Friday, January 4, 2008
Jason, You're Wrong!
Posted by David Tucker in "Zune News" @ 01:13 PM
Graham posted on AnythingButiPod.com a few weeks ago several things he did NOT want to see in the Zune. Jason posted his rebuttal to that, disagreeing with most everything that Graham wrote. I’m here to back up Graham. Sorry Jason, but I think you’re just wrong on most of this! (He said if I wrote this he’d cut my pay in half but I’m willing to make that sacrifice to bring true clarity to the issue. See what I do for you guys?) Let’s take a look at this issue by issue.
- Clock/Alarm – Why? ALARM? I don’t know how to break it to the alarm crowd, but an alarm without speakers is pretty useless. And a Zune has no built in speakers. So to use a Zune as an alarm clock you’d have to have a special set up for it. I guess you could do it with a speaker dock but this really seems like overkill. And if there was much demand for this we’d get a speaker dock with a built in clock, which I wouldn’t mind. Having a clock wouldn’t be awful but I’d prefer to be able to turn it off. I have my phone with me at all times and we live in a world where we’re surrounded by the time. The Zune is probably the last place I’d want to look.
- Games – No. Just no. If Microsoft comes out with a fully functional portable gaming platform that incorporates the Zune into I might take a look. But the Zune itself doesn’t have enough inputs to be able to play many games on it and I really like the clean lines it has. No more buttons please. It has the perfect number for me. (No touch screen please either unless you’re giving me the option of not having one too!) Until then, I'll very happily use my DS for portable gaming.
- Web Browser - I have a WM6 phone. It has a web browser. The experience is pretty good but I got my Zune partially because I didn’t want to have the web and my music competing for resources! I hit play on my Zune and if I want to fiddle on the web for whatever reason, I pick up my Wing. Convergence is nice but our portable devices are not powerful enough to do many things at once. Music is one of those things that I often want in the background while I’m doing something else. Like typing this rebuttal.
- Voice Recording – I wouldn’t be completely opposed to this. I’d never use it but I think this function falls squarely in the confines of what a digital media player can do. Record sound. Play sound. Sounds pretty like it fits to me. I’d say of everything here, this would be a rather simple and valuable thing to add. Even if it has no value for me.
- FM Recording – Seriously if you want this go get a Zune Pass. Don’t be cheap! Yeah, I know you can record talk shows too. Could be done I guess but it seems really pointless to me.
- Bluetooth – Ok, this is the one major area that I agree with Jason. I think Bluetooth would be a great idea. Yes, it would require you to have another device to charge. I already charge 3 or 4 devices so to me, what’s another one? Its not like we’d eliminate the headphone jack! Until there were plenty of quality of headsets out there it would get limited use anyway. But as soon as either the iPod or Zune were to come with this feature I can almost guarantee that that problem would go away really fast.
- Touch Screen – I use my touch screen on my Wing and I love it. But I use it with a stylus. I actually prefer that to using my fingers. I HATE looking at screens with finger prints on them. Makes me insane(r). The touch pad we have right now is really nice and seems like a best of both worlds to me. We have tactile touch control. What more could you want? For all the people who love to navigate the iPhone or iPod touch with their fingers, I can introduce them to someone who had just as much fun with the Zune Pad. It’s the best thing since the scroll wheel!
