Into Tech

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. may announce
a much-anticipated iPod phone and will likely unveil revamped
iPod music players next week during the annual Macworld
conference here.

Microsoft says it expects to sell more than one million Zune music players by the end of June 2007.

Over in Japan, Ranut is releasing a line of Disney-themed portable music players built around 256MB of flash memory. Granted, 256MB can effectively be rounded down to 0MB for most of us here, but your kids might still get a kick out of it. Other than being branded with familiar Disney characters like Minnie Mouse, it’s pretty much a bare-bones, by-the-numbers MP3 player. Oh, and supposedly it only works with Windows. Looks like a winner for sure.

In this iPod and (if Microsoft has its way) Zune-dominated world, is there any room left for the little guy, especially when it relies on cartoon characters to generate sales? I’d take the under, personally. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page (in Japanese) [Runat via Fareastgizmos.com]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. may have a chance
to take market share from the iPod as a Reuters survey showed
35 percent of those interested in its Zune device would be
replacing an existing digital music player.

Next-gen has become now-gen, and despite massive shortages, at least the media can enjoy the latest gaming systems you can’t play. And when the reviews of three consoles collide, they smash into little pieces, mix in radioactive lava and form a Frankenreview. What did CNET, PCMag, TIME, Wired, and Rocky Mountain News think about the PS3 and Wii? And how did they stack up to the Xbox 360?

Hit the jump for the complete story and a dazzling 3D graph. Not to be a tease, but results surprised us a little…

Design

[The PS3 is] a console of sweeping curves and chrome accents…”
“Most impressively, there’s no external power supply for the PS3; you just plug the included power cable…”
“…the PS3 has a front-slot-loading, Blu-ray optical-disc drive, which contributes to the unit’s slicker appearance. Discs slide in and eject smoothly…the odds of snapping off or damaging the Xbox 360’s disc tray aren’t exactly negligible…”
“What’s impressive about this PS3, in fact, is that with all this power under the hood, the system runs as quietly as it does….”
“The Wii itself is a marvel of miniaturization.”
“The only wrinkle was setting up the thin, low-profile sensor bar… A long wire snakes down to the base unit and enables the controllers to work…”
“The [Wii] sensor bar is extremely unobtrusive, and we forgot it was even there minutes after setting up the system…”

Winner: Tie PS3 and Wii. Xbox 360 is both large and has a massive powerbrick.

Graphics
“It’s very hard to tell the difference between titles that are already available on the 360 and their PS3 counterparts…”
“…the Wii’s graphics look terrible compared with the competition.”
“The Wii also lacks advanced surround sound…”

Winner: Tie PS3 and Xbox 360. Maybe one day reviewers will say differently, but that day ain’t here yet. And intended or not, Nintendont deliver for the home theater enthusiast.

Interface
“…the overall design [of PS3 Interface] is slick enough to be called Mac-like, and–at least from an aesthetic standpoint–is more appealing than the Xbox 360’s Dashboard and Nintendo Wii’s Channels interfaces…”
“For a device powered by a 3.2-GHz Cell processor capable of 208 billion floating-point operations per second, this interface seems…Spartan.”
“Sony forgot a few basics, like the ability to use a photo as a backdrop to that simple menu, or listen to music while you are playing games.”
“The [Wii] console’s features are arranged around a series of Channels listed in side-by-side squares on your television that you access with the remote/controller.”

“While perusing the Wii channels, I came across the dubiously named My Accomplishments screen, which details exactly what your console did all day.”
“The Mii channel lets you set up cartoony avatars, which are used both as players in Wii Games–including Wii Sports…”
“…beware of false friends who make your nose two sizes too big…”

Winner: PS3 by slight edge. Let’s face it, everyone got it right in their own way. But if the reviewers must choose, they’re going with PS3, probably because the PSP interface and the PS3 match/integrate so well. And the Wii looks nice out of the box, but a lot of content will lead to jumbles of random buttons.

Multimedia
“The PS3’s media features are extensive–enough so that the console could be a worthwhile purchase even for people who never deign to even fire up a game…”
“The PS3 can extract and play an impressive selection of music, photo and movie formats from an equally impressive selection of memory cards and storage devices.”

