Mobius Seattle 2008: Day Two, First Half, Zune
Posted on 15 May 2008, at 12:10 pm, by Judie Lipsett
Terry and Dave from the Zune team opened our day by giving a brief overview of the device’s history, interface, 2.5 update, software, and models. A detailed overview was given of the Zune “my social | my profile” page on the Zune site, exploring the networking aspect of the player and discussing ways that it will more deeply explore the whole “social” aspect. They have also added quite a bit of playlist functionality and user experience upgrades in the Zune software, and they are adding ways to connect with networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc..
“They are not trying to be the next Facebook, they are trying to integrate with the spaces people are already going.”
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13 Comments For This Post
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May 15th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I dunno. DO we REALLY need this with the Zune? Does anyone? I mean it’s kind of cool, but why??
May 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Joel, it’s simply not for you. But it is about choices; it is important to have options, and to never have only one major player. I am glad that MS is trying to compete.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Well, I will give them one thing…at least they aren’t doing the Microsoft thing and trying to compete with MySpace and Facebook.
In the past, they used to come up with their own wacky thing that, well, quite frankly, sucked.
At least now they are kind of working with others and that’s a good thing I guess!
May 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I know that was a big concession coming from such a huge Linux guy. Nicely done.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I used to be a iPod guy, but I don’t even like those anymore.
I detest vendor lockin with a vengeance. It’s to the point if anyone asks me what kind of portable video player they should get I will tell them: Get a Eee PC. Don’t be controlled by the manufacturers choice of video codecs.
My Eee PC can show ANY video thanks to vlc. I am not constrained to Xvids, Quicktime or whatever.
Freedom is good.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Love the MacBook Pros in the picture…
May 15th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Did you see my twitter on the laptop stats? Of the 19 of us attending, there are: 8 macs, 3 eee pcs, 1 shift, 1 redfly, and 5 laptops, and 1 itty bitty panasonic.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
BTW, the closest Mac is Lisa Gade’s Air. It is SEXY. :drool:
May 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
The Eee is sweet. The more I use it, the more I love the little thing!
3 Eee’s? 2 running Linux…..at Mobius. I am encouraged!
Don’t get me wrong….I don’t hate Microsoft. I hate Windows. There’s a difference!
I’d love that advantage or any Windows Mobile phone.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I also was wondering what MS thought of all the fruit on their table, and these are the opinion makers they’ve invited.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I think that you all would be surprised about how open minded they are and have always been about that.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
What caught my eye was the two Macbooks!
I think that the social pieces of the latest Zune update are the coolest thing to come from the Zune team. Doing a “me too” player and software will not be enough to gain much market share in this space.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I’m happy to see MS is really working to make the Zune a better experience. I do love my Zune…:) I was worried MS wasn’t fully comitted to it. I’m not a Mac hater. Actually, I’ve gotten over my dislike of Macs. In grad school, we all had to use 1st gen imacs, mine was green, and all of the crashing made me nuts. Plus, the reboot tended to be to unplug it from the wall, and I wasn’t all that excited about crawling behing my desk that often. Anyway, I think the newer macs are pretty nice, but I just don’t like the iPod. I’ve used one, and its not my thing.
Oops, where I was going with this is that I’m happy about the software update, but I wish it was more backwards compatiable with older OS. I have the older version of XP media center that came with my computer. However, the Zune software will not work with it, so I needed a ‘hack’ to use my Zune. That is annoying!!!
If you see the Zune guys, tell them to fix that because I don’t have the extra cash to buy a newer version of XP or Vista. Plus, I don’t even think my computer has enough RAM for Vista. I have a gig, and I know they recommend 2, but friends tell me you really need 3.