>From: Scott Erichsen [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >This is from another list. Thought people might be interested. > >Ok. This review covers Microsoft's zune mp3 player. I'm sorry if it's too >long.... Please repost it to any forum that deals with blind technology. > >ZUne review written by: Thomas Geczy > >Hello people! This is Thomas Geczy / Tomi, and today, I will be reviewing >Zune, Microsoft's approach to digital mp3 portable playback. It has been >released on november 14, 2006. > >I bought one of these players on Black friday, which is an event in the US >where prices for things dramaticly get reduced. Since this zone is quite >new, the lowest price I could get it for is 239 dollars. Not bad. > >First, let me compare the Zune and the commonly used apple IPod video / 5g. > >The Ipod uses a click wheel, where you have to "scroll" with you're thumb on >a wheel. So, to go forward, you would move you're thumb to the right a few >times. The zune uses a circle. To go up, push the circle upward, to go >forward push the right side of the circle, etc. > >The zune also includes a good quality fm radio. The Ipod doesn't. > >However, the ipod supports many formats, like Aif, snd, Aifc, mpg, mpa, >avi, au. The zune only supports Mp3, wma, wmv, ogg, and mp4. > >With the zune, you can upgrade it's fermware. This way you could get >enhancements / bug fixes for free. > >The IPod is available in 60 gigabytes format, while the zune is only in 30 >gig version so far. > >The Ipod has 20 hours of batterry life for music playing, the zune has 13. >The IPod only has 2 hours for video playback, but the zune has 4 hours. > >The zune allows you to send files wirelessly from zune to zune. Songs that >you receive this way can only be played 3 times, or 3 days, which ever comes >first. After this, a "this song has expired" icon appears and ya can't play >the song. Sad. > >You can't use the zune as an external harddrive. It doesn't ever appear in >"my computer" (or computer in vista). To sync files, ya need to use the >zune sync software. > >so how does it look / feel like? The zune is made out of rubberised plastic. >It is about 5 inches wide and 3 inches across. As mentioned, the zune uses >a circle navigation, up, left, right, down. To the left of this circle is a >menu button, and to the right of it is a play/pause button. > >In the middle of the circle is an enter button, used to enter menu items. >This is seperated from the circle and can move back and forth. > >The menu > >To navigate, you use the down/up button. Pressing the button lists the >following: > >music > >videos > >pictures > >fm radio > >settings > >To get into music, just press enter (it's selected by default). To get into >fm radio, press 3 down. > >Music > >Pressing enter allows you to select what kind of music ya wanna hear. By >default, rock is selected. Going down you get into shuffle, where all songs >are mixed up randomly. > >Overall, the quality of the songs is great. > >Fm radio > >Wen you start the radio, you asked for "european" or "american" radio >allocation. By default, american is selected, but one down you can select >the european. > >Turning the thing off: > >To turn you're zune off, hold the play / pause button. Then you can put it >in hold by switching the hold switch. If ya plug in a headphone, though, the >machine comes back to life. Switching hold off results in the same action. > >Software: > >By default, the zune comes with a cd that contains the sync software / >fermware update. > >Installation: > >The install window is kind of like a website, there's links for next, >cancel, back. The program installs msxml6 if ya don't have it. > >Warning!!! This software cannot be installed in vista! You get a "msxml6" is >already installed" error and the thing can't run. If you want to use vista >and zune, perform an upgrade from xp (install the software beforehand). >After you got everything running, go to program files\zune, select zune.exe, >press alt enter, and check the compatibility mode thing. Run it in "windows xp >with sp2" mode. > >So, the install is straight forward. You are asked to reboot at the end of >setup. After the reboot, you are returned to setup, and asked for you're >zune name. This name is used to identify you're zune on the wireless community >feature and in the sync window. Right after this is done, you are asked to >upgrade you're firmware. This only takes about 4 minutes. (for those who >want to know, Zune uses windows CE technology, and the firmware update uses >nk.bin, eboot.bin, and recovery.bin.) > >Next you setup the library, and select the folders you want to sync >automatically. You have the option to not synchronize the my music folder, >though this is turned on by default. > >Then you need to synchronize you're time with the internet. This also >synchronizes the clock in you're zune, so when you sync, the song's date >won't be wrong. > >Zune will synchronize the files in the "my