“…we applaud Sony for not subjecting us to a Memory Stick-only environment…”
“…the Xbox 360 lacks both an internal media reader and the impressive photo album viewer…”
“[The PS3] cannot play back music from attached iPods, nor can it stream from other music players that incorporate copy-protected music formats. Here, the 360 has a leg-up.”
“You can stream video from your PS3 to your PSP using the PS3’s Remote Play feature…”
“PS3 is the first A/V device to hit the market to utilize the HDMI 1.3 specification…”
“…the multimedia functions of the [Wii] are light on bells and whistles…”
“The [Wii] Photo Channel…includes a basic image editor, though it’s clearly built more for fun than serious editing…the editor feels a lot like the old Super Nintendo classic Mario Paint.”
“It’s not as advanced as the PlayStation 3’s stunning visuals, nor can you store many photos inside the Wii…”

Winner: PS3. Sure, the 360 supports MP3 sharing a little better, but the PS3 photo system is incredibly advanced, as is the PSP connectivity (even if you might not use it). HDMI 1.3 is forward-thinking, too.
Controls / controllers

“The PS2’s Dual Shock controller had 8-bit sensitivity, while the PS3’s controller has 10-bit motion detection….”
“[SIXAXIS] isn’t as dramatic as the Wii’s wand-waving, but is it a welcome addition.”
“Playstation 3 controllers don’t rumble? Whose genius idea was that? Without rumble, it just ain’t a jungle.”
“The Wii controllers are also more sophisticated [than PS3], including the ability to measure actual motion (spatial movement) and acceleration, rather than just tilting–but unlike the Wii, the PS3 doesn’t require a motion-sensor bar in front of the TV.”
“I found that the sensitivity of the [Wii] controller - whether it was being used to steer a truck or swing a sword - was both intuitive and precise.”
“…after about a half hour, we were clicking, swinging, pointing, and playing with ease. By mid-day, we were hooked.”
“…the pointer gets occasionally jerky or twitchy, and the tilt controls require a light and subtle touch…”
“The split controller will also appeal to left-handed gamers for more complex games, since you can manipulate either controller with either hand.”
“…extra controllers a pretty pricey: $40 for additional Wiimotes, plus another $20 for the nunchuk.
“The Wii doesn’t come with any sort of charger, so you’ll almost certainly want to pick up a set of at least four rechargeable AA batteries and a battery charger.”

Winner: Wii (big surprise, but Nintendo needs to release some recharge packs ASAP). Surprisingly, the SIXAXIS is pretty decent, but it only ties the Xbox 360’s rumble and perfect weight/ergonomics.
Online play
No reviewers could test the Wii or PS3 functionality because it was disabled at the time. So…

Winner: Xbox 360 (by forfeit). But c’mon, is anyone ready to take on Live?

Play Play
i_10327.jpg”…it’s very hard to tell the difference between titles that are already available on the 360 and their PS3 counterparts…”
“The big question, of course, is whether the PS3 is $100 to $200 better than the Xbox 360. From a pure gaming perspective, the short answer is: no, not today.”
“Looking on, my wife couldn’t remember the last time she saw something as silly as two dudes jumping around, waving their arms and strutting…”
“I fear that some people might get real tennis elbow from Wii’s virtual Tennis, or even tear a rotator cuff when pitching in Wii’s Baseball.”

Winner: Orthapedic surgeons and the Wii - no one can argue that the system is flat out fun to play. For the nights we crave adult content, we choose the Xbox 360 because of a better gaming library and nothing in the reviews convinced us Sony was better. So that means PS3 outright loses for now. Last place. With the fat kids.

