Now this is something I can get excited about

I hate to say it, but I think Microsoft actually has me impressed. They do that from time to time. Windows doesn't even raise my heart rate any more. But, this looks like it might be kind of cool. It's called Zune. It's supposed to be Microsoft's iPod killer. I doubt that it will seriously dent Apple's iPod sales, but it looks to be a really cool digital music player.

I, personally, have never been able to get excited about the iPod. I think Apple puts too many restrictions on it. For one, it won't play mp3 files; you have to convert everything using iTunes to AAC format and then dump it to your iPod. Also, if your computer ever has problems and you lose your music library (that you paid $1 per song), you lose everything. Period. Apple doesn't remember that you purchased those tracks and so you have to purchase them again. For someone with a couple thousand songs, the reality of that is painful. Also, I don't know how iTunes is on a Mac, but on a Windows machine, it's downright slow. For me, at least, it's very overblown and too slow to actually use. Granted, I don't have the latest, greatest quad-processor Intel Core 2 Duo (that's a really stupid name, by the way) machine. But, I do have a 1GHz Pentium III with 512MB of RAM. What is it about iTunes that doesn't work right on that platform? Anyhow, I digress... Please correct me if any of the above information is not correct. I don't actually own an iPod.

With Zune, Microsoft remembers what songs you have purchased, so in the event of an incident, all you need is a bit of extra bandwidth to download the songs again. Also, Zune plays lots of different formats, including mp3 and AAC. It also has a built-in radio tuner and 802.11b/g wi-fi capability to "beam" content to other Zune users. Granted, I'm sure Apple will build in some of these features to their venerable music player (and it will be a hit, of course.) I guess the real bone of contention for me is the universality of Zune as opposed to the highly closed architecture of iPod. I'm sure Zune users will be required to use the Zune software to update their players, but at least they can use existing music formats and not have to worry about losing their libraries in the event of a boo-boo.

Anyhow, be that as it may, Zune appears to be a great product. I don't think it will unseat iPod as the reigning heavyweight champion of digital music players, but I do think that users will have a much better offering in the non-iPod corner. Maybe, just maybe, I'll actually look into buying a digital music player, though I really do still like my CD player.