Microsoft on Tuesday launched its Zune 3.0 digital media platform, which consists of new PC software and device firmware, updated online services, and new device hardware. As with Apple's recent iTunes update, Microsoft's latest Zune platform focuses on music discovery, this time using new device, software, and services features.
"Digital music services really come alive when they help people find not only the music they know they like, but the music they didn't know they would love," says Microsoft general manager Chris Stephenson. "With the combination of subscription, wireless access to millions of tracks, and powerful discovery features like personal recommendations and the ability to buy music from FM radio, Zune is taking the digital music experience to the next level."
Unlike the Apple iPod, Microsoft's Zune devices have always included FM receivers, and the company enhances this functionality in Zune 3.0 with a new Buy from FM feature that allows users to tag songs they hear on the radio and then purchase them wirelessly from the device or later from the PC. New discoverability features like Picks and Collections allow Zune owners to get recommendations from music experts and other users in the Zune Social service. On the PC, new software features like Mix View and deeper integration with the Zune Social provides users with new ways to enjoy and discover music.
Microsoft has also begun expanding the capabilities of the Zune platform to new content types. Zune 3.0 comes with two free games, Texas Hold 'Em and Hexic, and the company promises more games down the road. The Zune is now compatible with audio books as well, supporting content from both Audible and OverDrive.
In related news, Microsoft has announced a partnership with high-speed Internet access provider Wayport to deliver free wireless Internet access to Zune users at almost 10,000 McDonalds restaurant locations in the US. The Zune can now connect to public Wi-Fi access points for the first time, and this integration allows the device to connect seamlessly to Wayport networks without any configuration steps.
Microsoft has also announced an expansion of its Zune Originals service, which lets new Zune customers customize their devices with laser-engraved art and text. The company is now offering 14 new designs from artists such as Rolito, Matt W. Moore, Ippei Gyoubu and Aya Kato at http://www.zuneoriginals.net
If you're interested in more information, I've published a wealth of information about the Zune 3.0 platform on the SuperSite for Windows and will review Zune 3.0 soon.
From : http://windowsitpro.com/mobile/pda/Article.cfm?ArticleID=100304&News=1
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A New Zune for Serious Music Fans
This might sound kind of weird, but here it is: the iPod and the Zune aren’t rivals anymore.
And not just because the iPod outsells the Zune about a gazillion to one, either. No, it’s because the iPod and the Zune no longer serve the same audience.
That’s a surprising development. After all, when the Zune had its debut in 2006, it couldn’t have been more iPoddy if you ran it through a Xerox machine. Same layout, capacities, prices and product line (a big one and a Nano).
But in the last few days, Apple and Microsoft both unveiled new music-player lineups (what a coincidence — just in time for the holiday shopping season!). And Microsoft, it turns out, has added something truly new to the Zune: differentiation. The Zune has become a sensational music-discovery machine.
Over all, the players themselves haven’t changed much except for colors, capacities and prices.
The huge exception is the iPod Nano, which has undergone its fourth redesign in four years (8 or 16 gigabytes, $150 or $200). It’s now a truly gorgeous, incredibly thin aluminum stick, in your choice of nine vivid, reflective colors. It maintains Apple’s design theme for 2008: tapered edges, as seen on the MacBook Air and the iPhone.
The front and back are gracefully curved, including the glass screen. But even at its thickest point — in the middle — the 1.3-ounce Nano is the thinnest iPod ever.
Apple also rotated the screen 90 degrees, so menus and song lists fit better. And thanks to a tilt sensor like the iPhone’s, the Nano’s screen image rotates when you turn the player — great when you’re looking through photos. That sensor also permits a bit of whimsy: when you shake the Nano hard, it skips to a random song.
The Nano can now speak its menus, song names and on-screen messages as you navigate. That should assist anyone who’s blind and anyone who insists on fiddling while driving.
In short, this Nano is yet another a home run.
The iPod Touch (8 to 32 gigs, $230 to $400) gains a metal back, tapered like the iPhone’s, and a small, feeble speaker and volume keys on the left edge. (What was Apple thinking when it designed the original Touch without volume keys? Sheesh.)
The tiny, screenless iPod Shuffle (1 or 2 gigabytes, $50 and $70) comes in brighter colors, and the iPod Classic — the big one, with a hard drive inside ($250) — goes from 80 gigabytes to 120. The 160-gig version has been discontinued.
The new Zunes haven’t changed at all except in color: blue, pink, red or black for the Nano-like model (4 to 16 gigs, $130 to $200 ) and black for the 120-gigabyte model ($250). But next to the sleek, shiny iPods, Zunes still look like dark, Soviet-made bricks.
Clearly, what Microsoft spent the year working on was software. Generously enough, it’s giving a free upgrade to owners of earlier Zune models — all six of you. (Was that too mean?)