music" folder, (if you unchecked >this, it will not do it.) So the sample windows xp / vista songs are put on >there. > >JAWS and the zune software: > >Overall, it's not bad. Microsoft made the sync window controlls like in >windows media player: There's a play/pause/stop/shuffle button, a "sync now" >option, sync options option, and some weird-labeled buttons. You add >files to the >library in the context menu, which opens when pressing alt, and selecting >add folder to library. By default, you're my documents/my music folder is >synced automatically. > >There's a treeview catagorizing Song, album, artist, genre, and other >options which depend on the level of the tree you're on. For instance, >"recently added" appears under the "library" section only, while >"sync results" only >appears in the "xname" section (where xname is the name you gave to you're >zune). > >If you tab over, there's a list containing information relevant to the item >of the tree you were on (if you were on sync results, this tells you if a >file has been synced successfully or is already on the device". If you want to >delete a file from zune, simply press delete on the item you want to erase >(you must be in the "sync results" branch of the tree view.) > >Scripts are not needed, though they would be nice. It's pritty easy to >manage, the moment you connect you're zune all files in my music are synced >(again, this won't happen if you deselected this), so if you have >little knowledge >on computing this won't be an issue. > >Conclusions: > >I think that the Zune is the most accessible portable digital player out >there now. Yes, there's no "zunereader" to read the menu, but you can >memorize it quickly. Takes a few days to get used to it. I will be >adding a list of >the menu items / subitems soon, in a seperate post. I think microsoft did a >great job on this new product. > >ok, the menus, as promised: > >the main menu: If you just turned on the zune, you are placed in this menu. >If you have been listening to music, press the menu button three times with >slight 1 second pauses between each press. > >music > >videos > >pictures > >community (firmware 1.1>) > >settings > >music subMenu: > >Imagine this menu as tabs. Like in controll panel / system, you navigate >between these with ctrl tab. With zune, you use the lef/right arrows (the >circle is your arrow pad) > >albums > >ahrtists > >playlists > >songs > >genres > >albums/ahrtists/songs all contain a shuffle all option, which is selected by >default. Once you pressed enter on an option, move between >ahrtists/albums/songs/playlists, use up/down arrows. Press enter on >an album/song/ahrtist, and hit play to >play everything from that album/ahrtist/playlist/song. everything is listed >in alphabetical order. > >music/genres submenu: > >shuffle all > >children > >christian
>classical > >dance > >electronic/dance > >jazz >other > >pop > >religious > >rock > >unknown genre > >Navigate between the genre type with up/down arrows. > >main menu/video: > >all video tab > >music videos tab > >movies tab > >Use left / right arrows to navigate between the tab controls. Cycle between >the videos/movies/music videos with up/down arrow keys. once you pressed >enter on the desired video type, Press enter on a video, and hit >play to play that >video. > >During video playback, up/down arrows seek forward / back in a video, and >lef/right arrows turn the volume down/up. > >main menu/ picture > >view by folder tab > >view by date tab > >Navigation between pictures is the same as with video/music files. > >main menu/radio > >If you have set up the radio, you are automatically taken to the last >station you were listening to. If you have not, then you are asked to select >a region. (Europe/America) > >Main menu/community: > >inbox >me > >nearby > >This is not accessible at all for the blind. Selecting nearby lists nearby >zune devices you can connect to. > >settings menu > >wireless: on / off toggle > >music > >pictures > >display > >sound: on/off (toggle, press enter to switch) > >radio > >online status: detailed/ basic (toggle, press enter to switch) > >about > >settings/music: > >shuffle: on/off (toggle) > >repeat: on/off (toggle) > >equalizer: none/acoustic/classical/electronic/hip hop/jazz/pop/rock (toggle > >settings/pictures > >transition: 3 seconds/5 sec/7 sec/ 10 sec/15 sec/30 sec (toggle ) > >shuffle: on/off > >display menu: > >themes: haze/night/amber (toggle) > >backlight: 1 second/5 sec/ 15 sec/ 30 sec/ 1 min/ always on (toggle) > >brightness: low/medium/high (toggle) > >tv out: on/off (toggle) > >tv system: ntsc/pal > >settings/radio > >North America/Europe/Japan (toggle) > >about: > >zune > >storage > >legal > >Use up/down arrows to move between the setting option > >That's it. No more items. I hope that this zune guide was useful... Regards Steve Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype: steve1963 MSN Messenger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com
