[indentKew]

whats the microsoft thing thats in the fiat 500? is it windows media?

[QxmFwtlam]

Blue&Me. And yeah, it sounds like basically the same thing as SYNC... not sure what the differences are exactly.

[finasteridonline]

Quote, originally posted by anonms »
IIRC, the synching is for between a Zune and a PC. That and I have yet to see car car radio that even sports Wi-Fi. Some cars are starting to come with USB ports instead of auxiliary jacks or iPod-exclusive ports (well, namely Fords and Honda's FCX Clarity) anyway.
Ford and Honda were working on that system but even if it takes 2 or 3 years for it to take off, it's still faster on the market then the optional ipod plug from manufatures took to take. And when they did come out, some didn't have all of the basic controls.

[cinggooft]

What system, SYNC? SYNC is a collaboration between Microsoft and Ford. Honda introducing a USB plug on the FCX Clarity is of their own platform. The iPod plug was actually USB-based, albeit with a proprietary connector. And USB is faster than 802.11b/g, not to mention more stable. I'm actually confused as to what your point is.

[finasteridonline]

Quote, originally posted by anonms »What system, SYNC? SYNC is a collaboration between Microsoft and Ford. Honda introducing a USB plug on the FCX Clarity is of their own platform. The iPod plug was actually USB-based, albeit with a proprietary connector. And USB is faster than 802.11b/g, not to mention more stable. I'm actually confused as to what your point is.
Wasn't Honda working on a similar system that was MS based? Also, were the old ones up to G3 running on Firewire? USB was introduced G4 up, no? Don't know too much about the older models. The point is how you are "hating" on the Zune and it's Wifi. In fact, you have done nothing but put it down since your first post. Not that I'm a fan of it since would honestly buy ipod before the zune unless there was a big price difference. But there are some good features on the zune such as syncing with vista media.

[cinggooft]

I bashed/hated on it for one sentence. Once you analyze what Microsoft is trying to sell the Zune on, those selling points are easily defeated. As I was trying to establish. As an MP3 player in itself, its plenty competent. Its UI is surprisingly well-designed. But the "killer apps" of the Zune could be what kills it. My point is that Microsoft is touting the Zune as a "social" DAP with wi-fi functionality. What can you do with it? Share limited use music and sync at very slow rates? Microsoft could have allowed for streaming music over Wi-Fi, like the Sansa Connect does, or allowed you to directly purchase songs from the Zune Marketplace, the way the iPod touch lets you buy iTunes songs. Internet access would be hard to do with the squircle, though. The Zune's main distinctive feature is supposed to be its Wi-Fi capabilities, yet its competitors offer applications of the technology that better utilize the feature.
As far as iPods go, 3G and newer support USB, but you're generally hard-pressed to find someone still using a 1G or 2G iPod at this point in time. If Honda was working with Microsoft, I'm completely unaware of such a project.

[RotsLoado]

Have you tried the wireless sync? It really isn't that slow unless you're syncing a huge amount of music at one time. Only an album or two and it's plenty quick. As for sharing limited use music, it's still a feature that most players don't have, and unlimited use music would be stealing music now wouldn't it?

[cinggooft]

Well, 3 uses is pretty restrictive, though. Kinda makes me rather flash drive a song than get people to keep re-sending it to me (if I weren't feeling obliged to line the pockets of the RIAA).
The fact that Universal gets a cut of Zune sales sickens me, though. As if record label executives weren't greedy money-hoarding bastards already (at least Warner's CEO fessed up that the music executives have ****ed up, that's a good step forward).

[finasteridonline]

Quote, originally posted by anonms »Well, 3 uses is pretty restrictive, though. Kinda makes me rather flash drive a song than get people to keep re-sending it to me (if I weren't feeling obliged to line the pockets of the RIAA).
The fact that Universal gets a cut of Zune sales sickens me, though. As if record label executives weren't greedy money-hoarding bastards already (at least Warner's CEO fessed up that the music executives have ****ed up, that's a good step forward).
I'm sure there's hack for that just like the ipod and iphone and any other gadget out there. One thing is I never likes how ipod splits and saves the music in the ipod. I wonder if the Zune is the same.

