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-

My adventure in checking out other video services continues with veoh and a video without sound below for how to start Visual Studio 2005 without the splash screen. This makes the startup process a bit faster.

For those who don’t want to do the 30 second video, just do the following:

STEP 1. Right click on the Visual Studio 2005 shortcut
STEP 2. Select “Properties”
STEP 3. In the “Target” area add a space after the double quote as shown below

STEP 4. Type /nosplash.

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.

A new section on the newly owned Sony video property Grouper site [Hmm Grouper review] is offering ScreenBites of some 100 movies. The clips range from short to extremely short. Some arguably don’t even qualify as a bite, more like a nibble.

That’s what Sony said it is after with Grouper’s new “ScreenBites” channel. By offering famous scenes from hit films for free, Sony is hoping fans will be prompted to buy the full-length movie, the company said in a statement.

This is a step, albeit a very small one, in the right direction. Sony/Grouper should clearly offer the embed code like YouTube does instead of trying to post directly to the blog. Also, I don’t understand what’s going on with the existing videos I created and uploaded to Grouper. For the second time at least, my videos have disappeared from my Grouper profile.

Rescued from the sizzling Hmm never published vaults — and for good reason — comes Fan Light Torture.

Checked out Techmeme and saw the top linked story was from the New York Times: YouTube Is Purging Copyrighted Clips:

The site late last week began purging copyrighted material from Comedy Central, including clips from YouTube stalwarts like “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and “South Park.”

Yesterday I learned that Van Halen might be — rumor alert, folks — going on a reunion tour in 2007 with original frontman David Lee Roth. This is a reunion many doubted would ever happen but Roth firmly claimed was “inevitable.” Apparently Eddie Van Halen, who clearly is the leader of the band, told Howard Stern it could happen. It seems like since VH was put on the ballot for possibly being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 the timing is right. No album it sounds like, though, just them on tour playing the hell out of the old stuff.

Doing some additional digging I learned that David Lee Roth and his band will in fact be at the Emerald Queen casino in Tacoma, WA this coming Saturday night, November 4. Tickets are still available as of this writing around $45 USD from Ticketmaster. On Roth’s website he shares the setlist which includes many classic VH songs and his solo hits.

I wondered what Diamond Dave sounds like these days. Does he still have the pipes?

I’ve seen some pictures and Roth has lost the long, 80s style blond hair and looks a little like author Dean Koontz. Roth had a brief, unsuccessful stint as the guy who replaced Howard Stern in terrestrial radio. There is a Fox News clip with Roth being interviewed as to whether CBS gave him a “raw deal” on YouTube.

And speaking of Youtube, I was able to quickly and easily locate recent clips with every song in the David Lee Roth Band setlist except for Beautiful Girls. The oldest clip was Yankee Rose from 2002. If you are wondering what David Lee Roth sounds like in 2006 like me YouTube has most of the goods, although the sound and video are clearly bootleg quality.

I’m curious if Roth and company will order these clips taken down from YouTube or if they will want them to stay for promotional value? If you see the video links below get removed or taken down (what happens when you embed a video to something on YouTube that gets taken down?) then you know the answer.

1. Hot For Teacher - Brazil October 2006

2. Meanstreet - House of Blues 2005

3. Just Like Paradise - Brazil Oct 2006

4. Runnin’ With The Devil - Brazil Oct 2006

5. You Really Got Me - Brazil Oct 2006

6. California Girls - Detroit August 2006

7. Beautiful Girls - unavailable(?)

8. Somebody Get Me A Doctor - Detroit August 2006

9. Jamie’s Crying - Detroit August 2006

10. Cradle Will Rock - Mobile, Alabama August 2006

11. Just A Gigolo - Brazil October 2006

12. Unchained (Pork Pie Hat) - Detroit August 2006

13. Panama - Arkansas October 2006

14. Dance The Night Away - Brazil October 2006

15. Yankee Rose - Charlotte, NC 2002

16. Ice Cream Man - Oshkosh, WI July 2006

17. Everybody Wants Some! - Detroit August 2006

18. Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love - House of Blues 2005

19. Jump - Brazil October 2006

Do these (infringing) videos make you less or more likely to buy tickets to the concert?
In my case the presence of these videos on YouTube made me even more intrigued by the David Lee Roth band. The clip quality is so suspect that it’s hard to tell how Roth sounds these days. His guitarist is smoking and the music sounds great. A few times Roth tries to make some of his signature kicks and seems a little sluggish, but hey the guy is over 50.

I can see dropping 45 bones plus tax to see the show firsthand. I never got the chance to catch Van Halen or Van Hagar in concert and this would be pump me up for the reunion — if it happens — next year. I told my wife I wanted to go. We’ll see if we can make it.

Does seeing this video make it less likely you’d want to see the show? I guess that’s the bottom line financial question to probe. I don’t think these type videos hurt the artist, but I’m curious if we’ll see this type of content on YouTube being purged in the coming days. Maybe Diamond Dave should share some professionally produced clips along with his text-based setlist or heck, even take it a step further and provide a fan section on his website linking to these fan videos. Or sell the music from each concert like Pearl Jam and Metallica have done in the past. I’d have thrown down some $$$ for a higher quality, professionally produced version of the concert.

