Zune Marketplace first look


Recommended Posts

Basically they are trying to follow the success of the iPod. Honestly microsoft, it wont work. An iPod is a fashion statement now, not just another player. Its like kleenex. Its not tissue to people, its keenex.

WTF are you talking about? How would you expect them to allow people to purchase songs? By phone? Cancel your ISP please.

I smell heavy competition brewing for the ipod

Maybe, but I love the double standards that has being on show this week

One of the main arguments against the ipod has being that it is a fashion accessorie that people only buy it cause they are sheep and everyone has one, and yet these same people are gushing that they will buy Zune before it is out, seemingly just cause it is designed by MS.

It be funny if it wasn't sad

Shame, MS is wasting money, they should have just slapped a logo on a brick and these same people would be calling it the ipod killer

if my ipod dies ill probably purchase a Zune.

Also i might add i did not buy a Nano just because its craze as a matter of fact that was the last reason i bought a nano. The main reasons were easy navigation of scroll wheel. Large HD space. Compact in size (i mean look at the thing) I had tried Creatives Zen i believe it was called the navigation was clunky very hard for on the move song changing because i dun spend too much time looking at screen to play a song. I've had my nano for about 1 year now and i love it. It will probably last me a few more years by then newer and better would hav hit the market

WTF are you talking about? How would you expect them to allow people to purchase songs? By phone? Cancel your ISP please.

Can I have your babies Bawx :D Excellent point! So it has similarities to iTunes (which, personally I don't think it does), but that doesn't mean to say it's unique.

I love the iPod tho, only wish it:

1) Allowed you to hookup to any pc without having iPod software (I mean drop & dropping anything on any PC).

2) Supports playback of divx, xvid & avi content.

If it had those two along with what it already has, i'd have one by now for sure. Ah well.

WTF are you talking about? How would you expect them to allow people to purchase songs? By phone? Cancel your ISP please.

Aww But that's how I get my songs

I ring up, give my credit card numbers, tell them the song I want, then they read me the hex code which I type up and save and I have my music!

............ What's that look for?

Oh and Emzino, you can connect an iPod to any pc without software it acts like a flash drive.

Want to manage your music? use teh mliPod plugin for winamp. If you dont like winamp, there's other free progs out there that you can use. :)

I think the Zune is getting better and better IMHO. I'll definitly look into a Zune when my Ipod (3rd gen) dies. I'm not a fan of Apple, and got the ipod simply for ease of use. Microsoft keeps winning battles - I wonder how long it'll be before they win the war on Apple.

I smell heavy competition brewing for the ipod
Based on what? Zune has a few bits and pieces that the iPod doesn't, but so do a lot of other players and they've had very limited success. As far as I know, the Zune offers nothing new, but please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. The Zune disappoints me - I thought Microsoft would have finally brought some decent competition back to the market, but obviously not.

Indeed it is looking impressive. The only factors which will make me switch from my iPod 5G are:

1) If you can send a non-DRM music file via Wi-Fi to another Zune and they can play it as many times as they want and keep it for however long they want.

2) If the battery life is better than the iPod.

3) If you can sync it with Windows Media Player - even though this piece of software does look very nice, but I don't get why MS would make another application just for the Zune?

Microsoft is a well-known name. When people see it on the box, they will definately think that it's a good product. And personally, i like the name Zune way more than iPod. If i compare the ipods to the zune, i like the zune design way more! I don't have an portable music player now, but the first zune i spot in stores will be mine!

It will be syncable with WMP... Trust me! It can't be that difficult to create a plugin or something else!

It would be really nice if you could integrate your Zune into your WiFi network, so that you could upload music wireless, and stream music and videos from your pc wirelles to your zune! Or Zune Live Messenger or something like that :)

Based on what? Zune has a few bits and pieces that the iPod doesn't, but so do a lot of other players and they've had very limited success. As far as I know, the Zune offers nothing new, but please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. The Zune disappoints me - I thought Microsoft would have finally brought some decent competition back to the market, but obviously not.

Haha, coming from some "Apple enthusiast" (faaaaan...) it must tell us something. RIGHT?!

