-and why are the things creationist believe in “obviously screwed up”

Windows dead-enders are like Creationists; I can’t understand their enduring devotion to something so obviously screwed up– especially having seen Vista.

But that’s off-topic; this forum is about the Zune. Which MSFT is marketing 100 PERCENT to Windows dead-enders; there’s no Zune for Mac software. Which is just as well, because MS software rapidly degenerates into bloatware, anyway.

Podcast as top-level entry. It always bugged me that Podcasts were a “category” in music (or video) in the iPod. That was just so wrong on so many levels that it is great to see that cleaned up.”

Um, Podcast has had the ability to be top-level on the iPod for a while. The iPod’s top-level menu is customizable. Since Team Zune Luv didn’t know this, how wrong is the rest of this list gonna be? Let’s see…

“Wireless sync. I love people with $300+ media center docking stations for their iPod who still have to disconnect and move their iPod every time they want new content on their player. Us Zune types don’t now. It is 2007 and it’s time to let wireless do what it was meant to do.”

If your device is plugged into an approved dock you can wirelessly sync it. That’s swell, but I wouldn’t normally expect to see “plugged into” and “wirelessly” so close together in the same sentence for the same device, would you?

As for letting wireless “do what it was meant to do”, that would be the ability to browse the web and maybe even purchase music on WiFi. Oops, Zune doesn’t do that.

“Wireless sharing. There is a point to this that is obviously moot unless there is another Zune owner in the room but Microsoft’s focus will keep that from becoming a problem soon.”

Shared Zune files are still DRM-infested and explode on your device after three days. And there are still numerous restrictions on what files can and cannot be shared. This feature was, and still is, a complete bust.

“Subscription music. This has always been a killer app for portable media players but implementation has always been sub-par. That changes with the new Zune.”

Oh brother! Subscription music has failed everywhere it’s been tried. It’s a model clung to by the labels in the futile hope they can sucker enough people into paying them money every month to support the outrageous profits they used to rake in from physical CD sales.

People don’t want to rent their music. At least not enough to sustain any valid business model. Why would anyone be eager to have the music labels avoid letting them own their music?

“Xbox integration. Xbox’s market share is impressive. Being able to both plug your Zune into an Xbox and being able to stream subscription music and Podcasts to your Xbox not only makes the Apple TV concept a little silly but give you a great excuse to own a Gears of War machine.”

Yes, buying a Zune is really just an excuse for someone to get a gaming platform they wouldn’t have bought otherwise. Er… What?

The ability to integrate into a gaming platform (any gaming platform) is pointless to 99% of the music players’ intended market. It’s just another silly “feature” MS added to plug the Xbox and appear “different”.

Counting all brands and models of MP3 players the world over, are there 150 million or so in use right now? How many of their owners even thought about a gaming platform tie-in? I won’t say it’s “zero” (after all, Team Zune Luv is crazy about the idea), but I will say it’s small enough to make zero difference. Oh well, not understanding the customer is a Microsoft hallmark.

“Free upgrade. When has Apple ever added something new to the iPod and helped a previous owner upgrade at no charge? I pray this is the future of the portable media player.”

This one’s been force-fed down our throats by every MS shill and shill wanna-be since the day it was announced.

You guys are only fooling yourself. Microsoft had so many of the Boat Anchor 30 Zunes hanging around in the channel and storage warehouses they couldn’t just toss them all. They’re already losing money on the things, so they needed a way to salvage something from these worthless models. Since the software upgrade to Zune 2 wasn’t that radical anyway, they made it available for the BA30 solely to try to clear that inventory.

Oh, and if the Zune 2 software is so great why does MS have to practically give the BA30 away?

“Radio. I seldom listen to radio but found myself in the gym watching a news clip on the monitor that caught me eye. They do that broadcast the audio on FM thing so I switched over quickly, got my fix and went from there. 3 minutes of usage total – but it was nice to have.”

Three minutes of usage and it made the team’s “big 7” list? Are you kidding me? This has been touted as an alleged missing feature of the iPod since Day 1. And guess what? Nobody cares. It’s never been an issue, probably because OTA radio is all but dead.

Except that they didn’t “win over” the desktop market. They installed a Windows tax on EACH PC sold and sold their devil-spawned boxes directly to IT shills, with no input from and against the wishes of the actual users.

“On the other hand Apple is still sticking to old world tactics. No iTunes widgets are available in the popular social networks.”

You don’t suppose, maybe, people have already heard of iTunes?