Shots of the Zune in-store kiosk
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted November 5th 2006 5:16PM
posted November 5th 2006 5:16PM
[Thanks, John Matthews]
posted November 5th 2006 5:16PM
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Schweet, i gotta go check that out.
Nice, looks good.
Glad to see the device making progress into the stores.
Rob
Zuney.Net
is it just me..or does that zune look massive in the second picture? or is the display just small..?
Gotta stop comparing them oranges to apple, m'kay?
WHY must microsoft hold the zune back from canadians until 2007?!? i dont care if i cant buy stuff from the marketplace, i just want a freakin sweet pmp! is there anyway i could get one from the us earlier than the canadian launch? would it cause problems if i got a US unit before the canadian launch? marketplace issues?
it just hit me...
would you link zune straight away with microsoft? i mean if you were not engadget reader, but just saw zune at kiosk? i think there is no regular microsoft sign on this very product, unlike everything else...
perhaps that's part of their strategy against apple?
Why do they never set anything like this up in the uk? Man i'd kill to try something before i buy it.
well, MS is just stupid. it's only available for stupid america. for international, it will be 2008. I don't know why. I don't care. ipod is way better.
Kent, relax
Rumour is Europe may not get it till 2008, although 2007 is more likely. In any case, by next summer, the game will have moved on. I really cannot get worked up over the Zune
Is that a circuit board on the left in the second photo? under the "welcome to the socialism" sign? Or can they not afford to put a zune in there?
Zune is a Joke.
Beam your beats (for 3 listens, or 3 days)
Buy buy buy from the Zune Marketplace.
Social sharing at its best. Your friends will be soooo impressed!
iPod
No it's I Pod, therefore I am
Thank God the Zune hype will be over before we're ever supposed to get this thing in Europe.... did I hear 2008 ?
2 years in gadget land is like ... ages
so ... i still have yet to find out what happens when say ... your song was sent to some one else ... and it is not available at the zune marketplace ? you have a dead drm'd song taking up space on the unit that you can not purchase? some one clarify this for me please.
Microsoft has also begun to have ads in movie theaters (yes, during the previews). And I must say, whoever they hired to create these ads, they did a great job. They're much nicer than the aging silhouette Apple ads.
do you have any idea what song is used in the theater spots?
@misleq
The Microsoft name is also missing from all XBOX360 merchandising. I think Microsoft must think that people are concerned about MS getting into their lives ala Big Brother.
That's my 2c in any case. :)
is that true what Kent said, that the Canadian launch won't be till sometime in 07?...
oh well, looks like its an iPod for me (again)...sorry MS
Speaking of ads: Yeah, I find that MS is starting to out-do Apple with some of these ads they have. And yesterday at the theatre I saw a PS3 ad that was REALLY well done. It made you really excited about the PS3 launch, without really giving you a good reason why :P
What the hell is "a social"? Is that a US thing?
I know in Australia we don't use the word social as a noun!
Social = party/cool/popular. Basically everything Microsoft is not, but what they hope Zune will be.
Here in the US we dont use the "social" as a noun either. Its just something a bunch of pale-faced dorks at Microsoft with marketing degrees thought up to try to sound like their "hip".
Dont you hate it when big corporations try to capture the essence of youth in America?
This thing will sell and I am sure microsoft knows that this is just the beginning. Dont you think they are working on an updated version nowas we speak. This is their first device so its exepected that it wont be the kill all device on the first try. But, it is a good start and I am glad to see the first major competitor ever for ipod. Yes the first ever... creative doesnt count and the only company that has the money ms does is sony. Sonys players were a huge joke so in my opinion this is the first major competitor to ipod with a good shot of taking away market.
I live in Canada, is there any reason why i can't just buy one off ebay?
My first post,...I peeps.
I do like the look and features that the zune have, so far.
I truely think the next version will be alot better.
so as an ipod owner, my next mp3 player will be a zune, I just need somthing different.
"stupid America"
You're stupid, America isn't.
Hasn't anyone notice how tightly locked down the Zune is? I mean, you can't even hold the thing in your hand like you can an iPod. Not a very friendly first impression. One year... and you'll not see a Zune on retail shelves.
