10 Years After Its Discontinuation, Some Fans Still Love Microsoft's Zune Mp3 Player (theverge.com) 84
"It was weird to own a Zune in 2005," remembers a new article in the Verge. "It is even weirder to own a Zune in 2021 — let alone 16 of them. And yet, 27-year-old Conner Woods proudly shows off his lineup on a kitchen table."
They come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes, and each can be identified by that telltale black plastic D-pad just below the screen. He owns the entire scope of the brief Zune lineup — from the svelte Zune 4 to the chunky Zune HD — and among the microscopic community of people who still adore Microsoft's much-derided MP3 player, no collection of dead tech could possibly be more enviable.
Woods picked up his Zune foraging habit during the pandemic, while he was furloughed from his job working security at Best Buy. "I taught myself to solder, began buying up dead Zunes, and repairing and flipping them for a profit," he says. "At some point I ran across some rare ones and couldn't bring myself to part with them."
He counts a particularly rare model bearing the Halo 3 logo and another with the Gears of War seal, but to fully understand the depths of Woods' obsession, you need to look past the gadgets and into the great beyond. Click through his post on the r/Zune subreddit, and wander into his veritable shrine of forgotten Zune detritus. Woods owns multiple Zune-stamped traveling cases and boombox docks. He has a Zune-branded stress ball as well as a Zune tinderbox, complete with matches that are dyed in the brand's customary burnt orange and fiery purple. My personal favorite: a Rubik's cube that, when solved, reveals the Zune's polyhedral insignia on all of the white squares, as if to say the answer to one of history's most vexing logic puzzles is, eternally, Zune.
The article also suggests the Zune exemplified Microsoft's inherent "squareness" at the start of the 2000s. "The product was entirely functional, sure, but for reasons that remain difficult to articulate — the video game insignias, the oversized trackpad, their baffling bulkiness — it was also about a million times less chic than the iPod. (That same inscrutable problem flags Bing, Cortana, the ill-fated Windows Phone, etc.)
"But today, almost a decade after Microsoft terminated the brand, there is a small bastion of diehards who are still loving and listening to their Zunes." And one of them has even added a 128GB SSD to their Zune's motherboard.
Woods picked up his Zune foraging habit during the pandemic, while he was furloughed from his job working security at Best Buy. "I taught myself to solder, began buying up dead Zunes, and repairing and flipping them for a profit," he says. "At some point I ran across some rare ones and couldn't bring myself to part with them."
He counts a particularly rare model bearing the Halo 3 logo and another with the Gears of War seal, but to fully understand the depths of Woods' obsession, you need to look past the gadgets and into the great beyond. Click through his post on the r/Zune subreddit, and wander into his veritable shrine of forgotten Zune detritus. Woods owns multiple Zune-stamped traveling cases and boombox docks. He has a Zune-branded stress ball as well as a Zune tinderbox, complete with matches that are dyed in the brand's customary burnt orange and fiery purple. My personal favorite: a Rubik's cube that, when solved, reveals the Zune's polyhedral insignia on all of the white squares, as if to say the answer to one of history's most vexing logic puzzles is, eternally, Zune.
The article also suggests the Zune exemplified Microsoft's inherent "squareness" at the start of the 2000s. "The product was entirely functional, sure, but for reasons that remain difficult to articulate — the video game insignias, the oversized trackpad, their baffling bulkiness — it was also about a million times less chic than the iPod. (That same inscrutable problem flags Bing, Cortana, the ill-fated Windows Phone, etc.)
"But today, almost a decade after Microsoft terminated the brand, there is a small bastion of diehards who are still loving and listening to their Zunes." And one of them has even added a 128GB SSD to their Zune's motherboard.
Self flagellation (Score:2)
is actually more popular today than the zune was. Not even kidding.
It is kind of fun to own history, esp. side paths (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as the Zune at the time just couldn't measure up to an iPod, having one now is kind of interesting to have a little bit of history where you see a bit of an alternative path of technology, never taken...
I own a few random things like that myself, like an old internet appliance with a small detached keyboard and small monitor. It's just interesting to see what people tried back then. I also had a number of really old alternative consoles (though I eventually got rid of those so someone else could actually use and enjoy them).
