Zune Thoughts coming soon
Those great folks at Thoughts Media, producers of top web sites like Pocket PC Thoughts, Smartphone Thoughts, and Digital Media Thoughts, have announced a new addition to the family that is coming soon. Zune Thoughts will obviously cover the new Zune Media Player and service that Microsoft is getting ready to release later this year. I will bookmark this new site as soon as it goes live.
-jk
Here's my own Zune (*still* a stoopid name!!!) Thought:
I hope MS will be smart enough to do these things:
1) Offer MSC/UMS. Requiring MTP and middleware is a pain. I want to able to grab stuff off of *other* PCs, not just my own. Save middleware as a requirement for files "infected" with DRM.
2) Don't limit it to WMA & WMV! The Achilles Heel of the iPod is that all video has to be converted to *one* format. This is just insanely dumb. I have Divxed/Xvided AVIs and MPEGs and I don't want to waste time and drive space converting them. And *no one* will convert MP3s!
3) Offer at least VGA-quality video out. This is what the Creative Zen Vision:M offers and the Zune should match that. iPod offers only QVGA-out.
4) No bloody dongles! A big weakness of the Creative Zen Vision:M is that getting VGA-out requires carrying around a bottom adapter. Who wants to deal with that?
5) No proprietary cables! Not for any part of it. Especially not for video-out!
6) What would *really* be nice is a built-in USB plug, just like my portable USB card reader/writer has (and which I wish my $30 jWin MP3 player had!).
7) Get that hard drive to 60GB and Beyond!
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 29, 2006 at 06:45 PM
The only problem I have with this comment is:
1. Already done by the Archos Gmini 402. Supports UMS and Plays for Sure on the same device.
2. Already done by the Archos Gmini 402. Supports Divx simple profile at 720x480
3. Already done by the Archos Gmini 402. Supports TV out at 720x480
4. No help. The 402 doesn't have a dongle but does require a special cable for TV out
5. See 4.
6. The 402 supports USB host using standard mini-usb connector
7. No help. The 402 only comes equipped with 20gb. However...
a. Users have successfully upgraed the 402 to 60gb
b. The 402cc adds a 1.3mp digital camera that supports still shots and vga video directly to hard drive. Reviews show it's about cell phone quality
c. The 402 supports mophun games and has a standard gaming device layout. SMS and NES emulators along with Doom are already in place for the 400 and devs are actively porting them to 402.
See gmini400.com
Sounds like a device that does what you want already exists.
Archos needs a better marketing staff. :-)
Posted by: Ron | July 30, 2006 at 02:50 AM
You have poor reading skills, but excessive ego skills.
The point is ZUNE, NOT WTF soon-to-be-extinct things are limping along out there NOW.
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 30, 2006 at 08:41 PM
Ya know, I just wrote about 4 paragraphs worth of response to this...and promptly deleted them.
Simply put, pointing out that a product exists that already accomplishes most of what you want in a point by point format following your own point by point format is neither egotistic nor a personal attack on you.
That's all the more I have to say to that.
Posted by: Ron | July 31, 2006 at 02:58 AM
Eh, I get cranky. But your post was OT.
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 31, 2006 at 06:26 PM
And I was still cranky there.
Although I didn't know most of that about the Gmimi, with MS now doing Zune, just about everything else will become extinct, so why should I look at anything other than iPod or Zune?
That said, I'm lusting after the new Sansa e2xxs. Can do video. iPod nano can't.
Posted by: Mike Cane | July 31, 2006 at 07:06 PM