@@spencereevesSamsung has the patent on the process for mass manufacturing OLEDs. It’s likely a Samsung display (could be wrong)! So s/o Microsoft for choosing that so early in the game
@@spencereeves Microsoft was kinda ahead of its time with tech usually. they just always go unnoticed because the mainstream market wouldn't buy some microsoft branded things in those days except for windows 7 and xbox 360.
The Zune was basically dead from the start, with the Zune 30 being worse in every way than the 5th gen iPod. It had clunky navigation due to being a lazy rebadge of a Toshiba MP3 player, worse build quality, a worse looking display, was thicker, and thus less portable, than the 80GB 5th gen iPod, making the 30GB 5th gen feel like an iPod nano in comparison to the Zune 30, and had worse battery life in audio playback compared to the 30GB 5th gen iPod. In addition, the PC software wasn't much better, with it being a reskin of Windows Media Player, and you couldn't easily determine how much songs or videos from the Zune Marketplace costed because of it requiring you to buy points that you'd then buy music or videos with. While the Zune 80 and 120 fixed most of the hardware issues with the Zune 30, excluding the DPI and battery life gap, the damage was not only already done but made worse from Microsoft being late to the game. Microsoft also missed the mark completely with determining why the iPod touch was so popular, making a Zune with a touchscreen instead of making a WiFi only Windows Phone with a focus on music.
Sony NW-A55 user here, offline music is great. No streaming app jank, e.g. it thinking you're offline or playing on another device when you're not. Tiny device, fits in any pocket imaginable. Charge the thing max once per week. Wired headphones for better sound quality and no Bluetooth issues. 1 TB SD card stores more FLAC than I could ever need to carry with me.
The big problem with modern streaming and music listening is that the newer the device and the newer the technology - the worse it sounds. I made an experiment and tried all of my old smartphones going back 15 years with the same pair of headphones and the best sounding were around 2010-2012. That is also true with the players. They are a dedicated device that had only one purpose - sound good. I myself am rocking an old 4gb Sony Walkman and I dont want to go back to the streaming bull that is the current world.
I agree, I think a lot of companies lost the will to push better quality sound from their devices the same time they took out the 3.5mm ports. Dedicated music players will always have the better sound quality, and I definitely could tell the difference with this Zune and my iPhone!
Experiencing this device should be a part of school-syllabus for every UI design student. This device did "flat" UI when android and ios were still doing skeumorphism. After the Zune HD, windows moved to incorporate the flat Metro UI, and android moved to Holo UI (also flat), apple moved to flat icons.
Absolutely agree. Zune/Metro UI is a masterclass of flat design for the time, complete with perfectly fluid animations and visual cues that gave users a good sense of where they are in the menus. Definitely a pioneering design era for Microsoft and it put them way ahead of the curve compared to the other design systems of the time!
I've consistently used my 160GB 7th gen iPod since the day I bought it used on eBay (to save some money). I added about a thousand CD albums onto it and I have a few movies on it as well. It's my go-to device for flights, train trips, or for enjoying listening to music in the dark at night to focus on every nuance of the songs or tunes being played. I still don't have a smartphone after all these years and for my purposes, I have a new flip-phone which I enjoy keeping switched off 98% of the time because I hate how invasive smartphones have become in our societies, so it's fun to use my iPod for music, my Canon digital SLR camera for photos and video, and my flip-phone for the occasional phone call I need to make (I've always hated text messaging as well as the beeps, chirps, and water droplet sounds of "smartphones" that have in many ways, made the world dumber). To each his or her own, of course, but there is something to be said for using an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune to enjoy music without other technological distractions getting in the way. :)
I have been using my original 5th gen iPod Touch as my main music player since about 2019. No one can stop or interrupt my music, not even google maps. Im not getting upcharged for the same lacking service. No one can copyright strike anything in any of my playlists. I can use my wired IEMs, or plug it into my car. Never going back.
Hopped back to my Creative Zen Vision M - swapped out the 'spinning rust' for flash storage, it is a thing of beauty - Served me well in 2015 still going strong now! (apart from the scroll)
@@spencereeves If it still works and whilst there is still community and resources around fixing and or upgrading hopefully these now 'Retro' (Hard for me to call it retro) devices alive.
@@chrisad1177 If you're looking to do the flash upgrade (Which is dead simple) look for one with the ZIF connector and uses SD cards, I thought i'd be smart and just use a flash disc which was like an IDE connection and the Zen would crash out after transferring one song - So absolutely the SD card one! The device is now lighter, battery lasts longer and there's no HDD noise!
That thing is beautiful, it's still one of my favourite designs of any product, I feel barely any phones can get close to being so perfect, I wish my S24 Ultra leaned a bit towards the Zune HDs Aesthetics, it's so functional futuristic
I’m iPod user since 2004 and use one different everyday on my daily tasks, from the classic 6g to the touch 3g at home, to the nano 6g for training or the shuffle going outside, back on the 2006 I received the first zune for Christmas and I simply loved it the design, the color and the features were superior at time than my latest iPod (classic 5g aka iPod video), unfortunately I never can use it despite how much I tried install the software, even tried on many PCs I could access the ones at home, at my grandparents house and school one, at least 7 of them can’t handle the software installation from the incluidos cd installer and also downloaded from their web page, the 8th pc installed the downloaded version without problems but never could sync a single song with the zune, so it got back to its box and years later I sold it to buy a new 6g iPod, i wish I really could have use it cause it was a really cool device
If you were using Apple CarPlay it means that you have an iPhone. iPod is still built inside iPhone. You could have transfer those same songs from your Zune to your iPhone and used CarPlay. Easily just logging around one device instead of two.
I am looking for an MP3 player to play audio books, Quran recitation, audio lectures, and anything audio so I can use my phone less. I bought Kindle to read book so I don't reach to mobile, I bought apple watch so I don't reach for mobile, yet I reach for my phone. So I seriously need to make my life simpler buying alternative to my phone so phone will only be used when I am outside or just when I need to call or watch high quality videos. That way I will use less electricity since those mp3 players gonna consume lot less power comparatively and my phone's charge will last forever, helping the community overall imagine if everyone does that!
I had windows plays for sure devices then got a Zune and it was so frustrating you couldn't just drag and drop your files like you could on the plays for sure. I had zunepass back when it was amazing!
i used the original zune until it died about 5/6 years ago. zune were a great product. Unfortunately iPods were just too far ahead for zune to ever compete.
if your iPhone works with your car, then an iPod would probably work better and have integration with your car. When I plug my iPod into my car, the Hyundai logo pops up on my iPod and the song data appears on the screen