[cinggooft]

Not sure what you mean by splits and saves, but I do know that after a certain point in time (while I was still using Windows), Apple updated iPods and iTunes and caused the music files on the iPod to have obscure letter/number combination names instead of the actual song names because people (like me when songs disappeared from my computer's iTunes library)would use the "view hidden folders" option in Windows to pull songs out of the iPod.

[vNGiDaFX]

Believe it or not, even though I am considered by many to be an Apple Fanboy (I'm looking at you Moorhouse) I do in fact own a first-generation Zune that I got from Woot.com for $100. I just updated the firmware and downloaded the new Windows software, and I must say, it makes the Zune all the more attractive over an iPod. The sound quality of the Zune is simply leaps and bounds ahead of the ipod's, which I know for a fact because I've listened to the same song encoded identically on both, and the Zune always sounds better. Believe it or not, I've actually found myself using the Zune more, even though I love my iPod and would never trade it for anything else.
The new one, I think, just improves on the Zune and brings it to a new level. Though I haven't had a chance to play with any of them yet (I go to college in the boonies, so I'll have to do that next week when I'm on break for thanksgiving), the ZunePad looks like it definitely improves the functionality, and the revised dimensions and build materials definitely have improved. I honestly couldn't say that the flash Zune is better than the Nano, because its pretty much a generation behind in terms of overall finish, but it is definitely a credible effort. The new software is pretty cool as well, with fantastic design and actually a much more pleasing interface than iTunes.
While it certainly can't beat the Touch (not that they really compete together anyways),The new Zune definitely is better than the iPod classic. Microsoft did a great job with these new Zunes, and I honestly hope they do well in the marketplace. My only concern now is that I'll be getting a MacBook Pro as a college graduation gift, so I'll have to find a copy of windows so that I'll be able to continue to use my Zune. (or find one of the third party applications)

[finasteridonline]

The ipod was never major on the sound part. You can notice on lower bit rate tracks. Sony has by far the best sound quality even on lower bit rates. And for gods sake I hate sony with a passion.

[cinggooft]

I thought Creative's sound quality is higher. At least that's what I've heard and deduced from experience.

[vNGiDaFX]

Quote, originally posted by anonms »I thought Creative's sound quality is higher. At least that's what I've heard and deduced from experience.
Sony and creative are tops for sound quality as far as I know. I've never owned a Sony, but I did briefly own a Creative Zen V and it was pretty good.

[cinggooft]

Well, those two are definitely tops.
As far as iPods go, they're not known for their audio quality anyway. >.> Quite unfortunate, really, that the audio quality is just average.

[ggdfgtdfffhfyj]

Apple has steadily improved their sound over the years. But the sound isn't there yet at the level I want it to be.
Currently own a new 8 gig sony drag and drop player, sound quality is suberb, even better than the previous player from sony I have.
unfortunately zunes are not on sale here in canada, so I can't compare their sound to other models.

[cinggooft]

Road trip to Oregon? ;D

[ggdfgtdfffhfyj]

a bit too far from my house too be honest, I would probably visit seattle to test the zune.
on a side note, I've been using wmp 11 to transfer files over to my walkman and it isn't that bad of a program to be honest, easy to use and runs fine. I could always drag and drop into the player, but then I'd have to add the album art again, but with wmp11 it transfer the art automatically.

[qwerty1]

Quite obviously not a fanboy of any brand, owning a laptop with Vista, a 2nd gen iPod Shuffle, a Sony PS3 and a Creative Zen Vision M, I must say that out of all the audio devices I've listened to, the Creative's win hands down. Close is Sony, my sansa sounded pretty average and iPods deem to be about the same... I keep being told my creative is an iPod video wannabe, but i reckon it's funny seeing as it was out before the video, with better features.

[cinggooft]

The Vision:M? IIRC, it was actually released AFTER the 5th generation iPod. The Vision was released before the 5G iPod was, but it wasn't really cross-shopped with the iPod, I think.