Comments on: Microsoft admits: the Zune “iPod killer” exists. Hype time!

By: tm

tm — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 16:34:22 +0000

>I should go straight to bed after pub

yeah, but it would be quite amuzing if microsoft took the ‘re-use the xbox model’ thing too far and produced a personal music player the size of a PC now, wouldn’t it…

By: david

david — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 11:49:47 +0000

Ah. I should go straight to bed after pub, shouldn’t I.

By: Gary

Gary — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 08:48:22 +0000

> do you think it’s a bot?

Not according to the whois…

David, think The Onion. Two high speed cooling fans?

By: david

david — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 01:23:08 +0000

From zunescene

“The iPod has a new enemy in town, with advanced wifi technology and a superior RAID 5 hard drive system.”

OK. 2 points. Advanced WiFi? I’m not sure I could use that since I’ve only got a normal WiFi router.

Raid 5. WTF? This thing has got more than 3 hard drives in a form factor that, at least by the looks of it, cannot take a single 2.5″ HDD? I know that there have been some advances in microdrives but if this thing has 3+ microdrives then you are moving it pricewise from being an Ipod rival to being a small family hatchback alternative.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:40:37 +0000

Well, speak of the Devil: do you think it’s a bot?

By: zune

zune — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:39:11 +0000

The xbox 360 will be Microsoft’s ticket to success with the Zune product line.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:47:46 +0000

You’d have thought that at least they’d stagger the timing, rather than have 17 or 18 fan sites appear simultaneously. It seems rather inept.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:24:09 +0000

I dunno how MS thought they could get away with astroturfing; it’s not like any other MS product has grassroots fan sites.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:20:56 +0000

Sorry, meant to add: there’s a *massive* amount of “fan” sites already, and all the ones I’ve seen are clearly viral marketing. That could get very annoying very quickly.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:54:06 +0000

I do hope they change the name, for two reasons: it’s crap, and it’s potentially confusing (Creative’s range of iPod-rivals is the Zen).

I’m intrigued by all of this but I’m doing Real Work and don’t have time to blog about it just yet :) The hype sites are pretty transparent, but I do think Microsoft is hoping to do something that isn’t Just Another iPod Rival – although as everyone, me included, is saying it’s supposed to be an ‘iPod killer” that might prove difficult to get across.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:54:04 +0000

Suppose it was inevitable. Let the Zunacy begin!