Zune Review: More Interactivity!

Cnet was one of the lucky winners who had a chance to review the Zune before the official November 14th launch date. What is interesting is they did confirm the interactivity we talked about.

“For music, you'll get the option to adjust play mode, rate the song, show a song list, flag a song (flagged songs and photos transfer to the Zune software in list form and will show up front and center).”

Those features combined with the Wi-fi (that will eventually talk to your PC) seem to be the base of what could be a great innovation coming from the Zune. A better and seamless interactivity between the Zune, the Zune software and the user could really bring something new to the digital media player world.

People at Cnet also had mixed feelings about the casing of the Zune.

“The Zune may be a bit thicker than the 30GB iPod, but it feels right at home in the hand. In my opinion, it's a nice size and weight--neither too thin to hold nor too big to pocket, though others in the office say it's bulky and have even compared it to a prototype.”

Cnet also wrote, “Microsoft has some work ahead if it wants to transform this music-centric device into a competitive video device. But again, it's not a matter of the hardware--it's because Microsoft seeks to simplify the experience, presumably for new buyers of portable players, and then expand features as the Zune community grows and evolves.”

We heard that a couple of times from Microsoft in the last few months. It looks like an excuse for not having time to finish a product but I do agree with them that they are far better without a feature than trying to push something nobody will be able to use. I was talking to a Microsoft representative earlier this year and its clear that “simplifying the user experience” is what Microsoft wants to do in all their products and software. They at least applied that in the last Office version and now the Zune.

But I can’t stop thinking that Microsoft released so many unfinished products in the past, expecting users to debug the software for them…

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