You can’t say I didn’t give my Zune a fair shake. I bought it not long after launch, last November. Honestly, it’s a nice player but in reality, all music players…play music. I bought it for what I call the "differentiators": the features that other players don’t have. Two come to mind: the relatively larger 320 x 240 screen and the integrated WiFi. It’s been nearly a year and what’s happened: other devices have even larger screens with higher resolution. The iPhone screen is nearly twice the size and offers 480 x 320 resolution, for example. And the WiFi in the Zune? All I can say is: I had hoped by now it would be usable for music purchases, but no such luck.
Late last night, I hit up the iTunes store on my iPhone and bought an album. I can’t remember the last time I bought an iTunes album, but the experience last night was seamless, simple and quick. Demo tracks played instantly and when I finally decided on an album (James Blunt’s "All the Lost Souls"), it was a few quick taps and that was it. The songs transferred over my WiFi network in 10 to 15 seconds each. As a consumer, my patience for hoped Zune updates is long past. I gave it plenty of time, but I’m pulling the plug. Off to eBay goes one Black Zune. Hey, it does have WiFi; should I put that in the eBay item description or not?
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