10 Free Songs a Month Sounded Like a Great Idea Until You Got to the Part About Owning a Zune
Microsoft’s Zune digital music player isn’t going to best Apple’s iPod any time soon, so you’ve really got to give the company credit for soldiering on in the face of adversity, widespread consumer uninterest and ever-deepening economic gloom.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
That’s Not a Lump of Coal in Your Stocking, Honey. It’s a Zune!
Microsoft is adapting its Zune digital music player to the “realities of the market”–those created by recent turmoil in the economy, as well as the harsher ones created by Apple’s iPod juggernaut. It’s slashing prices across the Zune line in the hopes of protecting holiday sales.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Private to 5 Known Zune Owners
A “regularly scheduled maintenance” outage will take Microsoft’s Zune platform offline for up to 48 hours beginning today. So if you’re among the five Zune owners who comprise the “Social” and you’ve actually noticed that it’s suddenly gone missing–along with Zune Marketplace and the Zune Net forums–and you’re bothered by their absence, this is why.
Hi. I’m a Big Mac and I’m a Vente Soy Latte
How neatly Microsoft’s latest Zune promotion encapsulates the differences between its also-ran digital media player and Apple’s iPod. As promised, Microsoft today uncrated its next-generation Zune. Along with it, the company rolled out a Zune 3.0 firmware update that enables the device to download songs directly from the Zune Marketplace over Wi-Fi. And in homage to Apple’s iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks, Microsoft announced a similar partnership. With McDonald’s.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Microsoft: We Have a New MP3 Player Also
“Zune’s focus is liveliness and youth. The buzz of the sound ‘Z’ makes it one of the most energetic in the language. Lexicon’s studies of sound symbolism, conducted with hundreds of people in a variety of languages, have shown that word-initial ‘Z’ scores very high for communicating attributes like ‘lively,’ ‘daring,’ and ‘fast.’ The letter Z’s current popularity in respellings like ‘boyz’ and ‘antz’ lends a youthful irreverence. …”
Monday, August 11, 2008
Zune Ready for Closeup; Zune Market Share–Not So Much
Since John Paczkowski is still out of range, Beth Callaghan will post Digital Daily today.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter reports that Microsoft execs have been talking to talent agencies all over Hollywood with the intent of building an exclusive body of original content for the company’s Zune player. Not just standard sitcom fare, either–Zune’s recent update of firmware for the device provides better social functionality, and Microsoft sees this as a move toward the kind of communal functionality pioneered by the XBox multiplayer experience.
Think of It as More of a “Zune-Killer”
A glutton for punishment, Dell. Though its foray into the MP3 player market was about as ill-starred as they come (remember DJ Ditty? Yeah, didn’t think so.), the company is gearing up for a second attempt. Unfazed by its Ditty disaster, the company has reportedly developed a second, ahem, “iPod killer.”
I’m Keeping the Vista Tattoo on My Behind, Though
What a sad, sad day for Microsoft. Zune Guy, the lone evangelist/fetishist for Redmond’s maligned digital media player, is giving up the fight. Dismayed over the Zune’s lack of improvement “mszunefan,” a.k.a. Steve Smith, has decided to have his Zune tattoos covered.
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About John
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
alt.misc
- The Golden Age of Video
Best video mashup ever.
- I’m not dead yet
A Facebook Memorial
- Pulp Fiction Audio Mix
Wow.
- A world without the Internet
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
- Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction
Excellent.
- Dead Fly Art
Flughumor!
- Happy Birthday Monty Python …
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
- ‘You are being shagged by a rare parrot’
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
- A Spectacular Cover of “Let It Be”
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
- Protect Insurance Companies PSA
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