If You Were Too Lazy To Read Everything Above
“…the two versions of the PS3 are well worth their respective $500 and $600 price tags…”
“…[with the PS3] you can be sure you’ll feel that you got your money’s worth–from a gaming and a multimedia perspective.”
“…the Wii will probably leave many hard-core gamers wanting more.”
“…it would be easy to dismiss the Wii as more toy than technology…But the best innovations are often the simplest…”
“[Sony] naming a computer chip is like naming your genitals: you’re compensating for something…”

Winner: The Wii. By averages, the Wii just edges out the Xbox 360…but given that my TIME magazine was an extrapolation, an argument could be made for a tie. And while the PS3 came in 3rd, it did score high in more than one review. So readers, what do you think about the numbers?– Mark Wilson

CNET PS3
CNET Wii
CNET XBX
PCMag PS3
PCMag Wii
PCMag XBX
RockyMt. PS3
RockyMt. Wii
RockyMt. XBX
Time PS3
Time Wii

When we’re making a comparison between the iPod and the Zune, it’s also important to note that the software makes a big difference in your music experience. You’ll have to use the software suite extensively for both playing back music at your computer and organizing songs onto your portable device. This is why both iTunes and Zune Software play such a large part in determining which music player you should purchase.

So which one is better? That depends largely on your personal usage habits, but suffice it to say iTunes has a challenger on its hands. Find out why after the jump.

It’s hard to customize a music player or music library for everyone’s use. Some people don’t use ratings at all—I love them—and some people don’t use smart playlists. So to figure out which one’s better for you, you’ll have to pick and choose the features you like and decided on that. Here we go.

Music Importing: On install, the Zune automatically imports your existing iTunes database, for the most part without any hiccups. It even grabs the playlists and converts them to Zune’s default playlist format. What it doesn’t do is import the smart playlists, so you’ll have to start all over with those. Except you can’t, because there aren’t any smart playlists in the Zune. In any case, the Zune should carry over the non-protected iTunes music, but if you purchased songs from the iTunes store (or any other online store) you’re out of luck.

Also, you can’t drag and drop stuff onto the Zune, you’ll have to set up folders that it automatically monitors. Useful in one way, but kinda awkward in another, since it has to rescan all folders every time you add a new folder.

Music Store: Some of you won’t care about this, *cough* file sharers *cough*, but in the realm of selection, Apple has a couple million more songs than Zune. Eventually Zune should be able to catch up, but if you want more music now, you’ll have to go with Apple. However, if you’re looking to buy tons and tons of music, Zune has a all-you-can-eat subscription plan to rent music for $15 a month, which is great if you want to load up your entire 30GB with songs that you don’t currently own. Buying music is equally simple on both, as long as you’ve either already have an Apple account or a Hotmail/Xbox 360 Marketplace account.

Also, there are no TV and Movies on Zune. This may either be a big deal or a non-issue.

Music Playback: This could be me, but on the default equalizer settings the Zune Software sounds a lot fuller and better than iTunes, even on the same MP3. Even after fiddling with iTunes’ equalizer I couldn’t get it to sound as good as Zune’s. This is subjective, and could totally be in my imagination, but there ya go. Both have a “Now playing” area in the player, a minimized mode, and playback control.




Music Transfer/Loading: Thanks to iTunes’ smart playlists, you can easily pick only the songs you want, in interesting combinations, to sync to your iPod. Only five starred songs that you’ve played between three weeks and a month ago? Done.

The Zune Software (which just locked up as I plugged in a Zune, incidentally) has a concept of “Auto Playlist” for syncing, and only for syncing. You can filter by all the song’s criteria, including play count and rating, which makes it similar in functionality to iTunes, but it’s kinda hidden. You’ll have to right click on your Zune’s name, then go to “Set up Sync” in order to see your lists. The functionality’s there, but Microsoft should make this option more visible.

Music Presentation: iTunes 7 divides your music up into your library, the store, and your playlists. Zune has playlists, your library, and marketplace. Quite similar, save for a little rearrangement of items. When browsing your library, iTunes has Coverflow view, album view, and list view, whereas Zune has icon/tile view, which shows all the album covers, and details view. Once you get to a single artist, you get an album view which looks similar to iTunes. Honestly there’s not that much difference here, but you do get Coverflow when you go with Apple’s software.

Music Organization/Playlists: Zune only has regular playlists here, which causes my own experience to suffer since I love smart playlists. And when you view a playlist in Zune, you can only view by detail view and not album view. iTunes wins here, but only if you like smart playlists.

Music Searching: Both suites search “while typing”, but Zune’s search is quite a lot faster. Not a huge deal if you have a fast machine, but if you search often the times add up. Zune also downloads the Zune Marketplace database locally, so even store searches are fast. Another bonus to Zune is that if you search for something you don’t have, it’ll show a link to Zune’s Marketplace automatically. So if you’re on a subscription plan, you can go and download the song quickly.

