Stores selling Zunes early

We don't know exactly how many stores are now accessory to the heinous crime of pre-launch gadget sales, but it looks like Microsoft is one customer closer to overthrowing the nation of iPod courtesy of the Zune-gun-jumping Best Buy at Union City Landing shopping centre. Best part: already the crashing has begun (see above). It's going to be an interesting week.

[Kyle Kennedy @ Nov 12th 2006 12:55AM]

Install it with safemode. Other than that... I'll wait for a price drop.

[Seamus Bartlett @ Nov 12th 2006 12:55AM]

I have that keyboard. Classy.

Oh, and it appears that the error message has killed that Japanese woman.

[Kyle Kennedy @ Nov 12th 2006 12:56AM]

I like the expression on the chick's face, as if she knows that the installation failed. LOL

[dbell @ Nov 12th 2006 12:57AM]

yeah, highly appropriate background picture. I guess it's supposed to be her having fun at the social?

[Eddie @ Nov 12th 2006 12:58AM]

Uhhh... What's up with the girls in the background? It looks like the two in the top part are on top of each other?

Mmmmk...

[akijikan @ Nov 12th 2006 1:48AM]

That's life in the social

[CoffeeBean @ Nov 12th 2006 10:43AM]

Yeah, I believe the third girl is objecting her part in this softcore threesome.... Love the Pron Micro$oft!

Have you guys tried the "HotCoffee" unlock code yet? Wow! Fully uncensored!

[Eddie @ Nov 12th 2006 12:59AM]

Making out maybe? lol...

[FLX @ Nov 12th 2006 1:09AM]

I dont know what the problem is, i also tried safemode.
Also tried cleaning out the caches and all the registry keys regarding Zune.
Ironic. Ill have to call MS on monday while the release is the next day :)

[LPD @ Nov 12th 2006 1:14AM]

To setup Zune the software must connect to the Zune site. (You need to get a Zune tag). The same Zune site that is not activated by Microsoft because it is not needed until the 14th. duh. What a cheap shot.

[Beau @ Nov 12th 2006 1:15AM]

I'm telling you man, it KNOWS. It's the ZUNE! It knows it was purchased early, and now you're going to pay!

You could always try banging it on the table. It worked on the ipod :)

[Guy @ Nov 12th 2006 1:23AM]

That girl is having an orgasm.

[Dustin @ Nov 12th 2006 1:22AM]

Guys read the pic above the error (when you click one of the 2, you get more pics): It says be connected to the internet. Maybe its just like the PS3 servers. Since the product hasn't launched yet, the connection service will not be up. that is why there is the installation error message.

[FLX @ Nov 12th 2006 1:23AM]

Nope. Wrong. Some people have been able to install the software and get it fully working.
Download: http://www.box.net/public/79e5zr2i98

[enzo @ Nov 12th 2006 1:31AM]

Caption contest maybe for that second picture? :D

[PhillyMJS @ Nov 12th 2006 11:12PM]

http://flickr.com/photos/79091003@N00/295514860/

[sammy mazola jr� @ Nov 12th 2006 1:39AM]

Does UMG still get a buck?

[Eric @ Nov 12th 2006 1:39AM]

The azn chick is laughing at the fact that the software won't install
otherwise there could always be some innuendo...

[Si @ Nov 12th 2006 1:41AM]

I like how it's the Zuner pass. Zuner. That makes me giggle inside.

[Brian @ Nov 12th 2006 1:47AM]

That doesn't say Zuner Pass, that's just the trademark symbol I'm pretty sure, take a look at the larger picture at the link.

[Intellectualdiot @ Nov 12th 2006 1:54AM]

Well that certainly made me "lol".

Lol.

[tekdroid @ Nov 12th 2006 1:52AM]

I love record-industry approved restrictive portable audio devices.

[Alcaron @ Nov 12th 2006 1:56AM]

Yeah...before we start casting stones lets unf*ck the whole iTunes installer issues shall we.

I mean, I know its more sensational and all but...whatever...yay for pandering.

[Bonte @ Nov 14th 2006 2:15PM]

Installation problems? Yeah on Windows. The iPod started his life on the Mac and for all i know there were no installation problems.

[Garth Holmes @ Nov 12th 2006 2:00AM]

Welcome to the social my @$$,
Welcome to the crap software that is microsoft.
Its fitting that the first Zune actually sold doesnt work.

[John Doe @ Nov 12th 2006 3:44AM]

Shall we look at how well the first generation iPod with V1.0 of iTunes faired? If its anything like any of Apple's other first generation devices it probably sucked butt. Dumbass fanbois, on both sides, need to shut up.

[lol @ Nov 12th 2006 2:00AM]

This Design is Not good.
and nothing special.

[Dominic @ Nov 12th 2006 2:04AM]

OMG!!! If that didn't make anyone here LOL...than you guys must be crazy!! Seriously that's what my face looks like when I get an "installation error" with Windows...that made me bust a gut!!

[Christian @ Nov 12th 2006 2:10AM]

I don't know about you guys but that looks like 3 girls on that picture...
The asian girl's pendant is interesting too... Her cleavage ... is she wearing a bra or not?
Ooops back to topic, well let's hope that this error doesn't happen a lot

[tekdroid @ Nov 12th 2006 2:15AM]

welcome to the social? I like that line.

