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Zune Team Getting Amnesty for iPod Use
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri May 25, 2007 12:44 PM
from the ooooh-free-ipods dept.
from the ooooh-free-ipods dept.
MsManhattan writes "The Zune development team at Microsoft is apparently offering amnesty to employees who give up their iPods in favor of using the Zune MP3 player. An MSNBC employee has posted a photo on Flickr of the company's 'iPod Amnesty Bin,' which sports an image of a bitten green apple and the words 'Bite me.' Whether it's to be taken seriously or is a joke to boost employee morale is anyone's guess, and naturally no one at Microsoft was available for comment. From what can be seen in the photo, only a few early-model iPods have been deposited."
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new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Insightful)
I saw the new ad by Microsoft (on American Idol, at least they're finally picking a demographic):
I asked my wife to view the ad (tivo), as I suspected the "uploading one song" (tune?, track?, can't remember) on one Zune screen, and the "downloading one song" on the screen of a Zune behind the first did not convey the "sharing" notion. Sure enough, when asked, she said "of course" she understood -- it was demonstrating how a Zune could upload and download music from the computer wirelessly (something I don't even think it really is capable of).
I explained what it really demonstrated, and she thought that was kind of cool, but I told her she'd have to
- encounter a fellow Zuner within fifty feet of her (unlikely)
- could only play the shared tune 3 times OR
- within 3 days, whichever came first
- live with drm encumbered music
All of which she says (said) "ewwwwww!" to, and not in a good way. Zune is hardly a product that lights a fire under any consumers' desires.Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Informative)
Especially given microsofts constant habit of forcing uupgrades.
Apple do constant upgrades too, but my trusty old generation 3 iPod is still going strong in linux via Amarok. It works with the latest iTunes software too, but that's frankly not a very good peice of software, so I don't use it.
Parent
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course you also have freaks like me who'd just buy the CDs and rip instead.
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually a better question is can you still put music you bought with iTunes 1 onto your new iPod. The answer I believe is yes.
Parent
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Further to this, Apple's FairPlay2 (the current implementation of it's iTunes DRM) really doesn't cause me any problems, there are multi-platform tools to remove the FairPlay2 DRM from your purchased tracks, it only gets tricky when your trying to break
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Insightful)
a) It didn't really "play for sure" even on devices that were theoretically compatible and supported
b) After heavily marketing PlaysForSure, Microsoft made their very first self-branded media player incompatible with it. Not just "claimed compatibility that doesn't work" but explicitly "not compatible".
As much as Apple's DRM sucks, at least one thing can be said about it - It's compatible with every iPod ever released since Apple started using that DRM technology, and as far as anyone can tell will continue to be compatible with all future iPods. Yes, you're locked in to Apple hardware, but at least you don't have to rebuy your music every time Apple releases a new iPod, whereas Microsoft's track record with compatibility is awful, even between different versions of their own products.
Parent
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Funny)
We have no problem with you wanting to get rid of us oh-so-horrible PC users, if it means that you guys stop trying to push Macs on us. Seems like not a single Apple story goes by without one of you guys smugly declaring how superior your Mac experience is. All it takes is for you guys to actually shut up, but I guess that concept is too difficult for you.
PS: You might want to get Jobs to cancel all those smug advertisements aimed at converting PC users too.
Love,
PC Users
Parent
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:5, Funny)
We will not use parent's moronic post as a reason to insult all of you. We realize that a certain percentage of all people are morons. We realize that this applies to Windows users as well as to Mac users and Linux users. Even though not one single Apple story goes by without a PC user smugly declaring how idiotic Mac users and iPod owners are, we will not hold this against you since we assume that only a minority of all PC users consists of condescending Apple haters who presumably had a really hard childhood and now feel forced to take their anger out on Mac users.
PS: We would not mind if you lynched these idiots yourself, though.
Love,
Mac Users
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly - MS's ad campaigns are battling...MS prior customers! Most people I see with a Zune tell me not to get one..they don't use the over-Pod features. Additionally, when they want to share some music.. they talk about simply giving me a thumbdrive to copy. WTF is MS thinking...Zune's DRM makes it DOA - as judged by MS's own Zune owners!
But if you hadn't explained it... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Does anyone ever say ewwww in a good way?
Re:new ad campaign ineffective, misses point (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
no, use *your* headphones. (Score:5, Insightful)
just plug your headphones into their ipod.
What's the matter, you don't have your mp3 player with you? Well then, you wouldn't be able to share with the zune either.
Parent
Re:no, use *your* headphones. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Uptake ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I especially love the employee who gained brownie-points by putting something (anything!) in the ipod-bin, even if it was only an iPod *cover* [huge grin]. I wonder if Steve (that's Balmer, in case of confusion) was watching him walk on by, and he thought he had to put *something* in...
If MS can only get 0.1% of their *own* people to switch, they ain't gonna make it too big in the far more neutral marketplace...
