SALON

Wednesday, Oct 3, 2007 6:14 PM UTC

Zune 2.0: Microsoft’s new line of music players

If at first you don't succeed...

By

Topics:

Zune 2.0: Microsoft's new line of music players

Photo: Zune.net

One thing you’ve got to admit about Microsoft: They treat failure as an opportunity. Other firms — lesser firms — would have run away red-faced and sniveling after walking into a party and finding the whole crowd thought it was a huge loser. Not Microsoft. When folks call Microsoft a loser it goes home and studies videos of the cool kids, and it copies their moves. Then Microsoft marches right back into that party. And it’ll do so again and again — remember Windows, remember Internet Explorer? — until, eventually, everyone just gives in. So — is that the story with Zune?

Last year the world greeted Microsoft’s grand entrance into the digital music player market with a collective meh. The thing had odd colors — brown? — a nonsensical marketing slogan — “Welcome to the Social” (what, it comes with ice cream?) — and its main feature, wireless music-sharing between devices, was too clunky to bother with. On Tuesday Microsoft came back to the party with a new lineup of Zunes.

The original Zune contained a 30 GB hard drive, came in black, white and brown, and sold for $249. The new lineup does away with that model entirely. Instead, there’s now an 80 GB hard-drive player, and two versions of a smaller, thinner, lighter flash-memory player. The 80 GB player comes in black only and sells for $250. The 8 GB flash player sells for $200, and the 4 GB player is $150; these come in black, pink, green and red. No more brown.

In addition to the physical changes, the new Zunes have been equipped with new software (the software can also be installed on all first-generation Zunes), and Bill Gates tells the New York Times that the software’s where it’s at.

Microsoft has tweaked the Zune-to-Zune sharing capabilities of the player. Used to be that songs you got from another Zune expired after three plays or three days, whichever came first. You also couldn’t pass it to a third Zune user. (The rules were negotiated to please the music industry — and Apple fans, you’re only allowed to blame MS for going along with them if you also recognize that Apple tolerates all kinds of DRM restrictions, and, of course, will also break your iPhone in order to please a telephone company that wants to help the NSA and Hollywood spy on you.)

Now there’s no three-day restriction, and you can pass songs you get from one Zuner to another Zuner. But you can still play each Wi-Fi-shared song only three times.

One more thing on restrictions: Microsoft says it is removing digital rights management restrictions from songs in the Zune store; a million tracks will be available to be played on devices other than Zune.

Is all this enough? Probably not. The iPod’s still a juggernaut, of course, and it may be too late. But you can’t blame MS for trying.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 16 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science? An interesting question.
52 points53 points | 61 comments
vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
31 points32 points | 2 comments
vote
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
33 points34 points | 35 comments
vote
The GOP Is the 'Party of Crybabies' for Demanding No One Criticize Their Policies or Donors
23 points24 points | comment
vote
Illinois' fracking and coal rush is a national crisis: Illinois and its Mississippi River banks are becoming another ground zero in the war over climate change.
20 points21 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own