Chris Kirby's Inner Monolog : Windows

Why I chose the new Zune over the iPod touch

Chris Kirby — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:45:00 GMT

Seems crazy right? I thought so at first considering that the iPod touch was probably the coolest gadget I've held in my hands to date. Not only was it thin, small, and of high quality build components but also had a revolutionary touch screen interface originally available only on the iPhone. With all that said, there were some things that just didn't work for me and my Windows centric lifestyle, and I ultimately decided to return it.

iTunes.
Is there a more bloated and clunky media application for Vista? I think not! it totally pukes on a library as large as mine (16,000 songs) and continually created system instability and crashes. I've literally spent countess hours uninstalling and reinstalling, trying to figure this out, but I think it simply comes down to poor support for a large network library of music (all my songs reside on a local file server connect via gigabit LAN). Previously I used alternative software like Anapod, but there is currently no support for the Touch. And even if it did, doesn't support podcasts and store bought music.

Windows Media Support.
The only way around this is was to literally have iTunes convert all of my wma tracks to aac audio files. Now, initially that wasn't a deal breaker for me, but considering I have over 4,000 wma files in my library, it turned out to be quite an overwhelming task. That, and I'm stuck with 4,000 duplicate tracks needed only for iTunes and the iPod. Third, its overall inability to integrate in to my tech lifestyle. Since the iPod touch is Internet enabled via its built-in 802.11 b/g, it has a couple of the killer iPhone features such as safari and YouTube. While initially great, this created too much gadget crossover for me since I already carry with me an 802.11 b/g and 3g enabled window mobile 6 smart phone which can do both of those things, though admittedly not as well. In addition to that, it has no support for my Xbox 360 (and I'm not talking about the crappy library sharing via iTunes, which does not work with network tracks btw) and no glimmer of future support for a subscription music service via iTunes or the wireless store on the iPod.

Storage And Cost.
The device itself was limited to about 14 gigs of flash storage and cost $400 bucks. At the end of the day, it was just too little and too much to justify.

Now on the the new Zune. I snagged one of the rare 80gb models last Tuesday at a Target near me, and have been very pleased with it thus far. For starters, its a LOT smaller that the old 30gb brick, with nearly 3x the storage capacity, and a cost of only $249 bucks. So already its off to a better start.

The Software.
The new Zune software is a significant upgrade from the original. The interface has been totally redesigned for the better and looks and acts as I would expect a Microsoft developed WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) app to, even though it unfortunately is not WPF based. The navigation is a clean as it comes, and actually reminds me of the iPod touch interface experience quite a bit, less the touch screen of course. The new features included with the software are complete podcast subscription support via Collection or the Zune Marketplace (finally!), integration with the new Social, and wireless synchronization over your local wifi network. The podcast support is great, as of now they have a growing catalog of choices via the marketplace, or you can add the rss feed directly in the podcast section of your collection. Best part is that all iTunes podcast feeds designed for the iPod will work natively on the Zune, no transcoding necessary! The Social has been beefed up as well, which now has a built in messaging system, a new Zune card which shows all your recently played tracks and music prefs to your friends, and has even tighter integration with my Xbox live gamer tag...e.g. friends list and shared MS points. All of that combined point to some pretty amazing things on the horizon for Zune and 360 owners...I'm already envisioning full marketplace and social integration with Xbox. Just imagine being able to stream your subscription music or Zune radio channels on your Xbox while playing some Halo 3! The wireless sync is a very nice feature as well, though when I did it for a fairly decent size sync, it ate most of my battery in the process.

The Hardware.
This time around its got some significant improvements. The most notable are the size and construction, the new touch sensitive dial, and the incredible premium headphones. The size seems half the foot print of the original, and Microsoft used some higher quality components on the exterior. Primarily the change to a glass screen instead of plastic, the extra .2 inches of screen real estate. On the inside they added chip support for MPEG-4 and H.264 a/v an updated wireless adapter which now supports wpa2 security, and a new hard drive that's smaller and allows for 30 hours of audio playback on one charge. The touch sensitive dial is a very nice addition as well, it works just as you would expect sliding in the direction you wish to navigate. It's also a convenient way to adjust the volume when playing music and video...you even have the option to turn it off if you don't care to use it. Lastly, the new included premium headphones were the real surprise for me. They are hands down the best in-ear headphones that I've ever seen included with a media device...and I've bought a lot of music and video players over the years. The earpieces themselves come with 3 sizes of ear fittings and magnetically stick together for storage, which is even more convenient then you would realize. Also, the cord for the headphones are wrapped in a thin rope vs your typical plastic casing, which makes them considerably more durable. Granted, they will not take the place of my uber expensive Bose noise canceling headphones, but they are an excellent and more portable alternative for certain situations.

