Cnet Editor Has Bad Zune Hair Day

Well regarded Cnet editor and tech journalist Molly Wood has a bone to pick with the Zune - five of them to be exact. She recently wrote a very lengthy post on the Cnet gear blog Crave about why the Zune is dead to her.

Her reasons, in "ascending order of annoyance," are:

• The software and music categorization
• The headphones
• The player interface
• The wireless is worthless
• The erasing of my server-stored music

Now we feel for Molly, we really do. The last reason in particular hurts as she states "Yep. The software, in its auto-sync wisdom, removed every single song from the device that was not stored locally on the computer....And you know what? I don't like being told what to do. I don't like sitting on a wiped Zune two hours before I'm supposed to leave from the airport."

Guess not every Zune experience is a positive one, huh?

[via CrunchGear]

Comments

[Deirdre]

I'm of two minds. On the one hand I don't want to be dismissive of any body's experiences. It may have just not worked out for her despite being a good product, though having a fair number of gripes with the software myself I can see where she's coming from. The software itself is the single biggest obstacle to the Zune being great, IMO. I admit that I still sometimes look back on iTunes longingly. I've even given consideration to using zAlternator to use iTunes to manage my Zune, but the Social was a big selling point for me so I'm holding out for that to one day work properly (track and count device plays, please.).

The one thing in the blog post that bothers me, though, is the fact that she evidently didn't charge her Zune for a month and a half? It has a really nice battery life, but not quite that nice. I may just be more of a music nerd, but I charge multiple times a week. I can't help but think Molly hadn't had very much actual experience with the software in her month and a half and then gave up at the first big unexpected behaviour.

[lobosolo]

i agree with her. the software is clunky. the player itself is fine. i am dying to see rockboxx on the zune. the zune also wiped my music, luckily i have backups and the wireless is worthless. this could have been a contender but microsoft just gets in it own way on innovation.

[R-Bro]

Yeah, I'm pretty much done with them, too. It took Microsoft a YEAR to add podcasts, 1.5 YEARS to add Audible, and movies/TV shows are nowhere in sight. Microsoft hasn't innovated in the slightest, they've merely played catch-up. My iPod Touch is the single coolest media player I've ever owned. My Zune is collecting dust.

[Tertius]

Well... actions speak louder than words. It looks like Microsoft is giving us a fairly good example of where we may be if Zune is no longer lucrative for them.

"As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,"

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080422-drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys.html

[Steven Smith]

Wonderful Molly the iSheep doesn't love change. She apparently downloads her music illegally if she is having any software issues. Its called a Zune Pass. You know the legally/smart way to use a Zune.

[jeff landers]

Molly needs to be terminated.