Zune Cronicles Part 5……..
Intro (part 1)
Charging (Part 2)
The First Sync (Part 3)
First Impressions (Part 4)

Long title: “Did we say you could do that? Even if we did, I can’t believe that you really thought we were serious.”

Since the Zune sync’d everything from the PC without asking (see The First Sync), it was a little low on space. I decided to go back and remove some of the music and videos from it, just to test that functionality out. Good thing is that you can remove items from the Zune without removing them from the local library. WARNING, this is NOT the default behavior. You need to change the default behavior in the options.

As I mentioned before, I was, um, slightly unimpressed by the music that was “pre-loaded” on the Zune… but I’m a bit of a music hoarder, so I don’t like just getting rid of music that I have. So, I figured that - if possible - I would archive these files on the PC, just in case. I don’t want to violate any DRM rules, so I needed to verify that they were DRM free first. The Zune software allows you to check the properties of files on the Zune, and they all said that they had no DRM… Cool!

Now to sync them to the PC so I retained a copy, and then remove them from the Zune. Not too difficult. According to Microsoft, it’s a drag and drop. (When looking at the files on the Zune, a panel on the right says to drag and drop any files you wish to sync to the PC from the Zune.) So I do just that, selected several of these pre-loaded files and put them in the “sync to PC” cue. Next, click on the “start sync” button. How easy is that!

Hold it. What’s up? Each and every file transfer on the status page shows an error. Huh? Well, lets check the logs to see what went wrong - maybe a communication error. Oops. No logs. Right clicking on the file transfer line shows no option for more information. Ugh. Well, maybe the cable connection is a little flakey. So I unplug the Zune, wait a couple seconds, and re-connect it. Once the Zune is showing in the sync software, I navigate to those files again, cue them up for transfer, click on sync. Error! What?! So, I just start moving my mouse over parts of the transfer list. As it came over a little red “x in a ball” icon on the left of the status line, an information box popped up saying… wait for it… that I wasn’t allowed to transfer files from the Zune to the PC.

So, let’s recap shall we? The files are DRM free. They came with the Zune with no restrictions. The sync software says that I can transfer files from the Zune to the PC, and happily let’s me cue the files up for transfer. Then it fails to do the transfer because it won’t allow transfer from the Zune.

Now that makes sense.

Zune Cronicles Part 4 (notes from 3/30,31)……..
Intro (part 1)
Charging (Part 2)
The First Sync (Part 3)

Overall Look:
The Zune is a little boxier than the iPod, and just a bit bigger in every direction… but I like it just as well.

Sound Quality:
Using the exact same ear buds, playing the same song, at the same volume, with the EQs off (I tend to leave the EQ off since I use my iPod for either sound gigs - where I want all the “color” to come from the system - or in my car - where I want the car stereo to deal with the EQ) - the Zune seems to have a little bit “fuller” sound. Don’t know if it’s a quality thing, or if their “no EQ” setting still colors the sound a little.

BTW, the pre-loaded songs on the Zune kind of, um, suck.

Display:
Very nice. The Zune’s display is much larger than my video iPod’s, and the sideways “flip” it does for videos gives a nicer aspect ratio. I don’t think the colors were any better, or that the picture was sharper, but just the size difference is big (pun intended).

User Interface:
The navigation, while a little different from the iPod, is easy to pick up and fairly intuitive. There are only two issues I came up with (both related to the same thing). Since they don’t have the “wheel” like the iPod, the Zune uses “clicking” for every adjustment. This means much less control of the volume - you can quite easily end up where one click is just a little too quiet, and the next a little too loud. Livable, but could be better. Also, for the same reason, moving through a track or video is much harder. You press and hold to FF and then hope to go far enough without going too far. The iPod is hands down the winner here, since you can go into seek mode and dial your way to the exact place you want.

Bonus:
The radio is really nice. Good sound quality and locks on stations solidly. It could use a better interface for dealing with your programmed favorites, but considering that the iPod doesn’t even have a radio, this is still a nice thing to have.

The firmware updates provided by MS is a Real Good Thing™. It allows them to fix issues or add new features. Good planning. With the iPod, upgrading means buying a new one.

Zune Cronicles Part 3 (notes from 3/30)……..
Intro (part 1)
Charging (Part 2)

It keeps getting more interesting.

The Zune is pretty much useless without installing the Zune software - unless you just want to listen to the radio. It can’t be used as a disk, and there is absolutely no way to sync anything, unless you install their software.