Apparently there are no levels Ann Coulter won’t stoop to in her quest to get attention for herself and I’m just feeding her trolling ways with this post, guilty as charged. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly she actually defends Republican Mark Foley who quickly resigned after being caught communicating with underage pages in an inappropriate sexual manner. Coulter calls Foley a “nice guy” and wrongly frames the discussion as a witch hunt for a gay guy. WTF?! I’m not aware of liberals being concerned about gay people, so long as they aren’t trying to have sex with people under age.

And speaking of sex, I don’t think if Ann Coulter looked like a troll she’d get as much attention as she does. She might be the best looking troll Republican out there. I bet I can guess what Coulter is going to be for Halloween — she’s already wearing her costume. Take of the mask, Ann, please!

I’ve intentionally stayed out of the rumor mill on the whole Google to buy YouTube discussion, but now that it’s official I’m starting to think through the pros and cons.

High up on the pro list will be adding the Google video permalink capability and archiving for all those videos. The con list includes the flaming copyright infringement cleanup duties. Also, the press release clearly indicates that “Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.” This is big.

So they’ve paid $1.65 billion in stock and intend to keep YouTube running as a separate entity? Will be interesting to see how long that lasts and just how it independent it really translates. It’s obvious that Adsense will be all over YouTube before the ink is dry on the deal. Yahoo hasn’t touched del.icio.us yet, but there are social media rumblings afoot there.

The Google press release explains:

The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google’s expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

For what it’s worth I believed YouTube would meet a similar fate as the original Napster. Now that Google has bought YouTube it has put a gigantic bullseye on Google’s back. One thing is certain, Google sure has mammoth family jewels. They aren’t afraid to go to court over what they think and feel is right. Having the #1 video site in their back pocket will go a long way to helping them better archive the world’s information. It also makes them a little more publisher and a little less search engine. I think it will be at least 6-9 months before we can say if this acquisition a good or bad thing.

Whatever this acquisition ultimately means, I’m more optimistic about Google doing good things with YouTube than eBay has done with Skype. Techmeme is brimming with commentary on the acquisition and so is my reading list, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow when the three day weekend is officially over to dig in. If you have an interesting take on all this, feel free to let me know about it below.

While they point out in the 15+ minute Channel 9 video that he isn’t replacing Scoble, Rory Blyth will be starting in mid-October to fill the video shoes that Scoble exited to work for podtech.net. The last time I wrote about Blyth here in February 2005 was when he appeared on an episode of Caesar’s 24/7 trying to pick up chicks with his buddy Carl Franklin and some of the rest of the Dot Net Rocks crew. They all struck out of course. It was like an outtake segment in a bad sequel of Revenge of the Nerds. Of course in the Nerds episode they did get the girl.

I’m surprised Rory lasted 2 1/2 years as a presenter. Not because he was a bad presenter or didn’t know the material (.NET) but because he was just too out there. Strange dude, really. I saw him present twice and one of those times he awarded me — thank you — with the top prize: Visual Studio 2003 .NET Professional. He had trouble reading my name and the name of the city (proper pronounciation “pew-wall-up”). I also rowed with Rory back in 2004 here over his personal blog and mocking one of his readers who unsubscribed. I’d probably like to have that commentary exchange back (hindsight always 20/20), but still it’s there and I just winced a little re-reading it a couple years later. With this in mind, readers of this post should count me more than a bit biased on the whole Rory Blyth career critic circuit. I’m clearly not a member of the Rory Blyth fan club.

Despite this admission and disclaimer, I think Rory will do a good job in his new position. Creating compelling, entertaining video content requires people with some different thinking. Scoble had the goofy laugh and video shakes (and speaking of Scoble, he’s now busting out with a much more polished Scobleshow). Wonder what will be Rory’s signature moves?

Rory could be giving us a hint on the interview: “I have an unusually large knowledge of fine fragrances for men and women.”

Fashion and .NET Channel 9 hybrid? Rory says the imported jeans gig is just a hobby. Channel 9 Guy could probably use a little more fashion help.

We at Hmm wish Rory and Channel 9 the best of luck.

Hot points and permalinks from Fox interview with former President Clinton who gets excited and rightly so:

- [4:00] why didn’t you do more to put bin laden out of business?
- [9:00] Clinton admits what he can be criticized for relating to Bin Laden
- [12:50] Clinton: “I tried and failed to get Bin Laden. But I did try.”

Man, I wish Bill Clinton was President again. The last eight six (Update: ok, I screwed up, it has seemed like eight years, or I wish it has been) years politically have sucked. Yeah, I can’t wait for others to show up in the comments to remind me about Clinton’s morals and how he lied to all of us about sex. I’d rather talk oval office blow jobs with interns than our brave women and men having their arms and legs being blown off in Iraq.

Update 9/26/2006 8:39am PST: via Northwest Florida Daily News:

“Fox News Sunday” drew its best ratings in nearly three years for this weekend’s electric confrontation between former President Clinton and newsman Chris Wallace.