I scored a 30GB Zune from
woot.com for $85 last week! I just got it on Saturday and it completely kicks ass. This is a first generation Zune, which had some problems, but thankfully Microsoft upgraded the firmware for these players to the new second generation player firmware. The new Zunes, and upgraded firmware 1st gen Zunes, are being pretty universally lauded as being a solid competitor to the ipod.
I don't have much experience with newer color ipods, but the Zune has a great color screen. Everyone I've shown it to has been amazed with the quality of the screen and the quality of the video. The podcasts integration, which was added in the new firmware, works well. The size is pretty decent. It's a little big and a little heavy, but not too bad.
There are some shitty things about the Zune. The Zune comes with a program that imitates itunes. The list of podcasts in their marketplace is very barebones. Not a whole lot is listed beyond the big podcasts. Luckily, the program allows you to added the url of any podcast that isn't available in the marketplace. I expect this problem will improve itself as podcasts support is new.
The next shitty thing is that the Zune is only supported on the Windows platform. Because of DRM, you must use the Zune software to load new data onto the player, and of course Microsoft isn't going to release a Mac or Linux program. I've read there are efforts to back engineer Linux support for the Zune, but thus far they are only to see the data but not add/delete.
That being said, I paid $85 for a 30GB mp3 player and should just stop bitchin'!
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