Believe it or not, this is competition. Why? Because Microsoft is a well known brand, and while you say there are no "new features", Zune at least has them and the iPod doesn't. So it can disappoint you all you want, but while you stick with your Apple hardware, there are people out there with different opinions that really like to see new features (or not, according to you because others have failed) and not blindly buy everything from a brand just by being enthusiastic. :rolleyes:

But what should I know, it's not like it's already a known player even before it has hit the shelves. :rofl:

Here is what the Zune Packaging box will look like

That looks NICE.

Based on what? Zune has a few bits and pieces that the iPod doesn't, but so do a lot of other players and they've had very limited success. As far as I know, the Zune offers nothing new, but please, someone correct me if I'm wrong. The Zune disappoints me - I thought Microsoft would have finally brought some decent competition back to the market, but obviously not.

The Zune is a Godsend now I don't haft to buy an Ipod. Don't get me wrong the Ipod works just fine but the Zune will fit all my needs.

Haha, coming from some "Apple enthusiast" (faaaaan...) it must tell us something. RIGHT?!

Believe it or not, this is competition. Why? Because Microsoft is a well known brand, and while you say there are no "new features", Zune at least has them and the iPod doesn't. So it can disappoint you all you want, but while you stick with your Apple hardware, there are people out there with different opinions that really like to see new features (or not, according to you because others have failed) and not blindly buy everything from a brand just by being enthusiastic. :rolleyes:

But what should I know, it's not like it's already a known player even before it has hit the shelves. :rofl:

Stop acting so childish - I wasn't flaming or trolling the Zune, I was pointing out what I thought was obvious. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the Zune will be a good player and will get itself some market share, but the only way it's going to knock the iPod off it's peak is if it offers people something new and innovative. And since you didn't give me one example of such a feature, I'll assume I'm right in saying it's the same thing as the iPod's current competition, just with a different name and brand.