In Microsoft's 'social' world this means:

1) never having the ability to bring your Zune to a friend's computer and uploading songs from it to his machine, let alone entirely without software. That's a no-no, 'impossible' in this DRM-paranoia age, yet offered by tens of smaller competitors offering native mass storage mode who haven't made deals with the labels. Gotta love industry-sanctioned players like Zune, iPod, Sony Walkmans...

2) never being able to use it on any operating system you please. Unless it's XP or Vista. Surprise surprise.

3) no support for superior open codecs (xvid, ogg vorbis, flac). No surprises here.

4) restrictive "3-days or 3-plays" wireless sharing

Uhhh, welcome to the social? Social what?

Make a native Mass Storage device and I'll be social just fine.
1) with any computer.
2) with virtually any OS.
3) Anytime
4) Without the inconvenience of loading software on each machine.
5) without the one-way-only PC-to-Zune transfer restrictions

Again? Social what?

[ColdCoffee @ Nov 12th 2006 2:17AM]

Show me your "O" Face.

[mikkel @ Nov 12th 2006 2:22AM]

anyone know what keyboard that is? it looks cool

[FLX @ Nov 12th 2006 2:28AM]

My keyboard is an Logitech G15 :)
I still dont have the software working, and im done with the preloaded songs and videos on it.
Btw, the battery life isnt that bad. I ran it out of the box without charging for 3,5 hours. it was like 1/3 charged out of the box.

[scoot241 @ Nov 12th 2006 2:25AM]

Is that the girl from logistics? Looks like she showed him her o-face too.

[Chris @ Nov 12th 2006 2:27AM]

Welcome to the bugs.

Wow, the platic bag "protecting" the zune looks really cheap and messy.

[jeff @ Nov 12th 2006 2:44AM]

Gotta love that Zune. I might have purchase one if it ran on OS X wtf.

[kaizr @ Nov 12th 2006 2:51AM]

coming zune

[Paul J. @ Nov 12th 2006 2:58AM]

Why can't they fuck up and sell the Wii early? :P

[John Doe @ Nov 12th 2006 3:03AM]

Apparently even erroring out causes orgasm goodness. Error! YES YES YES!!!

[mike @ Nov 12th 2006 3:07AM]

it says "Hello from Seatlle" on the back? Please, MS, try a little harder to copy Apple. No, seriously.

I couldn't make this stuff up in my wildest dreams

[FLX @ Nov 12th 2006 3:16AM]

Make that two mike. The last thing i expected from the whole Zune was that my software wouldnt install :S

[crescentdavid @ Nov 12th 2006 3:20AM]

Does it hiss like the newest iPods? BTW, Apple fixed that iPod install problem.

[FLX @ Nov 12th 2006 3:30AM]

Nope, no hissing. The sound quality and loudness is also better IMHO.
And if you compare the 5G ipod screen to the Zune, the Zune definately has the upperhand

[John Doe @ Nov 12th 2006 3:44AM]

Yah know I bet the problem he had was that there was a prerequisite install that is missing. something like .net 2.0 or installer 3.0 or something. Doesn't change the fact that if there were any required software prerequisites that the installer should have checked for them and installed them before attempting the Zune install. Still. Not very smooth MS. Not at all.

[MrE @ Nov 12th 2006 4:36AM]

That would be impossible since the iPod 1.0 as you call it didn't ship with iTunes initially, it shipped with MusicMatch.

-E

[Charles Miller @ Nov 12th 2006 10:49AM]

"Shall we look at how well the first generation iPod with V1.0 of iTunes faired?"

I had a first generation (5GB, Mac only) iPod, and it kicked ass. It was the first mp3 player I'd seen that looked like it was designed for people to use, not just to satisfy a list of bullet-points on a Thinkgeek product page. A part of me still misses the mechanical scroll-wheel, even though you had to pop it off every so often and clean out the gunk. When I was at WWDC one year, I talked to a white-bearded Apple engineer who wistfully wondered if he could get someone to put the guts of the newer iPod model into the shell of his original.

FWIW, though, by the time iPod was released, they were up to version iTunes 2. When it first shipped, the iTunes 2 installer ran a shell script that could potentially erase entire hard drives, but that was fixed a while before the introduction of the iPod.

Oh, and while I'm being pedantic and annoying, the word you were looking for is 'fared'.

[Gary @ Nov 12th 2006 5:18PM]

My 1g iPod worked flawlessly with iTunes on my Mac - until I dropped it 18 months in ; - ( Still hate Apple's crappy DRM though... Cheers, Gary.

[James Bond @ Nov 12th 2006 3:49AM]

could be a trick to get you to install maliscious software, the pic with the girl in agony is just too coincidental to me. why does he try to get non-zune owners to download the software? or maybe it's just me being paranoid.

[James Bond @ Nov 12th 2006 3:50AM]

or it just might be a joke

[DM @ Nov 12th 2006 4:13AM]

Creative ZVM > Zune > ipod. That's all for now.