Zune fawned over

Chauncey Dupree
|
May 28, 2009
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Gizmodo had a chance to take a look at the Zune.  Surprisingly, they really liked it, though none of its differentiating factors were available.


Brian Lam said:

The device is tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod Touch and it's got a better UI, the main menu's scrolling so natural through the swipe gestures. There's a little note on the side, under the volume toggle—"Hello from Seattle." The power button is up top. The home button is nice and prominent, a bar rather than a round button on the Touch. It's smaller. And the accelerometer is more swift in responding to repositioning; images rotate very fast.

 

Comments (25)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 6:23pm

gizomodo lies

admin | May 28, 2009 - 6:26pm

Someone said they saw Ballmer slipping a wad of $100s into BLam's g-string

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 6:28pm

zune hd is very lame. I mean. UI seems complicated and touchscreen doesn't seemed so responsive. No landscape in album art? uh?
TO ME M$ above of all had to change name of the device.
BTW fortunately it's not BROWN!

eyerhyme (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 6:54pm

Look at the word "Marketplace" ... the "e" is cut off... yeah... great design there! Quite a bad rip off which shouldn't surprise any of us.

applegenius18 (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 7:15pm

I think the UI sucks.
The scrolling on the iPod Touch is even more natural than that on the Zune.
And I think this guy doesn't get the concept of minimalism.
The home button is very small which makes it harder to press right? Seriously.
The portrait to landscape has no transitions whatsoever. The iPod Touch has great transitions that give a smooth effect not like the Zune that has to switch instantly.

THIS GUY IS AN IPOD TOUCH VIRGIN. For on thing, I think he should compare the two side by side. We all know which one would win then.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 6:59am

I have the storm and I hate the non transitional switching, among many other things. I know its a small thing but for some reason it makes a huge difference in the way the device presents itself.

Raleigh NC 9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 7:19pm

Wow. Looked aweful.
Screen seemed very unresponsive. I can't count how many times he tried to swipe or select and it didn't work.
Big deal, plays music and videos. Never seen that before...

No speaker? Must have speaker like iPod touch v2.

No web browsing in the demo? Nothing was demoed that an iPod nano can't do. If its competing against the iPod touch, show the web browsing experience, show some additional applications and games.

Does make you wonder how much M$ paid for that review.

Str1f3 (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 7:28pm

Funny, it sounds like what was said about the original zune before it was released.

zune (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 7:37pm

I think it looks fantastic, should be < $300

pskennedySOS | May 28, 2009 - 7:53pm

 So let's say someone finds a decent amount of apps on the Marketplace ( 5-10 < )...

 

Even at this point of adding 5-10 additional apps, it's going to be a pain to scroll through the apps to find the right one using this single-lined UI.

Photos actually look pretty decent/responsive (switching from Portrait to Landscape).

Music UI looked pretty all right.  M$ always had a thing going with ZunePass.  Rhapsody iPhone app anyone?

 

Other than that...

There's nothing really all that new and that's why this will Fail.
 

9to24 Moob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 8:16pm

It looks like a nice package but really its not all their. if this zune isnt priced around 150 i dont think it will sell at all. of course its going to have a giant size HD but it seems like its missing a few great things.

jimmy (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 9:18pm

I'm a huge iPhone fan. That being said, this thing ain't half bad.

The reorientation of the screen is super fast, I wish my phone was that responsive.

I don't mind the "e" getting cut off so much. It was obviously a design decision, and not a mistake. Notice how every word expands to the top of the screen, getting cut off, when you tap? It's a UI meme, and as long as it's consistent across the device, that's fine. Along those lines, iPod/iPhone has the same issues. I'd rather see a smaller font than a scrolling song title on my iPhone, but scrolling the title is a UI decision by Apple, and that's what it is. Deal.

I like the fact that the Zune is getting better. It forces the Touch/iPhone to get better. I never listen to radio (save NPR), so that does not interest me. However, adding more features can't hurt, as long as it doesn't interfere with the main purpose of the device.