You're right about Microsoft being a good and well known brand, but so is Apple. Yes, people are going to look at the Zune and think "it's made by Microsoft, so it must be worth buying", but the iPod is part of modern culture these days - that's something that nobody - not even Microsoft - can compete with unless they offer something completely new that will make more people want to buy it.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Halo: Campaign Evolved is out next month with new prequel missions by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Microsoft offered a look at the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved remake at the Xbox Games Showcase today. The Halo Studios-developed title is not only getting a fully remade campaign, but also new content in the form of a fresh story arc featuring Sgt. Johnson. Fans don't have to wait long, either, as Halo: Campaign Evolved is releasing next month. The new content joining the original campaign consists of three new missions that have the name "Operation: METEORITE" attached to the full project. Aside from ground-based combat, space missions are also included here. These prequel missions will take players to events set before the original campaign, where the Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson duo team up for a clandestine UNSC operation aboard a Covenant research vessel. The studio says that the story for these missions was written in collaboration with award-winning sci-fi author Troy Denning. "Operation: METEORITE gives players a chance to expand their experience with new locations, new enemy variants, more weapons from across the Halo series, and new ways to play within the Halo sandbox, all while getting to spend more time with beloved characters and witness a new event that adds to the legacy of their heroic history," adds Halo Studios. Today's new trailer showed off the game in action, including the new missions. Catch it below. Halo Campaign Evolved is coming out on July 28, 2026. It will be available across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 with a $49.99 price tag. A digital premium edition will also be available for $69.99, offering five days of early access, extra in-game skins, and a digital art collection. A $199.99 physical Collector's Edition is also incoming, bringing a Master Chief statue, a Cortana chip, a Steelbook case, and more.
    • To give context to everybody, I bought about 2 sets of RAM, ddr4, 3200, 64 gb, 2 years ago. It costed me 150 usd for each set. If you buy RAM now you only incentivate companies to sell you expensive stuff, as Nvidia did.
    • KillerPDF 1.4.2 by Razvan Serea KillerPDF is a lightweight, portable PDF editor for Windows built for users who want full control without subscriptions, installers, or telemetry. It runs as a single executable, making it ideal for USB use and field work. You can view PDFs with smooth PDFium rendering, navigate quickly with thumbnails, zoom, and shortcuts, and reorganize pages using drag-and-drop. It supports merging multiple PDFs, splitting documents, and extracting selected pages. KillerPDF also allows inline text editing with font matching to preserve the original layout, plus annotations like text boxes, freehand drawing, highlights, and reusable signatures. You can search full text, copy content easily, and print documents with flattened annotations. Designed as a free and open alternative to bloated PDF tools, it works fully offline on Windows 10/11 x64. No runtimes install. Everything needed is inside the EXE (targets .NET Framework 4.8, which ships with every supported Windows release). KillerPDF key features: High-quality PDF rendering via PDFium Edit PDF text inline (double-click to modify text) Page thumbnails and fast navigation with zoom and shortcuts Merge multiple PDFs into one Split PDFs and extract selected pages Drag-and-drop page reordering Font matching to preserve original document appearance Text boxes for notes Freehand drawing tools Highlight overlays with adjustable color, size, opacity Undo actions and clear per-page annotations Create, draw, and save reusable signatures Click-to-place signatures anywhere Full-text search with highlighted results Drag-select or Ctrl+A to copy text Print with annotations flattened Portable single-file app (~10 MB) No installer, no admin rights required No account, no telemetry KillerPDF 1.4.2 changelog: What's new PDF form filling. Interactive PDF forms now render their fields (text inputs, checkboxes, radio buttons) as live controls. Fill them in directly and save — field values are written back into the PDF. PDF outline (bookmark) navigation. A new OUTLINES tab in the sidebar displays the document's bookmark tree. Click any entry to jump to that page. The sidebar auto-fits its width to the longest entry on open and can be dragged wider; switching back to PAGES snaps to the pages-mode width. Fixed Page rotation no longer reverts after saving. Rotations applied via the sidebar context menu now persist correctly through the save pipeline. Copied text words were out of order on PDFs where glyphs are stored in non-reading order (Issue #66). Text extraction now sorts words by position and uses a dynamic line-grouping threshold so both drag-select and Select All produce correctly ordered output. PDFs with malformed or non-standard XRef tables now open in read-only mode instead of showing "Invalid entry in XRef table" and failing entirely. Download: KillerPDF 1.4.2 | 6.1 MB (Open Source) Link: KillerPDF Home Page | Github | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • "...a low price of just $340..." I don't think it means what you think it means.
    • This Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 32GB RAM with RGB is a great deal for limited time by Sayan Sen Memory prices have been through the roof for a while, though it seems like things might finally be getting better. If you are in the market for one, then grab this Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000 CL36 kit with RGB for a low price of just $340 (purchase link under the specs table down below). The kit is compatible with both AMD and Intel systems as it supports both EXPO and XMP overclocking profiles, respectively. 6000 MT/s is often the sweet spot for many systems as it provides ample data transfer speed while still being on Gear 1 mode. This Vengeance variant has RGB so if you love bright setups with such lighting, this is a win-win for you. The technical specifications of the Corsair Vengeance memory kit are given in the table below: Specification Value Memory Type DDR5 Memory Size (Total) 32GB Kit Configuration 2 × 16GB Form Factor UDIMM (Desktop) Pin Count 288-pin Speed (Data Rate) 6000 MT/s Speed Rating PC5-48000 Tested CAS Latency 38-44-44-96 Voltage (Tested) 1.35V Performance Profile AMD EXPO & Intel XMP Heat Spreader Aluminum heatspreader Cooling Type Passive (Heatsink) Lighting Ten Zone RGB Software Support Corsair iCUE Get it at the link below: CORSAIR Vengeance RGB DDR5 32GB (2 x 16GB) 6000 CL38 – Gray (CMH32GX5M1E6000Z38): $339.99 (Sold and Shipped by Woot US, Fulfilled by Amazon US) This Woot deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. This is a first-party seller link (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you also purchase from a first-party seller link only. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the previous deals that we have covered, OR you can also visit Amazon US deals page. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Dedicated
      Mark Spruce earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Collaborator
      conkir earned a badge
      Collaborator
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      479
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      244
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      66
    5. 5
      Skyfrog
      65
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!