Well, I have to say that Apple actually surprised me with the introduction of the new, 3G iPhone... Not enough that I'm giving in, of coarse, but enough. I'm just surprised that they doubled the features and split the price... If anything I would've thought they'd pull their rapid-fire release stunt like they do with the iPods where the ones who bought the older generations get left in the dust. But, correct me if I'm wrong, those who bought the first gen iPhones can download the 2.0 software and get just about all of the features except for the 3G, as that is a hardware issue. Looks like Apple is catching on.
The one thing they didn't do that MIGHT have gotten me to consider buying it was take off the freakin' MP3 player... Seriously, think about it... Aside from the fancy touch screen technology, the flash storage is the bulk of what you're paying for! I don't need an MP3 player and a phone IN ONE, they really don't work well together and I fail to understand why Jobs seems to think that they do... It just gives the iPhone a heftier price tag. I have an 80g Zune, so, that really keeps me from wasting money on 8g of storage with a phone attached.
Now what I'm wanting to know is this: Now that you can buy a 3G, 8gig iPhone for $199, how much sense does it make that they're still selling the iTouches of the same size for $299? Doesn't make any sense to me at all... I want this price to go down too, because as I said in my last post, I was thinking of buying a used iTouch, and if the retail price drops $100, then that greatly increases the chances of me buying it. And besides, when buying an iTouch, you're getting LESS than what you're getting when you buy an iPhone (it's an iPhone minus the Phone), so why should the iTouch be MORE expensive? Apple...
Alright, well, moving on to other things... Preferably things that don't have to do directly with Apple.
I was excited to hear that there is a promising new "iPhone killer" coming out that is all touch screen... That is, until I found out who is developing it; Samsung. I've had terrible issues with Samsung before and so have my friends, so, I doubt anything serious is going to come out of this. But, if perhaps any of you are interested, it's called the Samsung Omnia and it is pictured on the right. Seriously though... the last time I had a Samsung, I swapped it out for a Nokia 3300 and was HAPPY with that! So, I don't really trust Samsung, so this probably won't be a worthy iPhone alternative for me unless they make it do something really, REALLY outstanding that completely blows the iPhone out of the water. Seeing the hold that Jobs has had on the music industry and now the phone industry though, it's doubtable.
I said I would dog on Microsoft to make it a fair game in my last post. Well, this is actually going to be a tad ironic, because one of the things I praised them for before was their success with the Zune. That's where my dogging will start. For a company competing with another company, I can honestly say that I have no idea what in the world Microsoft is thinking in
terms of the Zune and the iPod. It's been said on the Zune forums time and time again that the Zune could have been a great iPod killer, but it's only an iPod alternative at this point. There are so many easy, easy things that MS could have done with this player that they just thought they'd let slide for whatever reason. First, we can't ignore the first gen players... Brown? BROWN!?!? Not to mention how huge they are. Now, since they were just jumping into the whole MP3 player thing, I can understand almost every fluke they faced... Except for making the dang thing BROWN and GREEN! I still just don't get that. Sure, it would've been NICE if it had podcast support and could actually support a larger resolution instead of just having a larger screen in it's opening moment, but... Whatever. Good things come to those who wait, and they did redeem themselves later on. Now the second gens have been out since November of 2007 but the player has only caught up with the iPod when, in my humble opinion, it could've left it in the dust. Of coarse it added those features I just described, and it also added support for .mp4, .m4v, and H.264 video files (the same as iPod) in addition to it's .WMV support. The new 80g model also sports a slightly larger glass screen as opposed to it's blocky sibling's plastic, scratch prone screen, as well as the D-pad, which is basically the Zune's version of iPod's touch sensitive click-wheel. Not to mention the 80g model is significantly thinner. I think the one absolute advantage that the Zune has over the iPod any day is the fact that it is future-proof. Where Apple has a rapid-fire philosophy where they shoot out new generation iPods with new software rather quickly, leaving their old users in the dust, Zune's software and firmware updates are available for FREE to all Zune users, new and old. This means that any new software or firmware features available with a new generation player will also be available to the older generation players... All that they don't get are any new hardware features. I think this has the potential to crush the iPod if they don't start doing it themselves (they probably will...).
So, those are all the ways in which the Zune has definitely redeemed itself. Of coarse, since the Zune came out there have been people griping about feature lacks that I could truly care less about, like gapless playback, calender, clock... Yata yata yata. Here are some of the REAL problems that I have with the new firmware and software updates. The first thing I noticed upon opening it was that it had no equalizer. Apparently, MS decided to scratch this feature
, as the first gen players did have it. Secondly, they added this really crappy "feature" where, whatever isn't on your computer, thus meaning it's not in your collection, cannot stay on your Zune either. The best excuse that the "Zune team" can give for this is that they want to appeal to audience that like to take their collection wherever they go. Well... They could EASILY make this feature an option... You know, so that it ASKS ME if I want it automatically taking music off of my player. This is a major problem for me, but for now I've learned to cope. And thirdly, the marketplace. I don't know if they're even trying to compete with iTunes, but from what I can see they aren't going to get anywhere close at this rate. It's one of those point system things, where you have to buy points and then use your points to buy music, TV shows, and/or music videos. And, of coarse, the points are actually worth less than what you're paying for them... Like, $1.00 is worth 80 points instead of 100, and songs are actually worth 79 points, so that way, no matter what, you're going to have leftover points laying around and
there's nothing you can do about it because you can only buy points in increments of $5. It's ultimately a waste of money and I've decided that I refuse to partake in it. One of their major advantages was the fact that, when the Marketplace came out, it was one of the
only places that you could get DRM free music (not to mention the fact that the Zune can only PLAY DRM free music... Another con that I forgot to mention). But, now that Napster has started selling DRM free music, and since I do have a napster account anyway, I think this is the way to go, especially since Napster takes REAL MONEY and I can keep my change. If I ever decide that I want to buy a
TV show or m
usic vid from the internet, I might just have to go with iTunes... Sorry, Microsoft... Try not being RETARDED! Furthermore, Zune carries no Mac support. This doesn't effect me in the least, but you would THINK that since the Zune is competing with the iPod, then it would at least be compatible with all types of computers... I really do like th Zune, but I just have to ask... WTF, Microsoft? WTF???
Either way, Apple or Microsoft, iPod or Zune, iPhone or Omnia, you're going to have your ups and downs on either side. To me, the Zune was still a better pick than the iPod, so that's what I chose. The next time I buy a computer, I'm probably actually going to consider getting a Mac instead of a PC, based on my individual needs. But either way, there's no reason for me to side with either company... I'll just stand in the middle and laugh at them both!
-Chris
Comments (1)
Thanks! Yours is interesting, too -- I always like hearing the opinions of techies.