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In Praise of the Zune?

Posted by Pat Nakajima | Tuesday, December 12, 2006 10:49 AM PT

Hail the Zune!Ever had to write something that was absolutely contrary to every fiber of being in your body? If so, it probably read a bit like Leander Kahney’s In Praise of the Zune which can be found on wired.com. For one reason or another, in the Cult of Mac, there is a tepid defense of the Zune, complete the oft-negated arguments of a bigger screen (at same resolution), subscription-based music store (here’s to hoping the Zune store doesn’t fail), and even a claim that the iPod’s control scheme is inferior, because Mr. Kahney tends to “frequently mess up the buttons on the iPod, even after five years of using them.” Sounds like a design problem to me.

You’ll also find the standard downplaying of poor battery life, worthless wi-fi, and atrocious software.

Perhaps the best part is the assertion that the Zune is OS X:

Using the Zune is like graduating from the boring 2-D world of Windows XP to the bright, dynamic world of Mac OS X. Except in this case, the Zune is OS X.
Yes, except for the fact that in order to use the Zune, you’re still using Windows XP, since that’s the only operating system that the Zune works with. That’s right, the Cult of Mac is advocating a product that Mac users can’t even use. I hear next week they’re doing a special on anti-virus apps. I hear that OS X version of Norton AntiVirus is really the pits. It never finds anything.

Comments (4)

There's a word to describe this article, Pat, and it rhymes with "itchy". Grow up.

Erin B.
December 12, 2006
11:33 AM PT

Leander Kahney writes some of the inanest stuff out there.

evariste
December 12, 2006
1:33 PM PT

Sounds like a "manual dexterity" problem to me. There is NO problem with the Apple design.

Oh Blah Dee Blah Dah Author Profile Page
December 12, 2006
8:26 PM PT

"Sounds like a design problem to me."

It would be, if anyone else had that problem. In general, user mistakes (especially repeated ones) are UI design problems. That said, I can't imagine that he has hit a button and been surprised by the result.

Dave
December 13, 2006
12:15 AM PT

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