Once the time-consuming upgrade is over, the player’s new software offers better looks (also, at last, a clock and a couple of games), and the new Zune jukebox software for Windows is clean and focused.
Microsoft hasn’t made much effort to match the iPod’s universe of functions. The Zune store still lacks movies, downloadable programs, gift certificates, monthly allowances or any way to rate podcasts to guide fellow visitors. And the player still has no stopwatch, alarm clock, volume limiter, calendar, address book, note pad or external-hard-drive mode.
Yet for hard-core music lovers, it’s a gem. The Zune blows the iPod off the map in music discovery and downloading.
Now, Microsoft’s shift in direction isn’t totally altruistic. Many of the Zune’s new talents don’t make sense unless you subscribe to ZunePass, Microsoft’s $15-a-month music-download service.
I’ve always hated subscription music services. Sure, they let you download all the music you want for a flat fee — but the day you stop paying, it all vanishes. You’ve spent all that money, and you’re left with nothing.
(You can also buy Zune songs individually, as on iTunes. But you have to pay in Microsoft’s own bizarre currency — “points,” not dollars — a cheesy effort to mask how much you’re actually spending. You also waste money, because points are sold only in quantities that aren’t evenly divisible by a song’s price.)
But if anything can make subscriptions look enticing, it’s the new Zune software.
For example, every Zune has a built-in FM radio. When you hear a good song, you can click the center button to capture it, provided it’s a station that broadcasts song-title data. In a Wi-Fi hot spot, the Zune downloads the song from the Zune store immediately. When you get home, the downloaded song gets copied back to your PC. (Even wirelessly, if you like, because the Zune can sync over Wi-Fi.)
It’s addictive, awesome and completely natural. What better way to discover new performers and songs than listening to the radio?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/technology/personaltech/18pogue.html?pagewanted=2
And not just because the iPod outsells the Zune about a gazillion to one, either. No, it’s because the iPod and the Zune no longer serve the same audience.
That’s a surprising development. After all, when the Zune had its debut in 2006, it couldn’t have been more iPoddy if you ran it through a Xerox machine. Same layout, capacities, prices and product line (a big one and a Nano).
But in the last few days, Apple and Microsoft both unveiled new music-player lineups (what a coincidence — just in time for the holiday shopping season!). And Microsoft, it turns out, has added something truly new to the Zune: differentiation. The Zune has become a sensational music-discovery machine.
Over all, the players themselves haven’t changed much except for colors, capacities and prices.
The huge exception is the iPod Nano, which has undergone its fourth redesign in four years (8 or 16 gigabytes, $150 or $200). It’s now a truly gorgeous, incredibly thin aluminum stick, in your choice of nine vivid, reflective colors. It maintains Apple’s design theme for 2008: tapered edges, as seen on the MacBook Air and the iPhone.
The front and back are gracefully curved, including the glass screen. But even at its thickest point — in the middle — the 1.3-ounce Nano is the thinnest iPod ever.
Apple also rotated the screen 90 degrees, so menus and song lists fit better. And thanks to a tilt sensor like the iPhone’s, the Nano’s screen image rotates when you turn the player — great when you’re looking through photos. That sensor also permits a bit of whimsy: when you shake the Nano hard, it skips to a random song.
The Nano can now speak its menus, song names and on-screen messages as you navigate. That should assist anyone who’s blind and anyone who insists on fiddling while driving.
In short, this Nano is yet another a home run.
The iPod Touch (8 to 32 gigs, $230 to $400) gains a metal back, tapered like the iPhone’s, and a small, feeble speaker and volume keys on the left edge. (What was Apple thinking when it designed the original Touch without volume keys? Sheesh.)
The tiny, screenless iPod Shuffle (1 or 2 gigabytes, $50 and $70) comes in brighter colors, and the iPod Classic — the big one, with a hard drive inside ($250) — goes from 80 gigabytes to 120. The 160-gig version has been discontinued.
The new Zunes haven’t changed at all except in color: blue, pink, red or black for the Nano-like model (4 to 16 gigs, $130 to $200 ) and black for the 120-gigabyte model ($250). But next to the sleek, shiny iPods, Zunes still look like dark, Soviet-made bricks.
Clearly, what Microsoft spent the year working on was software. Generously enough, it’s giving a free upgrade to owners of earlier Zune models — all six of you. (Was that too mean?)
Once the time-consuming upgrade is over, the player’s new software offers better looks (also, at last, a clock and a couple of games), and the new Zune jukebox software for Windows is clean and focused.
Microsoft hasn’t made much effort to match the iPod’s universe of functions. The Zune store still lacks movies, downloadable programs, gift certificates, monthly allowances or any way to rate podcasts to guide fellow visitors. And the player still has no stopwatch, alarm clock, volume limiter, calendar, address book, note pad or external-hard-drive mode.