In a way it's also a service to the future, as you figure unpopular side products like that were mostly discarded and probably not that many were kept in excellent condition. So my hat is off to the Zune collectors keeping history intact.
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Perhaps he can attach a note to the Zune branded stress ball so that people of the future can understand the purpose for such an item.
An excellent idea and I should probably add a note to my collection of colorful stuffed Intel BunnyPeople [chipsetc.com] for the same reason!
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Re:It is kind of fun to own history, esp. side pat (Score:4, Funny)
That, and Steve Ballmer telling people that they can "squirt" each other with their Zunes.
https://acroamatic.wordpress.c... [wordpress.com]
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As much as the Zune at the time just couldn't measure up to an iPod, having one now is kind of interesting to have a little bit of history where you see a bit of an alternative path of technology, never taken...
I own a few random things like that myself, like an old internet appliance with a small detached keyboard and small monitor. It's just interesting to see what people tried back then. I also had a number of really old alternative consoles (though I eventually got rid of those so someone else could actually use and enjoy them).
In a way it's also a service to the future, as you figure unpopular side products like that were mostly discarded and probably not that many were kept in excellent condition. So my hat is off to the Zune collectors keeping history intact.
You own a cuecat too?
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I held onto my cuecat for several years, hoping someone would write OCR software for it, but it never happened.
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I don't think OCR possible. From photos of the inside, it looks to me like it just has a photodiode rather than a full camera. One might have better luck writing OCR firmware for some mouse.
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The Zune hardware was actually not bad at all. It sounded better than iPods of the same era, which had notoriously weak headphone amps.
As ever the software to load music onto it was a bit crap, but not as bad as iTunes by any stretch.
It's a shame there doesn't seem to be any custom firmware for Zune now as the hardware was fine.
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I agree, the Zune software didn't make me swear when I used it, unlike iTunes.
Failure shmailure (Score:1)
In other news, some still love their Galaxy Note 7's and Atari ET game cartridges. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Failure shmailure (Score:5, Interesting)
An ET fan actually patched the game [neocomputer.org] to fix its issues.
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If the original Zelda was released during that same time frame, it would have met the same fate from people who only ever knew single-screen space shooters and refused to read a manual.
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Seriously - who hurt you?
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SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LYING FUCKHEAD
Jeeze who pissed in your cornflakes? Someone was wrong on the internet, no big deal.
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ET wasn't a bad game (it was a good game).
Well you opinion of video games seems to follow the same poor judgement at as every other post you make so you get an A+ for consistency. ET was a bad game, it was buggy, it didn't work the way it was described in the manual, it was an incredible bore, and it was critically panned back before people even knew what an internet was.
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All of those things can be true simultaneously, because opinions.
I had the ET game when I was a kid, and I successfully beat it without too much trouble by IIRC simply not going left on the forest scenes, which was where you'd run into the bad collision detection and fall into holes accidentally.
By comparison, I literally never managed to get into the hole underneath the tree in the well in Indiana Jones. So I'd say that ET was a better game than Indy, based on my experiences.
PROVE ME WRONG :D
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Not sure if that was spelled out in the "cheat sheet" (literally a single photocopied page) I got from Atari's customer service at the time, or discovered it accidentally.
---PCJ
Bad example (Score:2)
If the original Zelda was released during that same time frame, it would have met the same fate from people who only ever knew single-screen space shooters and refused to read a manual.
Zedla is a very bad example to pick up.
Lots analysis have been written about how Shigeru Miyamoto is good at UX design and making on-boarding straight forward (with Mario World being the prime example, but Zelda is also a game designed so that, despite it's more complex inventory-management part, it's relatively straight forward to pick up the controler and learn as you go).
This tend to be a recuring element amount several of the cult classics of that 8bit era.
This is partially due to increased graphical po
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Still use my LaserJet III+. I don't see modern lasers to be superior.
Good chance that it will outlast many modern printers.
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An executive at my work decided he wanted to get a Bubble Jet printer because it was smaller and quieter than the LJIII that sat on his credenza and told me to toss it. I did, right into the trunk of my car. (Two weeks later he was asking for it back. Sorry!) It took the same toner cartridges as the pile of broken LJ4 printers that I surplussed at my next job, so we never had to buy toner. I don't print out piles of resumes and cover letters any more, so it went on the curb and disappeared within 10 mi
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I love my Galaxy Note 8 (the 8-inch tablet, not the phone)!