If you’re just starting out and picking either an iPod or a Zune, you should be satisfied with either music management suite. The two match each other pretty well in functionality, save for smart playlists, but are just about equal in other ways. iTunes has more music, but Zune has the subscription plan.

If you’re already an iTunes user, you may find it harder to switch over to the Zune because the Zune doesn’t carry over your purchased songs, nor does it import your play counts. You lose smart playlist functionality, plus whatever plugins you’ve got for your software. And if you’re a Mac user, you’re just plain out of luck.

Of course, this is just for the software, and you’ll have to consider the other half of the puzzle, hardware, to make up your mind. – Jason Chen

Zune vs. iTunes Image [Gizmodo]

Zune Product Page [Amazon]

iPod Product Page [Amazon]

When we’re making a comparison between the iPod and the Zune, it’s also important to note that the software makes a big difference in your music experience. You’ll have to use the software suite extensively for both playing back music at your computer and organizing songs onto your portable device. This is why both iTunes and Zune Software play such a large part in determining which music player you should purchase.

So which one is better? That depends largely on your personal usage habits, but suffice it to say iTunes has a challenger on its hands. Find out why after the jump.

It’s hard to customize a music player or music library for everyone’s use. Some people don’t use ratings at all—I love them—and some people don’t use smart playlists. So to figure out which one’s better for you, you’ll have to pick and choose the features you like and decided on that. Here we go.

Music Importing: On install, the Zune automatically imports your existing iTunes database, for the most part without any hiccups. It even grabs the playlists and converts them to Zune’s default playlist format. What it doesn’t do is import the smart playlists, so you’ll have to start all over with those. Except you can’t, because there aren’t any smart playlists in the Zune. In any case, the Zune should carry over the non-protected iTunes music, but if you purchased songs from the iTunes store (or any other online store) you’re out of luck.

Also, you can’t drag and drop stuff onto the Zune, you’ll have to set up folders that it automatically monitors. Useful in one way, but kinda awkward in another, since it has to rescan all folders every time you add a new folder.

Music Store: Some of you won’t care about this, *cough* file sharers *cough*, but in the realm of selection, Apple has a couple million more songs than Zune. Eventually Zune should be able to catch up, but if you want more music now, you’ll have to go with Apple. However, if you’re looking to buy tons and tons of music, Zune has a all-you-can-eat subscription plan to rent music for $15 a month, which is great if you want to load up your entire 30GB with songs that you don’t currently own. Buying music is equally simple on both, as long as you’ve either already have an Apple account or a Hotmail/Xbox 360 Marketplace account.

Also, there are no TV and Movies on Zune. This may either be a big deal or a non-issue.

Music Playback: This could be me, but on the default equalizer settings the Zune Software sounds a lot fuller and better than iTunes, even on the same MP3. Even after fiddling with iTunes’ equalizer I couldn’t get it to sound as good as Zune’s. This is subjective, and could totally be in my imagination, but there ya go. Both have a “Now playing” area in the player, a minimized mode, and playback control.




Music Transfer/Loading: Thanks to iTunes’ smart playlists, you can easily pick only the songs you want, in interesting combinations, to sync to your iPod. Only five starred songs that you’ve played between three weeks and a month ago? Done.

The Zune Software (which just locked up as I plugged in a Zune, incidentally) has a concept of “Auto Playlist” for syncing, and only for syncing. You can filter by all the song’s criteria, including play count and rating, which makes it similar in functionality to iTunes, but it’s kinda hidden. You’ll have to right click on your Zune’s name, then go to “Set up Sync” in order to see your lists. The functionality’s there, but Microsoft should make this option more visible.

Music Presentation: iTunes 7 divides your music up into your library, the store, and your playlists. Zune has playlists, your library, and marketplace. Quite similar, save for a little rearrangement of items. When browsing your library, iTunes has Coverflow view, album view, and list view, whereas Zune has icon/tile view, which shows all the album covers, and details view. Once you get to a single artist, you get an album view which looks similar to iTunes. Honestly there’s not that much difference here, but you do get Coverflow when you go with Apple’s software.