Simon.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Uptake ? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yesterday, a woman I work with asked me for help with her iPod because it prompted her to reset all the software on it, and it was the 4th time she had to do it. She asked me for a different alternative and I told
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I may hate the iPod, but I'm not going to go from Redmond to Mountain View just to throw it out.
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Also, Nokia is granting amnesty to all employees who trade in their Nintendo DS for an N-Gage.
Interestingly, there has been an increase in the number of Acura TLs driven by GM lower management...
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Insightful +1
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5, Interesting)
What's interesting (let's see if this works!) is that the individual was likely just trying to work around a design flaw in the moderation system. The Funny mod doesn't increase karma, but modding you down will decrease it, meaning that typically getting modded funny very often results in loss of karma. In fact, if someone mods you funny, then someone else mods you overrated, then not only do you lose a karma point, but the overrated mod never appears in metamoderation, so the bad moderation is never corrected (as per the FAQ, you should concentrate on positive moderation.)
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
In that case, instead of "interesting" people should mod funny stuff as "underrated."
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting...
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5, Informative)
>> Interesting...
>Funny how that works out.
Thank you for the Informative post.
Parent
Re:In other news (Score:5)
(also, how does slashdot always get the capchas so spot on - drunker? well not now, maybe later though?)
Parent
Tips (Score:3, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I own neither an iPod nor a Zune. I have an off brand music player.
Re:Tips (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
act quickly (Score:5, Funny)
Corporate welfare? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
At Microsoft? Why, to avoid being Fucking Killed (TM) by a flying chair, of course!
I have a feeling the ipods in the bin are all (Score:3, Insightful)
Make a better Zune (Score:5, Insightful)
Heck, it should be mandatory for every single employee on the Zune team to have an iPod just so they know what the best in breed mp3 player looks like.
Microsoft unwilling to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
But instead they are too arrogant to realise their product isn't good enough.
iPods, Zunes, Archos, etc etc ad infinitum (Score:4, Insightful)
The screen died after two months. The backlight wouldn't turn on anymore.
Instead of getting a new iPod (ebay to me: gg) I recently purchased an HTC Hermes (Cingular 8525) for slightly more than the cost of a new iPod.
It's serves as my:
-Mp3 player (I have 8gb of storage and I'm telling you, when I pick the songs I really want, instead of the thousands I don't care about at all, I have PLENTY of storage)
-Digital camera for everyday use (if I want greater than 1600x1200 I use my Canon, usually 1600x1200 is plenty)
-Cell phone
-PDA running windows mobile; it synchronizes all my appointments and reminds me in advance of upcoming birthdays/holidays
-Instant Messenger and e-mail (has built-in WiFI G)
I got all that for trading the storage space for movies on a 2.5" screen and music that I am constantly hitting next to get to a better song.
Please tell me, for pure mp3 players/storage devices, where's the appeal now?
TLF
No Warranty? (Score:3, Insightful)
> The backlight wouldn't turn on anymore.
What about the warranty? Didn't Apple honor it? You should have at least had Apple fix the iPod under warranty so you could sell it on eBay. The semi-recent iPod Video models fetch a good amount of money on eBay!
Heck, I'll take your dead iPod if you don't want it.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
poor devs (Score:5, Interesting)
THAT would be freaking cool.
FYI..i don't work for microsoft...i know that sounded like an ad for the zune or something...I own an iPod in fact. I'm just saying, keep in mind that the engineers I'm sure are working on this device aren't evil RIAA lawyers, they're geeks. It must just really really really suck to not be able to put all the cool features i'm sure you would want into a project that you're working on...
How much you wanna bet.... (Score:4, Interesting)
keeping track of competition (Score:5, Insightful)
That's right, how can you copy your competitor if you don't have any of their products on hand? Oops, did I say "copy"? I meant "compete with".. my bad..
The Zune Counter (Score:4, Interesting)
After the Zune was released, I decided to go counting how many people would actually buy it. My target was where my internship was: New York. This would be a fairly easy time killer; many New York commuters have some sort of MP3 player, so it shouldn't be too hard to at least get a raw estimate and ballpark a real-world value from there.
Since it's release, I only counted TWO people who had a Zune. TWO. Out of the HUNDREDS of people that I have seen while commuting every weekday to work, and out of the HUNDREDS of iPods (various generations) I have seen on those commuters, I have only seen TWO people carry a Zune. Furthermore, I have yet to really see a Zune make Page 1 of your advertisements. It's usually pretty deeply hidden, unlike its competitor.
Another interesting place to confirm this is eBay. If I had to ballpark a value for the average price of a Zune there, I would have to say it was somewhere around the upper $210-lower $220 range. Check here. [ebay.com] However, the average price of iPods is noticeably higher. Check here. [ebay.com]
In short, I think that this iDumpster, while it might surface as a joke, is just to remind the Zune developers that they have quite a bit of work to do before they even expect to see people actually flocking to this device. This is just my honest opinion.
On the other side of the same hallway... (Score:4, Funny)
Ah-hah! (Score:3, Funny)