Wow. That pretty much sums up my review. After having it for a couple of weeks and getting to know its personality, I understand what Microsoft was aiming to accomplish with this device. They aren’t looking to be an all in one device like the iPhone or iPod Touch. They put their efforts in enhancing the music experience. They took the next step in the evolution of the personal music player.
Music players have been evolving since the introduction of the first portable radio. When tape players were introduced, it gave us the power to be the DJ and play our own music selection. It had its issues though. We all remember how painful it was to replay the song that just played. The CD player solved that by allowing us to quickly select the song we wanted to play. However, it didn’t give us the ability to carry a larger selection of music. CD Players also introduced CD skipping as a nagging issue. I once had a Sony Walkman that skipped every time I took a step. I couldn’t walk and listen to music. Which I thought was strange since the player was called a “walkman”. Portable MP3 enabled us to hold far more music and solved the issue of CD skipping.
The first MP3 player was the MPMAN by a Korean company called SaeHan Information Systems. It was introduced back in 1998 and was followed shortly after by the Diamond Rio. They were clunky, had limited storage (32 to 64 MB) and had terrible user interfaces. The limited storage meant that you had a trade off: sacrifice music quality for music quantity. Creative Labs set out to solve that problem by increasing the amount of storage capacity and including high end audio components in their players. I purchased the Creative Labs 40 GB Nomad Jukebox in 2001. The Nomad was loaded with features. It had a USB and Firewire interface. The firewire interface was useful when transferring large amounts of data. It had an external hard drive mode and didn’t require special software on your PC to use it. This thing had 1 front channel stereo output, 1 rear channel stereo output, 1 SPDIF input optical plug, 1 audio line-in, and an infrared remote sensor! And yes, all of the jacks were gold plated. It also played all of the music file types of the time; which included MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, SDMI. However, it introduced its own set of issues that allowed Apple (a newcomer) to step into its space and take all of its market share. The Nomad had a terrible user interface. The software that was included with the Nomad player was horrendous. Creative Labs failed to realize that people needed a way to organize their large music libraries. MP3 players had introduced an even larger issue that threatened to destroy the music industry. People realized that MP3 files were relatively small and could be easily shared. There was no way to prevent a user from sending a song or an album to another user. Why buy it when your friend is offering to give it to you?
Apple made a list of all the issues and set out on a mission to solve them. Their answer to all this was iTunes and iPod. Apple’s iTunes gave us a better way of organizing our large music libraries and a means of purchasing music through a legitimate source. They made it convenient for us to stuff our players full of music without the guilt. The iPod player made improvements on the user interface and were no longer bulky devices. Needless to say these players were a big hit. Since then, Creative Labs and other companies introduced MP4 players: video was now portable too. These players were dubbed media players. Unfortunately, they failed to make notable improvements on the user interfaces and user experience. Apple followed and introduced their iPod player that supported video and kept a firm hold on the market share. We now have a great user interface on our iPod players. They have plenty of storage capacity, the music sounds great, the video looks great, and iTunes is a great resource for media. Is that it? What’s next? Enter Zune HD.
This is where things start to get really interesting. Zune HD offers all of the above, but takes it one step further. First off, you don’t need a wire to synch your music. The player will do this wirelessly. You also don’t need to purchase your music from the PC. You can do it from the player. But wait, it gets better. Let’s say you are listening to your favorite artist perform one of his hit singles. Zune HD enables you to read his music Bio, explore other albums, look up pictures, and even explore other artists that are similar in style. They do this through the slickest interface I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with. My music experience has been magically enhanced. I had no idea Puff Daddy was involved in Usher’s first album. I also had no idea Sade had so many albums. I’m buying all of them! It seems that ever since MP3s have been part of my life, I’ve been so focused on increasing my library that most of the music I own isn’t really music I enjoy. With Zune HD, I am able to explore and discover music that I truly enjoy and feel excited about. That’s the next level and Microsoft just took me there! I wasn’t too impressed with the direction Apple was taking with the iPod. Sure the interface is cool. And yes, it has a lot of apps. Honestly, the fake lightsaber was cool for about 10 mins. I haven’t been too impressed with the games on it either. That’s what my PSP and Nintendo DS is for. One more gripe, I really don’t need a camera on my music player. Thanks but no thanks.
Thank you Microsoft for keeping it real. The Zune HD “keeps it real” like 112 and Biggie.
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