iPod Zune is junk.

[hayduke]

So there was a debate at work about whether to buy an iPod or a Zune for the lab so we could listen to music during long experiments. I'm the only Mac/Apple user in the lab and advocated for an iPod. Two other PC folks agreed that an iPod was a better choice, but the big boss that the Zune was less "encumbered" by DRM and played more formats. I did my best to convince him otherwise...

Anyways, the crazy German guy I work with, whom was charged with setting up the Zune, just came in almost crying (he is 33yo) and exclaimed, "Why? Why does this thing make me cry? It is so frustrating. All it does is crash. It won't play an entire song. Why? Why?"

I didn't really know what to tell him. I asked if he had the receipt...

 

[GFLPraxis]

Two other PC folks agreed that an iPod was a better choice, but the big boss that the Zune was less "encumbered" by DRM and played more formats. I did my best to convince him otherwise...

Your boss must be smoking something.

The Zune plays MP3, WMA, and M4A.

The iPod plays MP3, AAC, M4A, Apple Lossless, and iTunes autoconverts WMAs that don't have Microsoft's DRM applied.


I don't see more formats on the Zune list.

As far as being "encumbered" by DRM, the iPod has no limitations whatsoever unless you use DRM-protected music bought off of iTunes.

The same with the Zune, unless you count the "squirt" feature that only lets you play a borrowed song 3 times (now that's encumberment!).

 

[dukebound85]

dont the new zunes have aac support

 

[polishmacuser]

well i dont know i have never used a zune they look nice with there gui but over all, all my friends tell me its laggy buggy and its a pain with its software. Well i owned the 1g nano 5.5g ipod and a iphone. I gave my cousin the nano and i use the ipod as a external HD and my iphone in my music player and my phone. Lets see the zune do that, it wont even act as a external HD.

 

[SavageMac]

Yeah the Zune sucks.

So does iPod.

(sorry folks).

My girlfriend and I have owned a total of 5 iPods in the last 3 years and all of them have serious issues.

The latest Nano for example refuses to play sound out of the left channel, no matter what headphones I use.

I also have had numerous lockups that can last anywhere between 2 seconds to 30 seconds.

I've had my iPods randomly delete half the music.

I've had my iPods refuse to power on. 10 mins later they do.

I will never buy an iPod again, ever. And I'm not the only person who doesn't like iPod, roughly half of my friends who have iPods have had some serious issues with theirs as well.

 

[Digital Skunk]

And I'm not the only person who doesn't like iPod, roughly half of my friends who have iPods have had some serious issues with theirs as well.

And I do believe that there are more people that yuo and your friends that haven't had any problems with their pods whatsoever.

I know that you are just letting us know the obvious fact that some people aren't happy with the iPod, but to be honest the thing works better than most people think.

 

[bloodycape]

Just get your self a nice UMS/MSC mp3 that works with windows, osx and linux, and use Amazon. Problem solved.

 

[stevento]

All it does is crash. It won't play an entire song. Why? Why?"

yeah, it sounds like a defective model.
....anyways, for people on this board, anything not made by apple is junk and anything made by apple is an engineering breakthrough. post anything saying something different and you're a troll.

 

[surferfromuk]

More worrying than that your boss is evidently incapable of making an informed educated decision. To choose zune over iPod on the basis of incorrect or poor research does not bode well for the future of his business. Intelligent decision making is obviously not hi strong point.

 

[notjustjay]

yeah, it sounds like a defective model.
....anyways, for people on this board, anything not made by apple is junk and anything made by apple is an engineering breakthrough. post anything saying something different and you're a troll.

Yep. Because Apple uses special, magical factories on the planet Zoltar and creates all of its components from scratch. No reliance whatsoever on the same factories in China that make all the same LCD panels, ICs, plastic and metal casings that every other electronics manufacturer in the world uses. So, therefore, even though every other company in the world has a similar percentage of defective products, Apple is completely exempt. Those who claim they have defective Apple products are clearly lying or stupid, and likely involved in a conspiracy to topple Apple from their pedestal.

 

[chaosbunny]

Well, from what I've heard from friends the iPods quality has gone down over the years.

The old model however, wow. My first gen 5gb iPod is 6 troublefree years old and still works. The battery lasts about 4-5 hours (from original 10), which is more than enough to listen to music on the way to work. As long as this thing works I'll never buy a new one. Clearly one of the best electronic purchases I ever made.

 

[andiwm2003]

my 4G 40GB ipod sucks for audiobooks. it takes about 1-2 sec for it to respond to clicking the wheel (except volume control, that is instant) and it forgets most of the times where i left off an audiobook and starts 10 min to 1 hr earlier. and quite often it forgets completely where i was and starts a different audiobook. that is very annoying. fast forwarding through an audiobook is a nuisance when the lag to the clickwheel is so long.

i heard the new ipods have similar lags so i didn't buy a new one. i hope they eventually fix this.

 

[QuarterSwede]

It's strange the problems some people have with their music player. I got an 2G iPod nano as a wedding gift (didn't even want one) and now that I actually use it it's always worked perfectly. However, it's just as wrong to say the iPod (or Zune) sucks because of your personal track record with them as it is to say that there are no defective units.

 

[GoodWatch]

Yes, 'stories' like these always catch on here, it's an Apple forum of course

 

[nsbio]

It's strange the problems some people have with their music player. I got an 2G iPod nano as a wedding gift (didn't even want one) and now that I actually use it it's always worked perfectly. However, it's just as wrong to say the iPod (or Zune) sucks because of your personal track record with them as it is to say that there are no defective units.

