Roxio Labs

We just had to have a Zune in the Lab. Like the iPod and PSP, its just one of those devices your software should work with.



The device itself is zippy, easy to use, and very addicting. I realized that if you hold it somewhere around arm's length, it's the same relative size as most TVs from the typical viewing distance. So, even though not as much detail is available to your eye, the space it consumes in your field of view is nearly equivalent (depending on what kind of TV you're used to watching, of course).

Zune, like many other media players, comes with it's own software. Apparently Microsoft has created a competitor to its ubiquitous Windows Media Player. Go figure. The software is no iLife, but it's a reasonable start for a product late to the game. One hopes that there will be a greater integration level in a future version of Vista.

Roxio applications like Easy Media Creator can work with Zune today. All you have to do is output one of the file types Zune supports, such as JPEG, WMA, WMV, MPEG-4 and more. Zune will automatically synchronize with your PC and pull the files over.

One glaring omission in the Zune feature-set: The Zune has built-in wireless to share songs with other Zune devices, but can't wirelessly connect to PCs or XBox 360s. Wireless streaming to an Xbox 360 would have been a killer "walled garden" experience that would have really added to the Zune's allure, and who knows, maybe with firmware updates on both devices, that will be possible someday. All the same, I respectfully disagree with engadget's assessment that the wireless is worthless. I think the person-to-person sharing experience is one that hands-down beats downloading from a corporate Internet site. Most people hear about albums from their friends anyway. It's a communal thing.

Besides, I suspect that Apple and Microsoft may have other motives for not offering a computer-free experience in a digital media device. Both companies make their bread and butter from computer sales and licensing (either hardware or software). The more the device can do to enhance and compliment that experience the better. (Yes, I know iTunes is on Windows, but Apple didn't have much choice there). Either that or, uh, they're just too busy.