I've been Zune'd

So I've finally joined the digital age of music and now own my first mp3 player.

I have been holding out forever as I just never thought I'd want to spend the money for a portable device. I've thought the prices were just insane. I have a ton of music and for me it's easier to have it readily available then to sit down and take the time to figure out what it is I'm going to listen to. I, for some reason, can't think that far out. Sad I know.

So, my dad, for Christmas, picked me up a Zune 30gb. He's heard me talking about it and he went ahead and ordered it after running across it on a web site.

30 gigabytes really is a perfect size for me. I was able to go and pick out pretty much all of my favorite artists that I listen to on a regular basis and sync them right up. I can also store photos and videos on the device as well.

Another really neat feature I discovered was that I could turn my Sirius radio on in the house, set it to send an FM signal and then use my Zune's radio functionality to listen to a crystal clear Scott Ferrall ('Shake it uuuuuuuuuuppppppppp!') each night while sitting in bed relaxing before going to sleep. The range is great and I can walk pretty much anywhere on the first and second floor of my house with it.

I had my whole music collection cataloged in Windows Media Player, which in itself was a total pain in the ass and very tedious, so when I had to sync it with my Zune software (how stupid that they just didn't use WMP for the Zune as well is perplexing to me), I was happy that 90% of the song titles and everything else that goes with it did indeed make it over correctly.

I'm really excited to see Podcasts incorporated in their latest firmware upgrade. I have spent the past 2 weeks listening to and getting addicted to audio and video podcasts. The amount of them out there was just astonishing to me. It seems the rage these days and you can get one for pretty much any subject. I was already listening to The Stupid Cancer Show and Major Nelson's weekly shows but now I have about 12-15 that I now have subscribed to.

I'm just beginning to play with 'Playlists', but as it is I just go to the artist I'm in the mood for and even down to the song I want to hear. I haven't even given shuffle an opportunity yet. I'll be sure to do so. I have to learn to change things up a bit.

Being the nerd that I am, I have found other trick things that I can do with it, for instance syncing up and playing my recorded tv shows that I have on my media center or hooking the Zune up to my XBox and sharing content there as well. I can even rip a dvd to it for viewing on the go. It just fits my lifestyle. Thanks for the Zune dad!

I have a 40 minute ride, to and from work, every day and I do a lot of listening to music, Howard Stern and Bubba The Love Sponge. My Dodge Caliber has an auxiliary plug right in the front of the radio that I can use to plug my Sirius radio in to. Well, it just so happens that this plug also works well with my Zune! Score! Car kits that I found were in excess of $40. Ugghh! This cord I scored for $7.00 at a local car audio shop. I'm so frugal. The car also has an iPod holder in the center console. It doesn't fit the Zune correctly, but it serves it's purpose for me. As you can see it's a tight fit.

As a gift I can say that I am super excited with it and really enjoy having it now. But, at $200, it'd probably be awhile before I went out and spent the money on one myself. Being the picky guy I am I would have held out and spent the extra $50 for the 80gb!

I was really disappointed to see Steve Jobs this week come out and attack the Zune the way he did. That was pretty cheap. I know other company's do it as well, but the guy has a 90% (I'm just reaching there with that figure) share of the market and he's taking pot shots at someone just breaking in the market.

To me it just seem's that you only attack someone, in Steve's instance, when you are worried of competition. I personally think that's what it is after I've used mine now.

The Marketplace doesn't stand up to iTunes yet, but I do believe that after the Zune team get's its legs under them and integrates it with the XBox Marketplace they are gonna start making tremendous strides.

One stand out advantage that I see so far is the ZunePass where you can get access to over 3 million songs at any given time and sync them up to your Zune. I went thru the library of music and in my case they have everything I'd be looking for and more. It is a good selection of music.

I think, just like the XBox, the Zune will just continue to get better. I would like to see a touch version of a Zune in a future model. I just really dig that kind of technology. And with 'Surface' technology for this type of functionality now in Microsofts bag of tricks, it's only a matter of time I bet.

I have a several friends that have these and I've been playing around with the 'Social' feature. This is very cool as I can see what others are listening to, as they can with me, and we can 'sync' songs over to let them hear what we find interesting. They also have the 'Social' web site that you can go and find interesting listening habits of your friends. This is tagged to your Windows Live ID so it also lets you see what your friends who have an XBox and a zune are also listening to. Integration is a very cool feature to a freak like me.

Everyone has their own tastes, some love their Apple products, others, like me, insist on following evil Microsoft down their path. I'm definitely going against the grain, where iPod seems to be the clear choice, but I guess I love going against the grain.