Yet for hard-core music lovers, it’s a gem. The Zune blows the iPod off the map in music discovery and downloading.
Now, Microsoft’s shift in direction isn’t totally altruistic. Many of the Zune’s new talents don’t make sense unless you subscribe to ZunePass, Microsoft’s $15-a-month music-download service.
I’ve always hated subscription music services. Sure, they let you download all the music you want for a flat fee — but the day you stop paying, it all vanishes. You’ve spent all that money, and you’re left with nothing.
(You can also buy Zune songs individually, as on iTunes. But you have to pay in Microsoft’s own bizarre currency — “points,” not dollars — a cheesy effort to mask how much you’re actually spending. You also waste money, because points are sold only in quantities that aren’t evenly divisible by a song’s price.)
But if anything can make subscriptions look enticing, it’s the new Zune software.
For example, every Zune has a built-in FM radio. When you hear a good song, you can click the center button to capture it, provided it’s a station that broadcasts song-title data. In a Wi-Fi hot spot, the Zune downloads the song from the Zune store immediately. When you get home, the downloaded song gets copied back to your PC. (Even wirelessly, if you like, because the Zune can sync over Wi-Fi.)
It’s addictive, awesome and completely natural. What better way to discover new performers and songs than listening to the radio?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/technology/personaltech/18pogue.html?pagewanted=2
New Yahoo ad campaign: dumb and dumber
What is it about high-profile companies creating really dumb marketing campaigns? Now Yahoo has gotten in on the game, with their "purple" concept (site found by way of Webbalert.com and Techcrunch). It's part urban game (e.g., people with bikes are traveling around multiple cities with a GPS and a camera taking pictures that post automatically to Flickr.com) part viral marketing, part video series. A comedian pulls some purple pranks, people sing in an elevator. In case you didn't know, purple is supposed to be the "fun" color and is all part of the Yahoo branding effort.
The main ad that plays is just laughably bad, not for any particular reason than it just shows people wearing purple, standing around or trying to have fun when they are not sure why. Because your Yahoo Mail is jam-packed with entertaining spam? Because the company can only create interesting products by assimilating other companies? Because you love exclamation marks in corporate logos?
I think the best ads tell a story about the product, and in that sense, neither the Microsoft ad nor the Yahoo marketing campaign really hit that mark. One of the best ads in recent memory is this Honda ad which is an actual choreographed event that is just unbelievably cool. But it also has a point: a Honda car is more precisely engineered than, say, a Ford Taurus from 1999 or a Yahoo Web 2.0 portal.
How can Yahoo re-establish their brand? Not by convincing people that the color purple is fun. Give us the Honda ad of the Web - take us inside your lab somehow, flaunt your innovation, profile a designer or developer who, let's say, is making really cool products at your company and happens to be 16 years old. Figure out how to tie your ad campaign to the idea of making amazing Web 2.0 products for the next-gen crowd.
What's my main reaction to the purple ads? For one, it reminds me that I'm on a business trip and running low on clothes, and that I hate anything purple. It reminds me, vaguely, of that one Oprah Winfrey movie. It reinforces the idea that Yahoo doesn't make great product, they just like to flaunt brand and image. And, it makes me immediately forget all about the purple site.
From : http://blogs.computerworld.com/yahoo_purple_ad
The main ad that plays is just laughably bad, not for any particular reason than it just shows people wearing purple, standing around or trying to have fun when they are not sure why. Because your Yahoo Mail is jam-packed with entertaining spam? Because the company can only create interesting products by assimilating other companies? Because you love exclamation marks in corporate logos?
I think the best ads tell a story about the product, and in that sense, neither the Microsoft ad nor the Yahoo marketing campaign really hit that mark. One of the best ads in recent memory is this Honda ad which is an actual choreographed event that is just unbelievably cool. But it also has a point: a Honda car is more precisely engineered than, say, a Ford Taurus from 1999 or a Yahoo Web 2.0 portal.
How can Yahoo re-establish their brand? Not by convincing people that the color purple is fun. Give us the Honda ad of the Web - take us inside your lab somehow, flaunt your innovation, profile a designer or developer who, let's say, is making really cool products at your company and happens to be 16 years old. Figure out how to tie your ad campaign to the idea of making amazing Web 2.0 products for the next-gen crowd.
What's my main reaction to the purple ads? For one, it reminds me that I'm on a business trip and running low on clothes, and that I hate anything purple. It reminds me, vaguely, of that one Oprah Winfrey movie. It reinforces the idea that Yahoo doesn't make great product, they just like to flaunt brand and image. And, it makes me immediately forget all about the purple site.
From : http://blogs.computerworld.com/yahoo_purple_ad
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