More than a Zune, more than a Zune to me.....

I held it off for as long as I possibly could, but I finally took the plunge and purchased one of these things. For way too long, I've been repeating this sequence of events over and over and over again. Burn cd, lose cd, burn cd lose cd...etc. I tried to tell myself that I didn't need one of these new flashy ipods, or mp3 players. I felt it was my duty to scorn anything electronic that had a name. I thought the old methods were tried and true, and didn't need any upgrading. To me, the Zune and products like it were all just the next best thing that daddies bought for their children to shut them up. Well I sure am glad that my cd drive on my computer died on me, otherwise I would not be the owner of such a nifty little piece of wonder.

I think everyones got to know what the Zune is, right? I mean it's not like the commercials for it haven't been pounded into us mercilessly everywhere we go, more so than the freakin ABC's. The mp3 to end all mp3 players they seemed to chant. Same thing with the Ipod Nano. Even so, the Zune did look like it was good. Now for me, it was just about which one to get. The Ipod or the Zune?

At this point, I had pretty much tuned out the all the Ipod Nano talk my way. It just didn't seem like what I was looking for or even wanted. And I do admit that the Zune seemed to be more advanced and have much more capabilties from what I could gather from the some 3000 commercials. So really, it was a fairly easy decision for me to make and on my merry way I purchased the Zune. Which I must say, is not such a cheap little piece of equipment. Regardless, I coughed up the cash, all the while hoping that it would not be just a crappy plastic letdown.

Upon opening my Zune kit, I became extremely alarmed. Where were the instructions? How could I figure out how to use such a thing if I didn't have the booklet to at least teach me how to turn the thing on? I am not very good at learning how to operate things like this, especially if they are high-tech and small. Fortunately for me, it was one of the easiest gadgets to learn my way around that I've ever owned. Just a few simple buttons. Learn them in 10 minutes and you will be set.

Physical appearance. First word that came to mind when I first held my Zune, was sleek. It was not real small, but not too bulky either. I kinda liked that it was somewhat more substantial than other mp3's. Brown, green and pink are some of the colors you can choose for your Zune. I chose black. Why would you choose anything else? The screen was very large, too. Now it is not just a peephole like other mp3s have, it is actually a usable functioning screen. I think officially its something like 2", possibly a little more. That is a huge plus for me because I really do not enjoy squinting at a little tiny screen, trying to make sense of little tiny black dots. Plus, the quality and resolution of the screen really surpassed my expectations. With this Mp3 you do not have to move it back and forth to try to catch the light so that you can view it! It is that clear!

The Menu when you fire it to the main screen, gives you several choices to choose from. Some being, pictures, video, songs, radio settings etc. I like that it is all very concise and easily accessible to you. I like the radio feature as well, sometimes you just want to listen to the airwaves. I don't know if the Ipod has one, but I really thought that was cool. This little device is a holder of many things. Keep some of your pictures on it, no nasty computer virus is going to come and wipe out all of your memories with one shot. You can even set your pictures up as wallpaper on it.

Using the software provided, I installed all the components needed to go about using the Zune. It then started to transfer my whole song library. In this area, I was a little disappointed. I couldn't download all of my songs onto it! Finally, I figured out why, I had a lot of stuff that was on Itunes. Duh, why would that work? Ipod? Itunes anyone? Anyway, that sucked. To me, if a song is on my computer and I paid for it, it is mine to do what I want. Why the restrictions? After that minor headache, I tested it out using the earbuds that are provided with it.

Sound. Wow, another very impressive feature! You would not expect to hear such loud and crisp audio coming out of such a little object. The earbuds too. They seemed, not cheap, but not something that could give you such good sound. I will admit that these kind of headphones annoy me though. I do not like shoving a little bean into my ear and trying to keep it there. Its very distracting. Regardless, the sound is as top notch as you can get with what is provided!

The storing possibilities on this thing are virtually endless. At 30 gbs, that means you can store a lot of songs, videos and pictures, and still not scrape the barrel. I know that they are now making mp3s with 80gbs, but really is that necessary? I have 500 songs plus video on my Zune, and I'm only using a few gbs. For the song aspect 30 gbs is definitely enough, but I guess if you have like literally 1 million pictures, you could use one with more.

I am very pleased with the battery life on the Zune. My brother has an Ipod, and he was always cursing at it because it constantly died on him and he was always charging the hell out of it. I was a little worried I would have that problem too. But that is so not the case, its unbelievable. Sometimes, I go a couple of days without charging, and it still goes for a couple of hours. Of course, thats only if I'm using it intermittently, but I never saw my brother do that. I think the Zune is worth buying for this aspect alone.

Video. This is one hell of a feature, I must say. I didn't really think I would use this area of the Zune a whole lot, but just the sheer coolness of it, has gotten me to use it every chance I can get. The image quality that it produces is better than my tv! Seriously, it is crystal clear, and even though it is only 2 inches big, it is still watchable. At first I was like, who cares this thing is tiny, why would they even give you video options? But once I started playing around with it, it grew on me. You can watch movies on the Zune, download your own videos, download from the web...it is very overwhelming at first. Especially, the fact that you have to convert the videos first. But as long as you get past that part, and know what you are doing, you will have a very pleasant experience with the Zune's video category.

The Zune has much to offer, perhaps too much. Take it from someone who was adamantly against this sort of thing. If you like listening to songs alone, get this mp3 player! It is really worth it. Watching videos and putting your pictures on it, are just major extras! Not too mention using wifi! I like the fact that I can take this Zune around with me anywhere I go and slip it into my pocket. It is as discreet as you want. Before, the best I could do was lug around a skipping cd walkman! Wow, has the technology changed. You can practically put your whole life on this thing. Actually it's almost like downloading yourself onto an object! Its got everything I like on there and pictures of me, videos, wifi. Its kind of creepy but it is actually an extension of your brain.