A Zune By Any Other Name Still May Not Be An iPod
Tech News 1.0
The Gomadic team has decided to devote some time to current events in the tech community, providing a small space to consider what’s new, hot or controversial for our Gomadic fans and the corporate partners we support with our tips, cables, and devices. Look back daily to see our best of the best of blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget to industry giants like Apple.
In today’s news:
A Zune by any other name . . .
Microsoft is revamping its iPod competitor, the Zune, and planning a networking site called Zune Social Web to mimic MySpace and to swerve around those pesky intellectual property rights all the record companies have been pouting about ever since a little guy named Napster made all that noise so many years ago (has it been that long? Sigh).
There’s a great article in the New York Times today (including mp3 clips of Bill Gates talking about why it’s important to compete with Steve Jobs’ iPod despite it’s overwhelming domination of the market.)
Also check out the mp3 of Gates talking about the changes to the Zune and his social networking experiment in the piece by Jeff Leeds.
The gist of it focuses on the former expiration times of the old Zune file sharing experience and revamped subscription-based service that lets people pay monthly to expand their musical tastes across the board.
To quote Jeff Leeds:
“Under the new rules, Microsoft said, shared songs would have no expiration date and it would be possible repeatedly to pass along songs sent from one device to another. But a shared file can be played only three times on each Zune.
Partly to warm up the initially tepid response, the company is creating a social-networking site, Zune Social, to encourage the sharing of samples of songs online, even for fans who do not own a Zune player. Members of the network will also be able to use a small application on their computers to display which songs they have been listening to, and that information can be posted on certain Web sites outside the network or sent by e-mail to friends.”
So will this Zune smell sweeter than the previous incarnation? Maybe . . . So be sure to stock up on Gomadic's Zune accessories. If you’re still true to you ipods you can get accessories for those too. Better yet throw them both up on our new QuadCharge.
The Gomadic team has decided to devote some time to current events in the tech community, providing a small space to consider what’s new, hot or controversial for our Gomadic fans and the corporate partners we support with our tips, cables, and devices. Look back daily to see our best of the best of blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget to industry giants like Apple.
In today’s news:
A Zune by any other name . . .
Microsoft is revamping its iPod competitor, the Zune, and planning a networking site called Zune Social Web to mimic MySpace and to swerve around those pesky intellectual property rights all the record companies have been pouting about ever since a little guy named Napster made all that noise so many years ago (has it been that long? Sigh).
There’s a great article in the New York Times today (including mp3 clips of Bill Gates talking about why it’s important to compete with Steve Jobs’ iPod despite it’s overwhelming domination of the market.)
Also check out the mp3 of Gates talking about the changes to the Zune and his social networking experiment in the piece by Jeff Leeds.
The gist of it focuses on the former expiration times of the old Zune file sharing experience and revamped subscription-based service that lets people pay monthly to expand their musical tastes across the board.
To quote Jeff Leeds:
“Under the new rules, Microsoft said, shared songs would have no expiration date and it would be possible repeatedly to pass along songs sent from one device to another. But a shared file can be played only three times on each Zune.
Partly to warm up the initially tepid response, the company is creating a social-networking site, Zune Social, to encourage the sharing of samples of songs online, even for fans who do not own a Zune player. Members of the network will also be able to use a small application on their computers to display which songs they have been listening to, and that information can be posted on certain Web sites outside the network or sent by e-mail to friends.”
So will this Zune smell sweeter than the previous incarnation? Maybe . . . So be sure to stock up on Gomadic's Zune accessories. If you’re still true to you ipods you can get accessories for those too. Better yet throw them both up on our new QuadCharge.