jamescuarterodotcom

monica and i have a 20GB 3rd gen iPod, an iPod mini & one of the new iPod nanos. i’d been looking at getting a video iPod but spending $250+ on one doesn’t really interest me. with the november release of the zune 2.0, prices on the original 30GB zunes have dropped dramatically. i picked one up last month from woot for under $100 and love it despite its first gen iPod size. the screen is big and sharp, video is smooth, the interface is easy to navigate, impressive sound and even an FM tuner. my only complaints include clunky software, limited wi-fi capabilities (which is built-in but can only be used to communicate with other zunes), unsupported video codecs (including windows media center tv, huh) and no xbox 360 support.

M$ has gone to pretty great lengths to address those issues in the 2.0 version, which came out last tuesday. furthermore, they’ve rewarded early adopters by making a firmware upgrade available for the 1.0 that gives it all of the 2.0 capabilities including wireless sync, which is unbelievably awesome. other features include:

- automatically import unprotected .WMV, .MPG4 and H.264 files into your video library. includes support for recorded tv (DVR-MS) in windows media center, however it’s only for the vista version. i’ve been using super and IMTOO dvd to zune for converting incompatible video and ripping dvds. it’s a bit of a hassle but the results are good.

- built-in FM radio. great for putting on NPR, PRB (awww no WIP) during those 2-3 mile runs. you can even see the name of the song playing on select stations. i remember when monica’s car stereo could do this, i was amazed.

- xbox 360 support lets you customize your in-game soundtrack with songs and playlists from your zune (you can do this with your iPod too, actually). you can also stream content from your zune to the 360 over wi-fi. once my 360 comes back from repair, i’ll see how well it works.

- the zune social network links to your windows/xbox live ID and scrobbles your songs to your user card that people can view online. i like that it records plays on both your desktop and zune but overall it lacks the chart options and community size of last.fm, which i still prefer. it creates a nice looking flash card though.

since the software update, there are all kinds of bug reports. aaron just updated his zune last week and is getting some but i’ve been lucky so far. all things being equal, i probably would stick to the iPod family but at $85 it’s a no-brainer and i highly recommend it for people looking for a cheap hard disk based media player with some interesting features.