so, anyone getting a Zune?

[thecavemankevin]

Just curious. I've been following the news about this guy for a little while now and am looking forward to seeing them in person. I may pick one up, but i need to see it and get a feel for it first. I need good one handed opperation (it is a video player afterall )

The iPod has a new enemy in town, with an official release date of Nov. 14 in the USA and a $249.99 price tag. The Microsoft Zune opens a new market of "social" music connectivity. See more at the Zune/iPod comparison chart Zune photo gallery and store.

WMA, MP3, AAC, JPEG,WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 media playback
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) connectivity
30 GB Hard Drive
3 inch video LCD 320x240
White, Black, and Brown Colors
FM Radio
Dedicated song download site zune.net
Podcast playback
Updateable Firmware
Tested 13 hr battery life for audio, 4 hr video
3 day playback of Wi-Fi transfered songs from friends
XBOX streaming
XBOX (Microsoft) points compatability
Preloaded music videos
Over a dozen accessories at launch
5.6 ounces in weight, 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.58 inches size
Metric: 158 g, 112 x 61 x 14.7 mm size
Custom background images
WiFi transfer of photographs
Tag based storage system (Will not appear as drive)
PC Compatability (no Mac client at launch)
Zune tag enabled
Horizontal and vertical video orientation

[etjoyride]

i like it. I'm not the biggest microsoft fan ever, but considering i still use XP for some reason...

[Eagle]

The caveman is back from exile!!! I've heard a little about them, was going to wait and see the reviews. I don't like the ipod, used to have a Zen before it was stolen, and it was nice.

[SpecialBlend2786]

I think it looks very very promising. Won't be picking one up cause I have no need for a high-capacity player like that, but I think the product itself is going to be great.

That being said, if Microsoft comes out with a Zune mini or something i have a feeling I'd be very interested.

[Muzikman]

If it had a CF slot I would be all over that!

(my reason is for digital photo storage)

[robnix]

I don't get why people buy players that will lock you into one music service, and encrust any file you put on it with DRM. I'd look at something like the Cowon A2.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a2/

Specifications
Video Playback File Format : AVI, WMV, ASF
Video Codec : DivX 3.11 1) / 4/ 5 2), XviD 2), WMV9 (MP@LL) 3)
Audio Codec : WMA 4), MP3, AC3 5.1 Downmix
Audio Playback MP3, OGG 10), WMA 4), FLAC 10), WAV with 5 bands EQ, BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, and 3D Surround 5)
Photo Viewer JPEG 6), PNG 7), BMP 8)
Text Viewer TXT (EUC-KR, EUC-JP, GB2312, Big5, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8)
FM Radio 76 ~ 108MHz with preset
TV Recording ASF (MPEG4 video and MP3) : Up to 640X480, 30fps
Line-in Recording MP3 : Up to 44.1KHz, 192Kbps
TV Out NTSC/PAL
DivX Certified Yes
Subtitle SMI Format
Playback Time Video : Up to 10 hours
Audio : Up to 18 hours
LCD 4" 480x272, 0.183mm pitch, TFT LCD (16:9 Wide)
Storage Hard disk (20GB/30GB) 9)
PC Interface USB 2.0 (Max 480Mbps)
USB OTG USB 1.1 (Max 12Mbps)
USB USB 2.0

[SpecialBlend2786]

I don't get why people buy players that will lock you into one music service, and encrust any file you put on it with DRM. I'd look at something like the Cowon A2.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/a2/

