So I've got an 8gb nano (most recent generation) and I've gone into a recent music craze and its almost full...and there's so much more music I want to put on it.

I'm in love with the itouch, but the 32gb is friggin' $500. Zune has a 30gb for $199. And then there's the $14.99 a month unlimited downloads.

I'm thinking the Zune is a no-brainer cost wise. But I'm definitely a fan of my current nano and itunes in general (except for the cost maybe). So who has a Zune and what are its advantages (besides the costs) and deficiencies?? And will I be able to transport my itunes music to a Zune if I get one?

[and I did a thread search, and everything that came up was too old]

5/11/2008 10:42:19 PM

the ipod touch?

5/11/2008 10:45:46 PM

yeah...my bad

5/11/2008 10:51:26 PM

urge music subscription for zune is a big plus. more or less this depends on style, and if you are technical or not. but personally i got a creative zen and i am very satisfied with it, and a napster subscription. the zen can read up to 32 gb sd cards, can the zune do this? just asking and if so that another huge advantage. either way i recommend zune for the said reason.

[Edited on May 11, 2008 at 10:53 PM. Reason : sdfg]

5/11/2008 10:52:32 PM

Reading online comparisons and just saw that the itunes library is maybe twice as large as Zune's (although the article is kind of old). This is pretty relevant to me as I've recently been downloading less "popular" music. I want to make sure I can find the same stuff on Zune that I can find on itunes.

5/11/2008 11:00:59 PM

Also check out the Creative Zen (aka all in wonder). They make a 32gb and I am very pleased with mine. I have always been a little weary of Ipods due to their battery life and fail rates, so I would vote Zune between the two. No of that changes the fact i will likely pick up the new iphone when it drops.

5/11/2008 11:09:35 PM

How many gigs if the new iphone going to be? I was thinking about getting a Blackberry too...but if the new iphone has more than 8gb I was going to contemplate it.

5/11/2008 11:18:29 PM

absolutely love my ipod touch

u can transfer the music wherever you like... google will be your guide. burning to cd and ripping back is pretty popular

5/11/2008 11:38:05 PM

Zune all the way! teh sync software rocks! wireless syncing, fm radio with RDS it actually tells u the radio station ur listeing to, the artist and the song name! I got the official zune dock and remote for it for 20 bux hooked it up to my 2.1 speakers. Cant live without it now!

5/12/2008 12:37:37 AM

!!! ~~~

5/12/2008 12:44:57 AM

I got a brown 30gb Zune off Woot for $79.99

5/12/2008 12:55:55 AM

considering there is no such thing as an "itouch"

i'd go with the ipod touch

5/12/2008 7:48:27 AM

^That's not true. There is such a product as an iTouch. It's just a keyboard made by logitech.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Logitech%20Cordless%20Freedom%20iTouch%20Keyboard%20USB%20PS%2F2:1990808598

5/12/2008 9:24:43 AM

^^^ i got a brown one off woot.com for the same, and then two or three weeks later you could choose the black or white for the same, with a free travel kit

i actually ended up selling mine, though, because i didn't need that much space...but i REALLY liked the zune, a lot more than my gf's ipod (but it wasn't a touch)

for the money, i don't think you can beat a zune and all things being equal, i'd still rather have a microsoft product over an apple, for the simple reason that apple software on a pc blows donkey balls

5/12/2008 10:08:42 AM

I've got a Zune and I love it for what it is good for, which is music, videos, pictures, radio(w/RDS).

The ipod touch has a lot more things you can do with it so if you think you'd like wifi web browsing and custom applications and all that jazz I'd go with the ipod touch.

5/12/2008 10:12:52 AM

Quote :

"How many gigs if the new iphone going to be? I was thinking about getting a Blackberry too...but if the new iphone has more than 8gb I was going to contemplate it."

/message_topic.aspx?topic=455104

Speculation is that it will be between 16-32gb.

5/12/2008 10:16:57 AM

Quote :

"^^^ i got a brown one off woot.com for the same, and then two or three weeks later you could choose the black or white for the same, with a free travel kit "

i got two black zune's and a travel kit for like $175 via that woot!
sold one & the travel pack for $135 on ebay.

kept my zune for $40

a) wireless sync, very nice feature (2.2+ firmware)
b) games coming... via XNA Game Studio 3.0 (c# express) (2.5+firmware)
c) yes the 1st gen zunes are compatible/updatable with the latest firmware releases

btw, they come in 4gb/8gb & 80gb... if you are looking at the 30gb, those are 1st gen zune's

[Edited on May 12, 2008 at 10:55 AM. Reason : .]