I only have two windows computers in my house. My wife’s and one for my business (I use it to run virus scans on really messed up disks). They both run Windows 2000…. but the Zune requires XP. Doh!

After a bit, I remembered that I had one older WinXP system here that I was piecing together for a friend of a friend that can’t afford one… and …

• It took 15 minutes (on my 1.2Mbs DSL) to download the software (how big is this - after install I noticed that it was over 50M)
• It took over 5 minutes just to install the sofware
• then it downloaded a firmware update - that only took a little over a minute. A pretty “feature update” notice appeared explaining that with the new firmware, they added a “feature”… the wireless was always on by default…. for my convenience. Of course I always want other Zune users to know that someone as cool as them is around, and why wouldn’t I want it on anyway, what with Microsoft’s great track record in security. Ummm. Note to self: disable the wireless asap.
• then I plugged in the Zune, agreed for the 5th time that I sign away all rights to everything, and the firmware was updated (the Zune rebooted 5 or 6 times to install the firmware - how incredibly MS like)

Then the initialization started…

• “welcome to the social, we’re glad you’re here”… blah, blah - I think they are going for a “club” feel, but it was just annoying to me.
• Please name your Zune so other Zune’s can automatically identify it when you’re around and the wireless is on… so I did. Name: “Waiting for Linux”
• Change settings in the PC software so it doesn’t tell MS what is going on.
• Change settings in the PC software so it doesn’t pull crap off the net for every file I have.
• Change settings so it doesn’t modify all my music files with information it wants stored in them (I already copied them from my server to the PC so any changes would not be reflected back into my music library, just because I expected it to do this).
• Then instead of just being able to use my local music library, I was REQUIRED to set up a Zune Music account linked to my MSN Live ID. Of course it didn’t actually use the ID to log in - that would be too easy. I had to select a Zune Music ID also. I tried “linux”, and it told me “invalid username”. I tried lonnieb, and was told “that username is taken”…. hold it just one minute. lonnieb was valid but taken, linux was invalid? It’s just text, right? I guess they have “bad word” filters, and they don’t like cuss words like linux on their system. So I let the rebel out and chose “wantlinux”, that worked just fine.
• Still not done. I had to give them an email address and phone number, (Why? Don’t know. All I’m going to do is use the music I already own) and agree AGAIN to the terms of “we can do what ever we want, you can’t. niener, niener.”
• Finally, after 35+ minutes, it starts syncing the files.
• Hold it! What’s it syncing. I told it where to look for the files to put into my library, but never told it what to sync…. it just started syncing ALL music, image, video formats I had specified…. because MS knows what I REALLY want to listen to.
• The sync took over 6 hours (USB 1.1 ports only on this computer). Double-Doh!

Summation of this part: Way too long, way too much information given, way too little control.

Oh, well… I made it. So, now let’s see what this puppy can do…. next time.

Zune Cronicles Part 2 (notes from 3/29,30)……..
Intro (part 1)

The Zune came completely dead…. not entirely unexpected. Figured that USB is USB, as far as charging goes and just connected it to my desktop system (running Linux) to get it charged up, so I could check out what it comes pre-loaded with. Plugged it in, nothing. No indication of charging at all. Odd. Maybe it’s too dead to register, so I left it hooked up all night. Next morning, nothing. Really odd. This is the same port I use to charge/sync my iPod, so I know the port is good.

Moved it to a windows computer, and immediate indication of charging. OK. There is no way that the hardware itself requires Windows, is there? One more test, I moved it to a different Linux box, and it started charging. Now I’m confused.

Something weird has got to be happening here, so I checked the logs on the Linux system which allowed charging and saw, “over current change” listed for the USB port. So, basically, I take this to mean that the Zune draws more current to charge than is allowed by the USB spec, and since I have several USB devices connected to my desktop, it just didn’t have enough juice left to charge it. Putting on a system by itself, and it had just enough juice to charge it.

Who knows, maybe they figure if they fry a port, you’ll have to buy a new system with Vista pre-installed, and they get more sales numbers…. (sorry, the conspiracy theorist just came out).

Anyway….. it’s charged up.

Got a major blister on my right foot running around dealing with issues at the Stellar Kart, Kutless, and Newsboys show last Saturday…. but everything came out good.

Although I’m not a huge Newsboys fan (I like them alright, they just a little to generic to really grab my interest), they do put on a good show. Very entertaining. The best part of the show was Kutless. They rock! Plus, they are just great guys.

Stellar Kart was pretty cool too. Fun songs. I guess I call them Disney Punk, if you know what I mean.