Zune 3.0 hands-on
By Paul Miller 
posted September 16th 2008 11:04AM
posted September 16th 2008 11:04AM
With 3.0 all ready to go, we wasted little time jumping onto Marketplace wirelessly, which felt especially delicious on a teensy little flash DAP. Naturally, we could've squandered all our Microsoft Points on song buys -- which are quite easy to accomplish, with a cart-based purchasing system -- but we're all about subscription music, and Zune Pass speaks our language. The browsing, selecting and downloading processing couldn't be much easier, and you can pick a song to play from right in the store while browsing other wares. There were a couple hiccups in playback when switching tasks, but they were always brief.
Sadly, the "buy from FM" feature quickly reminded us why we can't stand music radio, and while we could easily get the meta data for the station we tuned to, specific (or sufficient) song data was more rare -- on our fourth or fifth try we finally nabbed Rod Stewart's Maggie May, and the actual download process was painless.
We're less enthused by improvements desktop side of things, not that they're bad, just maybe not meant for us. We haven't played enough tracks yet to use the "picks" recommendation feature yet (Microsoft's Genius killer), but we usually prefer the recommendations of friends and critics to cold, heartless pieces of software -- and Zune has had that locked down with the Social for a while now. The flashy MixView feature is a fun way to browse connections between related artists and albums, but the functionality is nothing new. The general design, usability and stability of the Zune desktop software has indeed come a long way, and we'd have no reservations about using it for all day music browsing and listening. The basic player view is a joy to use, where Apple seems to be taking a step back with iTunes 8.
While Microsoft might not best Apple at every point of audio ecosystem -- and the glaring lack of an iPod Touch or iPhone competitor makes much of this irrelevant for many people -- Apple's refusal to build a subscription service makes Zune Pass one of our few choices for a well-integrated player and subscription software combo. Rhapsody's "mature" desktop player is really starting to show its age, and Zune 3.0's addition of wireless downloads has us ready to make the switch.
My update went without a hitch. Great update!!!
I've had the Pass for over a year. What a great feeling to be able to try out any song/artist without worrying about wasting my money. If I don't like it, I simply delete it and find something new.
I've found so much new music that I would have never discovered without it. Well worth the money!
You can create an autoplaylist that with just music you've recently added. That way, you'll always have the most recent songs available on your Zune.
The autoplaylist feature has a bunch of cool capabilities...
please, oh, please... we need a search function!!
Ummm.. There is a search function.
All this need is Asian character support, which will probably come with a worldwide launch. Come on Microsoft, what are you waiting for?
the new zune software makes itunes look old, lifeless, and stale. the new features are sharp.
LMFAO @ ZUNE
i know! the new zune makes me smile too
Mixview kicks ass! Love the way the artist picture is transitioning in the background after a few minutes.
Correct me if I wrong....but where is the crossfrading on this...did I miss it?
MS please include crossfading if not already on.
hahahaha you must be very disapointed at itunes and your ipod.
Im surprised there are quite a few people leaving posts here, I thought zune died a year ago.
I would never buy microsoft anything. Well I do have microsoft office on all 3 of my macs but that is the only thing by microsoft
in my house. I just don't know anyone here in New York City with a zoon, lol Me and my friends would laugh at someone if we did see them with a zoon.
That's sad
That's funny, because I don't buy Apple products for real reasons, not just some bullshit that fanboys like you love to spew.
All I have to say is: Apple = Under Featured and Overpriced.
Apple should pay me for their new trademark. It accurately represents every single one of their products.
Since you care enough to waste your time showing us how petty you are, you will be disappointed to know that exactly zero people will care what you and your friends think. Have fun with your slavish devotion to a major corporation that overcharges you for closed system computer equipment. You're a fine example of how successful marketing campaigns can make large groups of people do the same thing while at the same time each thinks they're being different. How hip!
mrpoo: Hip HOP, or just the regular kind?
I'm a little curious if I'm able to download new podcasts (either subscribe to new feeds or update existing ones) on the player itself, sans use of the PC. It'd be a killer feature for myself, and one that would cause myself to purchase the player.
You are a sheep if you actually believe any of what you just wrote.
The quicklist is gone? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
The quick list has been replaced by the "now playing" list. You can add stuff to the "now playing" list, and it shows up under "playlists".
Wow i just downloaded the Zune 3.0 software and among other things, the Now Playing screen is amazing! Between just the graphic goodness and the mixed view, its great. all the other features are great too
It has a clock
finally!
Does it show Unicode characters or is it still SQUARE BOXES when displaying MP3 embedded with Asian Characters
"The general design, usability and stability of the Zune desktop software has indeed come a long way, and we'd have no reservations about using it for all day music browsing and listening. The basic player view is a joy to use, where Apple seems to be taking a step back with iTunes 8."
Thank You engadget for saying the truth out for once!
Leave it to microsoft to offer a 14-day trial to zune pass, but the page you have to go to is buggy and does not work :(
No one mentioned the games yet? Maybe I'm late but I was excited about including that. Been playing poker on it for hours.
@ Serial 8-Ball Mouse:
With regard to your comment on page 1 (not sure if someone gave this advice or not):
You can reset your wallpaper to default just by going to Settings>Display>Background>Reset to Default.
Enjoy!
Zunes are the best value for the money. The concept of a subscription service is hard for most people to grasp. But with that digested the ability to all you can eat is fantastic. Hear a song of the radio and download it instantly. For us, classic rock and R&B fans its great. I now have most of the music I had bought on vinyl in my possession again ( an expensive proposition with upgrades to cd's or the next format after that). Plus the ability to listen to streaming music from the markeplace (with a wi-fi connection) is great as well because even 80 or 120 gig is a finite number and you want to make sure they're a keeper before using up storage space. My son can use my zune to listen to his music without taking up storage space too!
Can you now delete items from the device?
Love the 3.0 update. Wireless access to the Marketplace is great, especially when the zune is docked (I have a dock for each TV in the house) when battery life is not a concern. This setup effectively gives me streaming access to any song in the zune marketplace (with the zune pass) from anywhere in my house!
Also, while I am excited that the zune now has audible support (i have been using audible for 3 yrs now and I would not even consider buying a zune until they announced that audible support was coming), I am a little disappointed in the way it was implemented. I listen to the Wall Street Journal from audible each weekday and it irritates me that even though the zune has wi-fi I still have to connect the zune to my PC each morning and manually download my audio newspaper. Hopefully they fix this in the future.
Also, as an aside the best way to experience the zune is with the ZunePass subscription. I know some people have a hard time getting over the fact that under a subscription model you are technically renting the music, but the ZunePass adds so much the experience (especially with wi-fi access to the marketplace) that I can't recommed it enough.
Audible.com now works with the ZUNE!!!!
I just sync'd all my audio books, and they take up hardly any space!
I LOVE IT!!!!!1
I'm a windows user and i love microsoft. The zune seems nice, but i still think the ipod is a little more user friendly and looks cooler, I don't really like that dark theme the zune has, it's kinda depressing... That's my opinion though.
I had the 3.0 update since launch and I have had no problems updating. The only issue is when a song played the progress bar did not move, then it froze up during a sync. Come to find out my external HDD has a corrupt file and since most of my songs are on there it jacked and locked up everything. A simple unplug and reset fixed it and its back to its normal glory goodness.
I was finally able to use the buy from Radio function but it did not work right (Picked up the radio station instead of the actual song), but the wi-fi function of buying songs worked with no issues but my lolrouter was too far away. I had a ipod before I got the Zune and hands down this is a awesome player and a worthy move from the all mighty iPod.
Although the iPod Touch i was playing with had me in OMGWANT mode. :(