5/12/2008 10:49:27 AM

I will just never own another HDD based media player as long as I live. Maybe I've just got bad luck, and maybe I'm just really tough on things but I've had 3 HDD based MP3 players and none of them have lasted more than a year. I don't really see the Zune and the Ipod Touch in the same class as one another. I'd say you'd have to compare the Zune with the Ipod Classic if you wanted to at least try to compare apples to apples.

5/12/2008 10:59:35 AM

i totally agree, i swore i wasn't going to own another HDD-based player either.... then i got a Zune for $40 and the price is what persuaded me.

btw, the Zune 4GB-8GB are flash-based.

and if i had to pay retail price for either i'd get an ipod touch.

5/12/2008 11:06:17 AM

the only thing that influences my likeness of just about any mp3 player to an ipod is a music subscription will most likely be for any mp3, and the ipod is just straight up buying music and thats very very expensive. all are good - they play media, and they are all slick.

5/12/2008 11:21:02 AM

Anybody know anything about the size of the libraries?? Does itunes have that much more to select from, or are they all pretty even right now?

5/12/2008 11:23:26 AM

well for napster, they lack some pertinent stuff, for example they don't snoop's album 'doogy style' and dre's album 'the chronic' , both of which are probably the best rap albums ever created. they all shuld have quite plenty for you, and some are hit-or-miss with some stuff, but all in all, they should be relatively about equal.

5/12/2008 11:25:50 AM

itunes = ~6 million songs
zune = ~3 million songs

5/12/2008 11:47:10 AM

the good thing is that you can still buy songs for 99 cent that the zune doesn't have i only find myself doing this every so often.

5/12/2008 11:48:50 AM

ipod touch + jailbreak ftw

5/12/2008 12:00:34 PM

^ oh, that's true...the other reason i got rid of the zune is because it wasn't (isn't) hackable...yet

5/12/2008 12:02:57 PM

I can't hack into anything. So take that off my reasons for getting an i-pod touch. Why does it have to be 500 friggin dollars??

5/12/2008 12:16:34 PM

yes you can. you can jailbreak an ipod touch in less than 5 minutes no matter what version it is.

one method is only one click actually.

5/12/2008 12:22:58 PM

Don't say you can't hack something just because you don't know how/don't feel comfortable/don't want to learn etc..

It's literally as easy as downloading one program and clicking 2 buttons. Then you have an extra icon on your screen that allows you to install extra programs.

I can understand not wanting to do it for various reasons, but saying you CAN'T is just ignorant. It's ridiculously easy to do.

5/12/2008 12:26:27 PM

Then what is jailbreak and what would it allow me to do on in ipod touch??

5/12/2008 12:32:58 PM

Quote :

"you have an extra icon on your screen that allows you to install extra programs."

5/12/2008 12:34:25 PM

I honestly don't need a ton of extra programs.

I'll mainly be using ipod touch for music. Then I'll probably store some photos or videos on it. Then I'm sure I'll fuck around on the internet a little bit. Other than that, I don't see the need for adding a ridiculous number of programs.

5/12/2008 12:40:53 PM

ya say that till ya play with a few of the apps

right now i'm runnin an aim client, NES emulator, a touchpad/keyboard that controls ya comp through VNC, an etch-a-sketch (you know you want it), tap-tap revolution, a Rush Hour game...

5/12/2008 12:52:24 PM

yeah, I mean, if you're gonna be carrying it around with you whereever you go, might as well have some time killers on there just in case. I end up playing solitaire whenever I get a free moment and have nothing else to do sometimes.

5/12/2008 12:56:18 PM

^ i do that with my phone

if you plan on needing time killer and music, i would suggest to you to go ahead and get a iphone and be done with it.

5/12/2008 1:03:38 PM

Quote :

"I'll mainly be using ipod touch for music. Then I'll probably store some photos or videos on it. Then I'm sure I'll fuck around on the internet a little bit. Other than that, I don't see the need for adding a ridiculous number of programs."

if you want basic functionality (music/video/pictures), size, and cost to be at its best, go with something like a sansa e280...you can get the 8gb for ~$100, load up rockbox on it, and pick up a 2-8gb microSD card for $5-40, depending on what you're putting on it...for $150, you get a flash player (i'm not a fan of hdd players) that's expandable up to (IIRC) 32gb more (for 40gb total), has better battery life, and has a smaller form...you CAN load up apps, and it comes with about 20 games for killing time

i realize it's not in the same class as the ipod touch or the zune, but it's worth considering (this is what i did when i realized i didn't care about all the extras i thought i'd like)...you won't be as cool as you would be if you're sporting an ipod touch, though

5/12/2008 3:15:04 PM

I picked up one of the 30gb zunes for $99. Love it. If you can find one of the 30gb models at a good price, I doubt you will regret it. The firmware upgrade makes them functionally identical as the new gen zunes, just not as sleek and thin.