Does your nano ever freeze? Mine does every time if it has not been used for a while. I am contemplating bringing it to the geniuses.

 

[sublicon]

My girlfriend and I have owned a total of 5 iPods in the last 3 years and all of them have serious issues.

The latest Nano for example refuses to play sound out of the left channel, no matter what headphones I use.

I also have had numerous lockups that can last anywhere between 2 seconds to 30 seconds.

I've had my iPods randomly delete half the music.

I've had my iPods refuse to power on. 10 mins later they do.

I will never buy an iPod again, ever. And I'm not the only person who doesn't like iPod, roughly half of my friends who have iPods have had some serious issues with theirs as well.

Applecare, anyone?

 

[Virgil-TB2]

Yeah the Zune sucks.

So does iPod.

(sorry folks).

My girlfriend and I have owned a total of 5 iPods in the last 3 years and all of them have serious issues.

The latest Nano for example refuses to play sound out of the left channel, no matter what headphones I use.

I also have had numerous lockups that can last anywhere between 2 seconds to 30 seconds.

I've had my iPods randomly delete half the music.

I've had my iPods refuse to power on. 10 mins later they do.

I will never buy an iPod again, ever. And I'm not the only person who doesn't like iPod, roughly half of my friends who have iPods have had some serious issues with theirs as well.

Sorry but this seems like a very exaggerated situation you are describing here to me. All devices fail, all devices have bugs and problems, but the number and prevalence of failures you describe goes against some pretty long odds.

Since you are painting a picture at odds with the documented facts (that iPods generally are very well designed and assembled and so forth), the more likely explanations are:

- you are exaggerating
- the problem is with you

If the number of failures is really so high with your iPods, and yet not so high with everyone else, the only variable there is you.

Waay more likely that you are clumsy, or poorly trained, or unobservant, or have any number of a hundred other personality traits and personal habits that could have contributed to your destruction of so many iPods.

We had an intelligent, capable guy where I work that was always destroying MacBooks. We had to give him a new one every year, (sometimes twice a year!) and couldn't figure it out till someone went on a trip with him. They said that he opened them in the rain, chucked them around, stuffed them into bags etc., and all the stupid crap that you would expect anyone with an ounce of sense *not* to do.

Intelligent guy, computer literate, PhD, but still a giant dumbass. It happens.

 

[SavageMac]

yeah, it sounds like a defective model.
....anyways, for people on this board, anything not made by apple is junk and anything made by apple is an engineering breakthrough. post anything saying something different and you're a troll.

Nothing is worse in life than blind patriotism or brand fanaticism. Apple is not the best at everything electronic -- nobody truly is -- but you believe this to be true.

So not only are you a blind fanatic, you are also ignorant.

Apple does make great products but they are not perfect, and I would posit that Apple doesn't have so much the brilliant 'engineering breakthroughs' as it does brilliant marketing.

peace.

 

[Fuchal]

Nothing is worse in life than blind patriotism or brand fanaticism. Apple is not the best at everything electronic -- nobody truly is -- but you believe this to be true.

So not only are you a blind fanatic, you are also ignorant.

Apple does make great products but they are not perfect, and I would posit that Apple doesn't have so much the brilliant 'engineering breakthroughs' as it does brilliant marketing.

peace.

He was describing other people on this forum, not himself.

 

[LizKat]

So there was a debate at work about whether to buy an iPod or a Zune for the lab so we could listen to music during long experiments. I'm the only Mac/Apple user in the lab and advocated for an iPod. Two other PC folks agreed that an iPod was a better choice, but the big boss that the Zune was less "encumbered" by DRM and played more formats. I did my best to convince him otherwise...

Anyways, the crazy German guy I work with, whom was charged with setting up the Zune, just came in almost crying (he is 33yo) and exclaimed, "Why? Why does this thing make me cry? It is so frustrating. All it does is crash. It won't play an entire song. Why? Why?"

I didn't really know what to tell him. I asked if he had the receipt...

God. I don't know why people don't get it. You can turn a protected AAC into an mp3 so simply that even my non-computer-literate relatives of various ages (11, 37, 63) can do it inside of five minutes. The guys in my family who have PCs instead of Macs all have iPods and NO PROBLEMS using them or using iTunes on their Winsnoozers. WTF. I feel bad for people who succumb to peer pressure --if there even really IS such a thing-- not to buy an iPod. At least iPods run on Windows machines and can use the iTunes store if the user feels like doing that. Does a Zune run on a Mac? Hello?

As far as the lab goes, why don't they write up the Zune experiment and get it published...

 

[Padraig]

I've owned six ipods so far (still have them all in fact). And based on my experiences with the zune 80 and other players, I've decided that;

Zune 80 > iPod Classic

Zune Flash < iPod Nano

iPod Touch > Zune 80 (although it's not really fair to compare them)

iPod touch = Archos 605 (both have strengths and weaknesses)

iPod touch and Nokia > iPhone.

 

[notjustjay]

Well, from what I've heard from friends the iPods quality has gone down over the years.
The old model however, wow.

Price has a lot to do with that - you get what you pay for. My first iPod cost me nearly $600. Of course, that came with all the accessories too -- the dock, the AC adaptor, the slip case, the remote control. They've taken a lot of steps over the years to reduce costs, and I imagine there will have been some corners cut when it comes to quality of products.