Zune: Secrets and Lies

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingiLounge has some hot dope on the Zune including a description of the UI and some of its fancy wireless features. Here’s some pithy info:

Wi-Fi: Eh. Apparently you can use the Wi-fi feature to “loan” other Zune owners music for some short period (a day), giving them the opportunity to buy the tracks themselves from the Zune music store. While this is a cool idea, and could work well for ubiquitous iPods, it gets an “eh” here because you’re unlikely to randomly bump into other people who have Zunes, and unless Microsoft actually gives away music, you’re even more unlikely to find people who are willing to purchase tracks from its latest music store. You may also be able to spool Zune music to a Wi-Fi-enabled Xbox 360, which again is a cool idea, but requires a $100 wireless adapter and the $300-400 console. (It’s unclear as to whether the hard disk – part of the pricier $400 package – is required.)


That Wheel Thing: Not so cool. Turns out that there’s no touch-sensitive scrolling feature here – it’s shaped like a wheel, but it’s really just buttons. Zune has a menu button on the left of the circle, scroll buttons within the circle, and a play/pause button to the right of the circle. There’s also a hold switch just like Apple’s on the unit’s top, near the headphone port. You press up and down on the “Wheel” to scroll up and down through menus.

That wheel thing isn’t a click wheel Wha?

Zune interface, features detailed [iLounge]