Personally, I much prefer the d-pad of zune as well as the navigation.

I like the zune software too. .99 cents a tune just like apple, except they call it 'zune points' or some such nonsense and you have to buy them $5 at a time.

If I had to do it again, I would probably just drop the extra coin and get the new 80gb model so that I could just put my whole collection on it, rather than keep it under 30gb.

5/12/2008 4:32:00 PM

technically it's 0.9875 cents per song w/ the zune ... it's all marketing.

5/12/2008 5:07:05 PM

As mentioned above (quag and others), I dont prefer HDD based players and they will be phased out. If you can get one on the cheap then more power to ya, but I would look into flash.

5/12/2008 5:38:35 PM

here's the one problem with flash... storage size.

a 32GB flash-based player is ($400-$500)

i got (and many others) got a 30GB zune for $99 or less.

and MANY, MANY people have mp3 libraries WELL over 30GB, not including TV shows & movies people now download

[Edited on May 12, 2008 at 5:41 PM. Reason : .]

5/12/2008 5:40:54 PM

^ very true. Its all personal preference. Originally I was torn, I wanted a mp3 player to hold all my music (and some video) 60gb+. I now have a 8gb flash Creative Zen, it fits my purpose, for walking/driving because its small and compact. I like video/tv but never find myself with downtime with which i want to watch a video smaller then 30", so thats not a desirable feature.

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=16999
retails for 300. Either way you still gotta weigh out size/cost/purpose etc.

5/12/2008 5:50:07 PM

yeah...i just did a search on ben's bargains and you can find the 8gb e280 on sale for ~$80 fairly consistently (new and refurb...i have a refurb that was, quite literally, new...thanks w00t)...you can also get an 8gb microSD for $50 on sale, or about $60 not on sale...so for $140 you've got a 16gb player that does pretty much everything except connect to teh intarweb and use a touch interface...if you're just now filling up 8gb, that should keep you going for a while

oh, and rockboxing it means you can just plug-and-play it (no software needed, though the sandisk software isn't that bad if you don't want to hack it)...the other advantage (IMO) of having expandable memory is being able to load up songs from ANYONE'S computer (so you don't have to install specific software, whether microsoft of apple or sandisk) and play them immediately

[Edited on May 12, 2008 at 6:00 PM. Reason : .]

5/12/2008 5:58:36 PM

i no its not much buts it CAN be free!

http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-2gb-secure-digital-sd-card/q/loc/101/202381374.html

5/12/2008 5:59:59 PM

^^i know i have a sansa 4gb w/ 2gb microSD in it

but 16GB is still a FAR FAR cry from HDD-based capacities.

Quote :

"Its all personal preference"

5/12/2008 6:03:39 PM

i got the 4gb zen and about to order this free sd card!

5/12/2008 6:12:35 PM

I got my iPod Touch free and I love it to death. It's pretty nifty as a PDA, but the actual product is at a loss because all of the features overlap with the iphone. Marketing both the iphone and touch seems like a hard task. However, I wouldn't pay MSRP for one.

5/13/2008 12:19:40 AM

The new zunes seem pretty cool.

But mostly, the Zune SOFTWARE is so worlds better than iTunes, it almost made me cry. And you can buy non-drm MP3's from the Zune market thing, which I applaud Microsoft for (and didn't realize you could do until today)

5/13/2008 4:06:20 AM

Quote :

"but 16GB is still a FAR FAR cry from HDD-based capacities."

oh, without a doubt...my only point is that he's just now filling up an 8gb, so 16gb for (depending on which he's looking at) half the price and using a more reliable, power-efficient, and versatile (in my experience) system should definitely be a consideration...and i cannot stress how great it is NOT to be tied down to a software installation (though with jailbreak it's not an issue, is it?)

5/13/2008 9:21:01 AM

Quote :

"And you can buy non-drm MP3's from the Zune market thing, which I applaud Microsoft for (and didn't realize you could do until today)"

You can do the same thing on iTunes, FYI.

5/13/2008 9:32:34 AM

It's not like you're bound to the Zune's marketplace for getting songs, you can upload any mp3s on your computer, drm'd or not. I like getting the $0.89 DRM-free 256 kbps tracks from Amazon's music store when I feel like paying for my music.

5/13/2008 10:23:03 AM