to the same sync directory as iTunes is using.
STEP 5. In the “Rip Settings” section (#2) change the format to MP3. You can drag the slider for the quality. I like using the highest quality which also results in a larger file size.

Here’s a video I made showing the process.

At Wal-mart earlier today, I bought the black Zune ($249 USD plus tax), no accessories yet, and put together a video of the unboxing. Also trying the metacafe video service:

Zune Unboxed (black) - video powered by Metacafe

More on the Zune later once I install the software and plug in the USB (that’s next). I hope my Zune software installation goes better than it did for the Engadget folks. And yes, I do realize that I paid a $1 Universal Music tax. Thanks for caving on that one, Microsoft. Not.

I like the look and feel of the Zune. Check out the video above for the Apple-inspired sweet packaging.

Most of the reviews and press I’ve read to date about Microsoft’s Zune player have been negative, mostly comparing it to Apple iPod which is now in its fifth generation. This hasn’t quelled my interest in going to the store today to check the Zune out on launch day (today).

Will I buy one? I’d say it’s still a 50/50 chance but I’m starting to wonder if that might be the only gadget this week I’ll be able to buy. I’m not hopeful at all for the PS3 on Friday and I’m worried about the Wii availability on Sunday after reading how Wii sports was getting nearly non-stop play at the recent Seattle Mind Camp.

Yesterday Microsoft had several Zune launch parties around the country including one in Seattle at noon today at Westlake in Seattle.

Just a taste of the media and blog coverage
[video] CNET discussion around whether the Zune makes Microsoft “cool” or not
Applematters.com argues against the logic of using Microsoft Points (1.25 points = $.01 USD)
Bloomberg: “Microsoft Corp. plans to add a video-sharing feature to its Zune player and will eventually sell a model that combines the device with a phone, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said.”
White, brown or black? Gizmodo analyzes the different Zune launch colors.

Enough procrastination, Walmart on the hill is open 24 hours
Ok, the launch day excitement is calling, back later …

Just listened to the sound clip of Vista’s new start up tune.

Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that’s how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.

Sounds like a droid malfunction to me. 18 months of Robert Fripp’s artistic vision and passion, only to be disemboweled by a Microsoft committee. Amen, Scoble. Amen.

Rob Bushway at Gottabemobile is being too nice saying:

It isn’t what I expected, but I actually like the start-up sound - it sounds fresh, perky, almost like a “new day”

It’s exactly what I expected: a waste of time, energy and money. I was exhaused after hearing the sound the first time. I don’t like the existing start-up sound either, so I’m not being an XP holdout. One of the first things I’ll be doing is disabling the Vista sound scheme. I don’t care for any of that sound clip noise while working. Nothing against sound scheme fans, but my speakers are for music, talk radio, anything really except for sound schemes. Hey, check this out, click on this and it makes a farting noise!

[retch]

What do you think of the new Vista start-up sound? Do you have a custom sound scheme on your computer?

While My Guitar Gently Weeps, a 73-year-old bar manager might be taking The Long and Winding Road to the hole over allegedly illegally covering Beatles tunes in a Tokyo bar. Hey Jude, er I mean the RIAA Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, Don’t Let Me Down, Don’t be The Fool on the Hill. A Day in The Life Yesterday, but hopefully Here Comes The Sun.

Thanks Joi Ito from Across The Universe, not Back in the USSR, for starting this Revolution. I’m ready for a Magical Mystery Tour of Penny Lane with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. All You Need Is Love With A Little Help From My Friends to Get Back.

Lady Madonna please leave comments below, perhaps Something brighter than Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, I Am The Walrus, now Hello, Goodbye, Come Together.