It's 8 years old but still works perfectly.
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oh come on! iRiver clearly had the best! (Score:2)
iFP Series FTW!!!!
Soviet Brown (Score:2)
The best thing about the Zune was the color it introduced, Soviet Brown.
It's not surprising at all (Score:5, Funny)
There are people who are into bondage. There are people who are into self-inflicted pain and mutilation. Why wouldn't there be people who are into the Zune?
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There are people who collect and restore classic Walkmans and Discmans. This Does Not Compute on YouTube has some interesting videos where he does that, as well as Techmoan.
Obviously the sound quality from tape is crap, and they are a pain to use compared to MP3s, and everyone has an MP3 player in the form of their phone... But nostalgia and that classic tape sound seem to be attractive to some.
Or maybe it's hipsters who have grown up. Remember hipsters?
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Hey, I was hating on hipsters before it was cool!
DSOD&M [Re:It's not surprising at all] (Score:1)
And they are mostly the same people. "Zune me harder, baby, harder! Ah yeees! Now Bing me like no tomorrow!..."
function vs style (Score:3)
And some people like... (Score:2, Informative)
Zune Zucked (Score:2)
But seriously, almost half the USA likes stuff that sucks as the last election proved.
Was it that bad? (Score:3)
I see a lot of hate for the Zune in these comments, but nothing substantive about why it was actually worse than the competition. I'm not saying it wasn't, but if it was, it would be nice for someone to present the case.
In that 2005-2015 era, I used a Rio Karma (easily the best feature-wise, but the HDD died due to extreme operating conditions) and an iPod Nano I won in a contest (didn't have to pay Apple Tax) and so I had no need personally for the Zune. But the one person I knew who owned a Zune always said it was actually not bad. And she was even syncing it with a MacBook. (Then again, I found third-party software to avoid fucking with iTunes when I used my iPod...)
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By most accounts it was as good if not better than the comparable ipod. But by that point it was too late, it was ipod or bust. Like if you got someone a Zune as a present they'd be disappointed. Plus of course the brown, squircicle, "squirting", etc.
Of course I, being a man of culture, only ever used the much superiora 60GB Creative Zen Xtra.
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Sandisk SANSA Little Monster e280v1 - still use mine almost daily. The only thing it did not have is wireless. One critical wireless thing it does have is a FM radio!
There were two other critical features. 1) Uses bog standard protocols MTP or can act as USB Mass storage. 2) Supports a micro-sd expansion card for more memory.
It requires no special software to use, you can move files on an off it easily on any platform and tools. 15 years latter its still a friction free experience (and it still works perfec
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i suspect trying to use a 2005 era iPod today (if it works at all) would be painful unless you happen to have an appropriate VM and the ancient software to go with it. i might be wrong maybe the latest iTunes still supports it.
They still work fine, at least on Intel Macs (not sure about M1). Apple's support for backwards compatibility often works in mysterious ways.
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Very interesting actually given how aggressive Apple generally is about moving off old platforms.
I am curious anyone have experience with a 1st gen iPod on Windows or Linux in 2021?
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My iPod Nano was ca. 2006 or 2007 (the first one with a color screen, I believe). I ended up losing it a couple years ago, but it was still syncing with foobar2000 and the iPod Manager plugin. Not sure if it'd work on iTunes, I only used iTunes once to update the firmware.
Hardware-wise, the battery was nearly dead, but it had a hard life. Typical use was in a hot car with insufficient A/C, near the dashboard often in direct Texas sunlight. The car had no tape player so I had an FM transmitter plugged into t
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There's a lot of good in a device that does exactly what it is supposed to exactly the way you expect it to. I wish more modern interface designers would keep that in mind.
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It was not a bad product itself. The main reasons for the failure was it released way too late, and it really did not offer much that was better than the iPod. The problem for Microsoft was by the time they released it, the MP3 market was shifting to smart phones.
Microsoft's marketing did it no favors by trying to hype it up by being obscure and mysterious. Watching TV ads for it, I was certain the Zune was a new brand of gum.
