Map Of Zunes

“The 30-gig Zunes may have temporarily revolted last week, but Brooke's limited edition 80-gig Zune has been MIA for over three months now, apparently lost in that magical ever-transitioning Zune world from the commercials. (It just keeps falling through floors and walls and swimming pools.) Maybe someone at Microsoft can take a look at what Brooke's had to go through so far, and get back to her with a real answer?”

I’m a big fan of the Consumerist after they helped me with a problem once before. No company is immune to making huge PR gaffes and what Brooke is going through sounds pretty horrendous. The whole story is at the Consumerist but for three months, Brooke has been without her Limited Edition Joy Division Zune. Its bad enough that Microsoft was taking forever to fix her bricked Zune. On top of that, they lost it. Yep, they lost her Zune.

And in one of the most insulting attempts I’ve seen in a while to make it right for Brooke, the customer service rep didn’t offer to replace her Zune with another Joy Division Zune. No, the offered to replace it with a standard 80 GB model. Hop over to the Consumerist for the whole story. I hope that Microsoft gets their act straight and gets her back her Zune or a Limited Edition replacement.

Die hard Zune fans may recall that the original Zune 30 was based on the Toshiba Gigabeat. The Zune sold enough to warrant another model, but the Gigabeat is not still around. I recall they were selling the Gigabeats at...

After an unexpected "Zune Bug" reared its ugly head yesterday, the original Zune, not in the spotlight for some time, has been front and center. While Microsoft reassured users that "All would be well, and to all a good night,"...

The Zune 30gb was the center of attention today, however not for anything good. In a device glitch, worthy of Y2K, it turns out that the Zune 30 is having an issue on December 31st, related to being the 366th...

If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to use the 10 track credits you have from your monthly subscription. If you don’t use the credits before midnight tonight, you lose them. I personally bought “Pink Floyd - Wish you...

Are you Zune 30GB owner? If yes, December 31st is not your lucky day. Tons of Zune owners are reporting that their Zune hanged at the Zune screen when they turned on their device this morning. The normal reboot trick...

With the Christmas sales still being tallied, it will be a time before we know how well this year's Zune sold. While many of us are still rooting for the Zune, there are some factors working against it including less...

This time of year, as we wind down the holiday shopping, the tech predictions get ramped up. It seems like every editor of every news outlet puts in their two cents of what will happen over the next year in...

“A 120 GB iPod Classic goes for $249, though its screen is roughly two-thirds the size of the Zune's. As far as music goes, when you're strolling through town listening to your tunes with your device in your pocket, will you really care which of the two you're using? The sad fact is, many would. The level of brand loyalty Apple enjoys today was prompted by increasingly aged innovations. As I see it, the main reason people turn their noses up at the Zune is that Microsoft is seen as uncool.”

If that isn’t the truth, I don’t know what is. Asher Hawkins did a side by side comparison of the Zune and iPod Touch. This is a comparison that at first glance seems a bit unfair given the very different nature of the two devices. When Asher admits to having been an Apple customer since age 5, then I didn’t exactly expect an unbiased look. I give Forbes credit for their professionalism though! Asher was very positive about the Zune in comparison to the iPod, even questioning why someone would choose a classic over the Zune 120.

Other than the fact that Asher was pretty positive on the whole thing, the most interesting comments came in regards to what you use day to day to listen to your music. And I agree completely. There is a difference of course between today’s MP3 players and yesterday’s CD player market. If you had a CD it would (usually) work in any player available.

Because of DRM and varying file formats, that’s of course not as easy anymore. I would guess, however, that most people who have their own music collections have them available in MP3 so that they can listen to them on any device they choose.

The great forces at Microsoft have done a great job of keeping the world of Zune apart from the ecosphere of the Xbox. In retrospect, the was probably not the best idea, and there may be an effort to bridge...