I got a Zune

Sometimes I can be very bad at keeping something to myself. Especially when it’s technology, and it’s something I consider very exciting. I’m not sure how long ago it was, but when Microsoft first started their viral campaign for the Zune (something like comingzune.com?), I found out about it, and was about 30 times more excited than I was about the Origami project. I’ve just never been a fan of the iPod, probably more because of the fact that I just don’t like Steve Jobs, but I’m sure I could post a few credible reasons as well (their songs are low-quality, they segment thousands of bands out of the US market, etc, etc, etc). Anyway, I’m getting off track. I was also able to work on their email campaign introducing the Zune (which I tried and failed to get a free Zune out of – bummer). I’ve read every review of the Zune that I’ve been able to find, and know just about every hack there is for it…and that was before I even had one. Then, for my birthday, my wife’s present was a Zune! As you can imagine, I was elated. I’ve had it a few days now, so here’s a slightly biased review of it, and a wishlist for the future Zune.

I’ve been really impressed with the Zune overall. I dropped it the other day in the parking lot, and really thought broke it, but it didn’t even have a scratch, so that was nice. Also, all of my music fit on it, and some videos, and I still have about 9 GB of space left – awesome! The FM tuner is something I love…although I wish I could record FM radio. Navigating the menus is awesome…and I love the way that you can use the left right buttons to navigate among whatever category you’re in (for instance, if I’m browsing an artist, the left/right buttons will go to the previous/next artist, respectively). Battery time is great – I can load my playlist, and play all day at the office without needing a charge. I also love the resolution – All of my pics and videos show up great, although there is some slight choppiness in color gradients sometimes (not sure of the color term for that).

I’m really into customizing whatever I’m working with, so I love the full-color screen that I can set the wallpaper for – very nice feature! So far I’ve been using iTunes to listen to some podcasts, and, thanks to some cool guys at work, I’ve added some video podcasts as well, and I can check those out on my Zune later on.

My wish list:

• I wish you could edit any playlist (not just the quick one). It’d be nice to have a add to… and the have the quick list the default choice, with the other playlists sorted maybe on usage?
• I wish you could delete items from the Zune
• I wish you could make a video playlist (If you can, I haven’t figured it out yet). I actually made a playlist in the Zune software, and synched that, and all I have are videos, not a playlist.
• Why can’t you flag videos?
• The pre-loaded videos have nice descriptions, but I haven’t found out how to make those for the videos I’ve gotten. And can I add types of videos (like music videos, movies, etc), or flag my new videos as one of those types?
• It’d be nice if you could have the option to put an image as your background in vertical or horizontal layout. I have an image that’d go great horizontally, but there’s no option to do that.
• WHY, o WHY doesn’t WMP or the Zune software support podcasts?!!?!?!?
• WHY, o WHY is WMP and Zune software separate?!?!!??
• I can’t play songs on my Zune from the software. Again, I’m at work, and I’m looking at my Zune on my computer…why can’t I just play those songs…
• ..and on a related note, I can’t edit playlists on the Zune – from my computer or on the Zune.