Now, if they could do something about the name...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 9:53pm

I'm sure when it comes right down to it, the device probably isn't all that bad, but my reasons for not buying microsoft products stems from something else. Ever since the Mac and PC started, microsoft has taken the role of using Apple's great ideas and copying them (of course mixing it up a tad so its not an exact copy). And sadly they've done a pretty good job at it.

At least until they start doing a little innovating of their own, i will not purchase their products. No matter how "great" they may be. I'd rather not buy the copycats rendition of a famous painting.... I'll take the original piece of artwork thanks.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 11:47pm

Man... LOser..MacFanboys

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 28, 2009 - 11:48pm

I usually hate it when people call others Apple Fanboys, but most comments above are just too blind. C'mon, it is a great looking device. It has a different style indeed than the iPod, but that's the good thing. I kind of like the industrial look and I think it'll age better than an average iPod which are made to look old fashioned within a year of two. Now that it is different you are shouting that you hate the design but when it would look more like the iPod you would scream they copied it. Also in case of the interface they tried to come up with a new style: text vs. icons. I think that is a dumb move though as it takes too much space, but it is different than all other phones that use the same layout as the iPhone. Again, the fanboys are complaining either way.
Second, the interface responded good in the video, both in speed as in touch. Most iPhone videos also show several failed swipes, pushes etc.

Of course you could say it is mostly inspired (understatement) on the iPod Touch, but that's life.

daPrinz (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 1:18am

I must say the UI actually looks good. Kind of future oriented. Looks very modern.
And I don't like Microsoft at all.

daPrinz (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 1:18am

I must say the UI actually looks good. Kind of future oriented. Looks very modern.
And I don't like Microsoft at all.

Ion Mets (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 4:29am

Come on guys. It just looks the way it looks.It's Microsoft's interpretation of an iTouch/iPod. If it's a fraction better or just better so what? Competition is always healthy. Having said this, let's just consider and compare the amount of versions of the iPod/iTouch and the amount of zunes. Zune's gonna probably stay the same for a much longer period before anything new comes out while Apple will be releasing new stuff every year (as it usually does) thus making the zune hardware and software too dated to sell.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 5:14am

When it comes to the design, the Zune looks better. Much more nostalgic, like from an old SF Film or Stanislaw Lem books, but the UI looks still better on the Ipod/phone. Apple always makes the things centric (like the main button on the Ipod and Phone) which gets boring with time. Always so sterilic clean.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 5:16am

I like the point with "sort by play list" and you can see it pusses "playlist" but it do not respons, and he just keep talking like it did.
Also when he starts the music (and then presses pause) it looks like he wanted to brows the numbers on the album, with that gestur he made, but insted it started to play, and he just acted like that was what he wanted it to do

Danno Bonano (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 6:44am

If the touchscreen actually worked it would be a tad more impressive. A lot of touches / swipes didn't register and switching to landscape in anything but pictures wasn't intuitive.

All in all, this thing may not look nearly as good after the iPhone/iPod OS 3.0 debuts in a week and a half.

I do have to say that it is arguably the best attempt at cloning the touch and am pretty shocked it came from MS. I guess when you set the bar low, it isn't that hard to surpass.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 7:04am

OLED screen looks good, hope the next iPhone will have one.

Ohmaar (not verified) | May 29, 2009 - 11:16am

I like how the cameraman keeps a clean, sharp focus. Classic pattern, nice color palette, surprisingly bright for a high-traffic area.

Wait, you mean that video wasn't about the carpet? It was about that fuzzy handheld thing that kept getting in the shot? Seriously?

Did someone forget to tell the cameraman?

Benjamin Dobson | May 30, 2009 - 11:13am

The UI looks like the sort of thing you would get in a museum. Not because it looks old, but because that's just how it looks.

Benjamin Dobson | May 30, 2009 - 11:14am

By the way: multitouch?