Specifications
Video Playback File Format : AVI, WMV, ASF
Video Codec : DivX 3.11 1) / 4/ 5 2), XviD 2), WMV9 (MP@LL) 3)
Audio Codec : WMA 4), MP3, AC3 5.1 Downmix
Audio Playback MP3, OGG 10), WMA 4), FLAC 10), WAV with 5 bands EQ, BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, and 3D Surround 5)
Photo Viewer JPEG 6), PNG 7), BMP 8)
Text Viewer TXT (EUC-KR, EUC-JP, GB2312, Big5, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8)
FM Radio 76 ~ 108MHz with preset
TV Recording ASF (MPEG4 video and MP3) : Up to 640X480, 30fps
Line-in Recording MP3 : Up to 44.1KHz, 192Kbps
TV Out NTSC/PAL
DivX Certified Yes
Subtitle SMI Format
Playback Time Video : Up to 10 hours
Audio : Up to 18 hours
LCD 4" 480x272, 0.183mm pitch, TFT LCD (16:9 Wide)
Storage Hard disk (20GB/30GB) 9)
PC Interface USB 2.0 (Max 480Mbps)
USB OTG USB 1.1 (Max 12Mbps)
USB USB 2.0

I had a Cowon player awhile ago. It really was a great little player. Got fantastic battery life too. Right now I have a Zen nano plus which serves it's purpose alright.

[LinearGoose]

Im thinking of getting one of those Cowon players. I saw them the other day and they look sweet. I want to connect a bullet cam to record me playing some paintball.

[robnix]

Im thinking of getting one of those Cowon players. I saw them the other day and they look sweet. I want to connect a bullet cam to record me playing some paintball.

That's a great idea!

[jenarelJAM]

My ipod might be dying soon, I'll have to see what's a good deal then. Unfortunately all my music is in AAC format(unprotected) so I'd have to find something to convert it all back to mp3...

[Steelrat]

I'll be getting one.

[Chaos_Theory!]

I don't get why people buy players that will lock you into one music service, and encrust any file you put on it with DRM.

I thought the same thing about iTunes until recently. The guy that broke/hacked the code that does the same thing on DVDs recently did the same with iTunes protection. It was all over the news around here, youll be able to use any song you DL form itunes on any other device. Im sure as time goes on similar things will happen with any other popular program.

[thecavemankevin]

My ipod might be dying soon, I'll have to see what's a good deal then. Unfortunately all my music is in AAC format(unprotected) so I'd have to find something to convert it all back to mp3...

dime a dozen bro, that is if they are not purchased from itunes. if they are purchased from itunes you are SOL for right now.

I thought the same thing about iTunes until recently. The guy that broke/hacked the code that does the same thing on DVDs recently did the same with iTunes protection. It was all over the news around here, youll be able to use any song you DL form itunes on any other device. Im sure as time goes on similar things will happen with any other popular program.

yeah, but it aint out yet. He may end up just licensing/selling the info to other companies and not releasing it to the general public. but it is still DRM'ed music that you purchas.

The caveman is back from exile!!! I've heard a little about them, was going to wait and see the reviews. I don't like the ipod, used to have a Zen before it was stolen, and it was nice.

dude, i've been back for a week

I don't get why people buy players that will lock you into one music service, and encrust any file you put on it with DRM. I'd look at something like the Cowon A2.

not entirely accurate, the songs you buy from zune market place will be DRM'ed but not regular MP3's you already own/ripped. I have no intensions of purchasing music from any of these DRM stores like itunes and zune.

but i do know where you're coming from. Thats one of the main reasons i haven't purchased an ipod.

[MaD_SaM]

lime wire

I got around all that "protected music" crap by using a burnt copy of lime wire pro. Now I just download them from lime wire and import them to itunes. They seem to work just fine. My question is am I doing it illegally?

[robnix]

not entirely accurate, the songs you buy from zune market place will be DRM'ed but not regular MP3's you already own/ripped. I have no intensions of purchasing music from any of these DRM stores like itunes and zune.

but i do know where you're coming from. Thats one of the main reasons i haven't purchased an ipod.

At this point from what I understand about the DRM that Zune employs, is that any song or video you share, no matter if you created it yourself, or it comes with the Creative Commons lisence, will get slapped silly with 3 day or 3 play DRM.