As I said before, the Zune was not a bad product. However if you want to dethrone
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I also think the Zune (and most Microsoft hardware) suffers from the anti-Apple effect. Where as almost everything that Apple puts out is instantly a status symbol need to have anything that Microsoft puts out has the exact opposite effect. People run away from Microsoft hardware just because it is Microsoft hardware.
Neither of these companies products successes or failures are strictly as a result of their inherent strengths or weaknesses.
Microsoft should have stuck to software (Score:2)
Make a Zune O/S and app store, but then encourage other people to manufacture it. That is what made them so successful with Windows while Macs had tiny market share. There would have been several Zunes, all much cheaper than Apple and often with better hardware. And these people could then have manufactured Microsoft software powered phones before Android got a hold.
Zune was a critical failure of Microsoft by mindlessly following Apple's model. And as the iPhone is just iPod+++ losing the Zoom went a l
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I should add that I had cheap Chinese mp4 players for my kids. The hardware was OK, and very cheap, but the software was appalling. There was a huge opportunity for Microsoft there, and the software did not need to be better than the ipod, just about as good.
Anything that supports Rockbox (Score:2)
Re: Anything that supports Rockbox (Score:1)
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Easy to add files to, battery lasts a few days between recharges (and I don't run down my Note 4 for music). But the biggest thing I like about the Clip Sport is, its shuffle function is actual random playback (I don't listen to albums, just a large blob of singles--1158 and counting--and don't actually wan
128 GB (Score:2)
Messy collection (Score:1)
All that squirting...
10 years, that is pathetic. (Score:1)
Sure, they're called: (Score:2)
You mean the Toshiba Gigabeat F? (Score:2)
I was always confused as to why MS would just make an off-brand version of someone else's hardware and market it as their own. They really didn't put much thought into their entry for the PMP market. And why get stuck with their awkward Zune software that didn't even support their own PlaysForSure? This dissonance was a huge warning sign to stay away from the Zune. I would have been happier with a Gigabeat, especially one running Rockbox [rockbox.org].
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I had two Gigabeats, one stolen, the other obsoleted, or so I thought. I miss it somewhat. One I sideloaded Rockbox onto, scary, but the battery got pretty weak, and I finally gave it up when I Bluetooth got working on my HTC G1.
My favourite tech headline (Score:2)
Back in the day when there was still an MP3 player market, Apple had 98 or more per cent of the market, with everyone else fighting for the last few per cent. Despite this, technology journalists kept writing articles about the 'iPod killer'. Like Loch Ness it was coming, apple should be afraid. Every new MP3 player was touted as the item that could slay the iPod.
It was nonsense of course. Even Microsoft's marketing muscle on the Zune amounted to a fart versus a windstorm.
Eventually even Real Audio (remem
At least you can use it (Score:2)
My Microsoft Band is nothing more than a watch with short battery life once they pulled the app completely. Microsoft beat Apple to the wearable market and then abandoned the early adopters.
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then abandoned the early adopters.
That's Steve Ballmer's attention span in spades. The original Surface was a tabletop size touch screen, a coworker who did an AutoCAD trial on absolutely raved about it. Abandoned I had a Windows phone which was several times better than the Android that it had replaced. Abandoned. MS is still struggling to recover from his legacy.
Cue the jokes (Score:2)
I know it's fun to laugh at the Zune, but I had one and kept it going for a long time after it was discontinued. It really was a great device, and was my primary kitchen music source for years. I even had the brown one. It had some great features for the time, though I can't see using one (or an iPod, for that matter) today.
Archos Key (Score:2)
I still prefered my Archos Key ... lots of features in such a small design. If the screen didn't get cracked and they didn't discontinue it, I would still have one today.
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ZuneHD was good. Software wasn't (Score:3)
Year of the Zune (Score:1)
I anticipate a huge surge in Zune popularity once everyone gets the COVID vaccine.
Had some advantages (Score:2)
The headphone amp was really excellent for players at the time and the interface just worked. Also, the radio was a nice bonus. Kind of wish I kept mine around, but things march on. I also ripped a ton of music to WMA (192kb variable) and those have held up amazingly well over 20 years.