Final thoughts.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with my decision. Not only did I save $150 bucks, but I now have a music player and software that tightly integrates with the OS and gaming platforms that I already use. And, as much as Apple has done to make the iPod at home on Windows, it just isn't enough to compete. And honestly, I don't think they care. They would much prefer and have certainly designed for their devices to function in their world of the Apple desktop and the Apple TV, which is fine considering the Zune is equally targeted to the Microsoft universe. Though, i would love to have one of those 17" Macbook Pro's running Leopard and Vista, they truly do make some, usually unrivaled, hardware.

.Net 3.0 Framwork baked and now standing

Chris Kirby — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:20:50 GMT

The RTM download for the .Net 3.0 Framework is now available for download on MSDN! And, the VS 2005 extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) have also been released...Though the WCF and WPF extension are still in CTP.

Theres been so many new drops lately that its been hard to keep up...not that i'm complaining ;) Its an exciting time to be a MS/.Net developer.

Vista's all gowed up

Chris Kirby — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:32:53 GMT

Its official...November 30th launch for Vista and Office 2007!

I think i'm going to go for the install right away, but dual booting only to start. I have over 100 apps installed on my primary workstation workstation, so an upgrade is definitely out of the question. And, its unclear from nvidia's site whether or not they will be ready with release drivers at the time of Vista's business launch. As of now, they have beta graphics drivers for Vista RC2 and beta nforce drivers for Vista B2. So, until they release nforce support for rc2 or higher, i'll probably have to hold off...can't do much without raid or network drivers.

New Vista RC Build Available, 5728

Chris Kirby — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:25:51 GMT

Microsoft has made the latest RC build of Windows Vista (5728) publicly available on the Vista download site. The site states that the build may not be as stable as RC1 release on certain hardware, but it contains a number of updates and improvements over the 5600 build... good enough for me ;) Grab it while you still can!

Vista and Framework 3.0 go RC

Chris Kirby — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:30:58 GMT

Vista has finally gone RC along with all of the developer goodies that come along with it!

To grab all of the RC1 bits, visit these download links in order.

WinFX runtime uninstall tool (only if you have a ctp or b2 installed)
.Net 3.0 Runtime (formerly WinFX runtime)
Windows Vistal SDK
.Net 3.0 Developer Extensions Sept CTP for VS 2005
Windows Workflow Foundation Extensions RC5 for VS 2005

Insert source code plugin for Windows Live Writer

Chris Kirby — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:13:00 GMT

Last night, I finally got a chance to finish a workable version of my source code formatting plugin for Live Writer. The plugin isn't quite done yet, but as of now, will let you insert and format C#, VB, Javascript, Html, Xml, and T-Sql, very similar to the functionality available in the Wookie Blog Extension v2 which is also based on the original source code from Jean-Claude Manoli's CSharpFormat project. As for the cross posting support, the api just isn't there yet...so far, there is only support for content based plugins, but I'm assuming they will add support for more integrated plugins in future releases. You can grab the code plugin using the link below...and, to install, just drop it in your Live Writer plugins directory.

Insert Source Code Plugin Beta 1

Windows Live Writer unleashed.

Chris Kirby — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:10:04 GMT

A few days ago, Microsoft released beta 1 of a new live product called Windows Live Writer. Its essentially an offline blogging tool that works with live spaces, or any other popular blog platform, out of the box.

For nearly 2 years now, i've been writing my own blogging tools, simply because there werent any out there which had the features I was looking for...until now. Live writer not only has many of the features i need (support for community server, photos, ftp, ping), but has excellent plugin support via their api as well. So, to get Writer just the way i like it, i've already started working on cross-posting, and code formatting plugins to fill is some of the blanks. Once completed, Live Writer should replace the Wookie Blog Extension as my primary offline blogger. Though, I don't plan on killing WBE entirely, future versions will just shift from an all-in-one, to more of an addon to Writer.

Vista requirements

Chris Kirby — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:35:00 GMT

Microsoft just released the official Windows Vista hardware requirements and it looks like both my Alienware workstation and my Acer laptop will be Vista 64 bit ready. Surprisingly the list was pretty broad on the graphics side of things and much shorter than I expected on the cpu side. It looks like they will support the latest 32 bit chips but my guess is you'll definitely want to be running a 64 bit solution come this time next year.