No, you won't see a zune in one year, you will see many zunes. About 4 different sizes for everyones taste, lol
wake up call
open your eyes people
the display is crap
the gadget is a super bulky piece of crap
and any company that has to hide its name to get sales is obviously crap.
and now tell me why you support all this crap? A while ago it was all about plays for sure and not being tied down to one company etc etc. So what is it now?
waddo
http://www.waddo.net/
The only crap I see is that turd you call a website.
It looks good, but I'm patient and smart. I'm just gonna wait for the 2nd generation zune and stick with my humble yet better than any ipod combined creative zen vision m.
there was a zune commercial during the movie preview tonight. i took a picture of it.
lol...i saw an iPod vending machine at my local mall yesterday; anybody else have those?
perhaps that's part of their strategy against apple?
--
strategy? um, MS is for business applications. Anything that deviates from that should NOT have the MS name...
I think that the sign says "Welcome to the Society," not "Welcome to the social."
http://www.zune.net/en-US/ no i think its welcome to the social as in its web
I love watching Microsoft fail from time to time... And me thinks this is one of those times. :)
i hope ALL zunes are locked up like that!
"Social" is a noun you illiterate buffooooooons!!! Look it up!!
LOL
Although, I think its use as a noun isn't as common as it was back in the day. "Welcome to the Social" is what Microsoft hopes will be a catch-phrase, and part of the reason it's catchy is that social is NOT used as a noun (much) today.
BTW, here's one of the noun definitions of "social" from dictionary.com:
"social" noun:
"a social gathering or party, esp. of or as given by an organized group: example: a church social."
Mr Molly C
I am afraid there is more to literacy than simple reading. "Welcome to the social" is not a bad tag line because it is rarely used; but because of its connotative sense which smacks of bingo games, old ladies, knitting, fried chicken in the park with the pastor as well as branding "specialists" trying to sound cool and doing a bad job.
In simple terms, it suggests everything that is NOT cool.
waddo
http://www.waddo.net/
I'm not saying whether "welcome to the social" is bad or good, I'm simply pointing out that "social" is indeed a noun.
Now, if you really want to get into whether it's bad or good, I can get into that.
You say it's bad because "social" suggest things that aren't cool, and you cite examples. But social" only conveys those uncool things you cite within the context of those things. In fact, as you've seen from the posts here, most don't think of those "uncool" things when they hear the word "social", since they don't immediately think of "social" as a noun in the first place.
"Welcome to the social" is not to be taken as literally as you guys are trying to take it. It's a catch phrase with a double meaning in this case. One meaning is "social" the noun. The other meaning is indeed "social" the adjective, which is how "social" is most used. This second meaning makes the phrase an incomplete sentence, and as such, sticks in one's head. Already everyone who's heard the phrase has it memorized partly because it's an incomplete sentence. And that incomplete sentence gives rise to a larger, broader meaning of the word "social", to mean "interaction with others" in general.
Maybe it's too clever and so it won't work. I don't think it is too clever. I think that it does stick in one's head (so, the catch phrase is indeed "catchy"), and I think people will understand the general meaning that the phrase conveys, even as an incomplete sentence (if "social" is taken as an adjective). People hear incomplete sentences all the time and have no problem understanding the meaning conveyed.
I think most people, when first hearing the phrase a couple times, will say to themselve, "The social *what*?", which will cause the phrase to stick in their heads, and they'll still understand the general intent of the phrase. They won't get hung up on it, and say "Zune sucks because they used an incomplete sentence!!". Only those predisposed to hate Zune (for whatever reason) will get hung up on this as a negative.
You know, I'm thinking more and more that Microsoft is onto something with their whole 'social' bent. The iPod ads always portrayed the iPod as a way to personalize your music experience, always one person in silhouette.
This being the case, Microsoft has probably taken the correct advertising step of portraying itself in the opposite light - sharing your music and opening up, having a PMP party (whatever that is) - and their video ads really reflec this. I think a lot of people have a sort of fatigue of seeing everyone around them tuned out with earbuds firmly in place.
Of course, I say this as a happily tuned-out iPod owner, and with the full knowledge that it's all just advertising and image anyways. It's still an interesting politic.
i like the whole ' beam you tunes ' concept. i'm suprised microsoft is even reviving 'beam', that had to be the worst way to transfer data since it went over infrared, why would they ever associate their wifi with some crappy technology that never worked half the time? wow