Music Organization/Playlists: Zune only has regular playlists here, which causes my own experience to suffer since I love smart playlists. And when you view a playlist in Zune, you can only view by detail view and not album view. iTunes wins here, but only if you like smart playlists.

Music Searching: Both suites search “while typing”, but Zune’s search is quite a lot faster. Not a huge deal if you have a fast machine, but if you search often the times add up. Zune also downloads the Zune Marketplace database locally, so even store searches are fast. Another bonus to Zune is that if you search for something you don’t have, it’ll show a link to Zune’s Marketplace automatically. So if you’re on a subscription plan, you can go and download the song quickly.

If you’re just starting out and picking either an iPod or a Zune, you should be satisfied with either music management suite. The two match each other pretty well in functionality, save for smart playlists, but are just about equal in other ways. iTunes has more music, but Zune has the subscription plan.

If you’re already an iTunes user, you may find it harder to switch over to the Zune because the Zune doesn’t carry over your purchased songs, nor does it import your play counts. You lose smart playlist functionality, plus whatever plugins you’ve got for your software. And if you’re a Mac user, you’re just plain out of luck.

Of course, this is just for the software, and you’ll have to consider the other half of the puzzle, hardware, to make up your mind. – Jason Chen

Zune vs. iTunes Image [Gizmodo]

Zune Product Page [Amazon]

iPod Product Page [Amazon]

When we’re making a comparison between the iPod and the Zune, it’s also important to note that the software makes a big difference in your music experience. You’ll have to use the software suite extensively for both playing back music at your computer and organizing songs onto your portable device. This is why both iTunes and Zune Software play such a large part in determining which music player you should purchase.

So which one is better? That depends largely on your personal usage habits, but suffice it to say iTunes has a challenger on its hands. Find out why after the jump.

It’s hard to customize a music player or music library for everyone’s use. Some people don’t use ratings at all—I love them—and some people don’t use smart playlists. So to figure out which one’s better for you, you’ll have to pick and choose the features you like and decided on that. Here we go.

Music Importing: On install, the Zune automatically imports your existing iTunes database, for the most part without any hiccups. It even grabs the playlists and converts them to Zune’s default playlist format. What it doesn’t do is import the smart playlists, so you’ll have to start all over with those. Except you can’t, because there aren’t any smart playlists in the Zune. In any case, the Zune should carry over the non-protected iTunes music, but if you purchased songs from the iTunes store (or any other online store) you’re out of luck.

Also, you can’t drag and drop stuff onto the Zune, you’ll have to set up folders that it automatically monitors. Useful in one way, but kinda awkward in another, since it has to rescan all folders every time you add a new folder.

Music Store: Some of you won’t care about this, *cough* file sharers *cough*, but in the realm of selection, Apple has a couple million more songs than Zune. Eventually Zune should be able to catch up, but if you want more music now, you’ll have to go with Apple. However, if you’re looking to buy tons and tons of music, Zune has a all-you-can-eat subscription plan to rent music for $15 a month, which is great if you want to load up your entire 30GB with songs that you don’t currently own. Buying music is equally simple on both, as long as you’ve either already have an Apple account or a Hotmail/Xbox 360 Marketplace account.

Also, there are no TV and Movies on Zune. This may either be a big deal or a non-issue.

Music Playback: This could be me, but on the default equalizer settings the Zune Software sounds a lot fuller and better than iTunes, even on the same MP3. Even after fiddling with iTunes’ equalizer I couldn’t get it to sound as good as Zune’s. This is subjective, and could totally be in my imagination, but there ya go. Both have a “Now playing” area in the player, a minimized mode, and playback control.




Music Transfer/Loading: Thanks to iTunes’ smart playlists, you can easily pick only the songs you want, in interesting combinations, to sync to your iPod. Only five starred songs that you’ve played between three weeks and a month ago? Done.

The Zune Software (which just locked up as I plugged in a Zune, incidentally) has a concept of “Auto Playlist” for syncing, and only for syncing. You can filter by all the song’s criteria, including play count and rating, which makes it similar in functionality to iTunes, but it’s kinda hidden. You’ll have to right click on your Zune’s name, then go to “Set up Sync” in order to see your lists. The functionality’s there, but Microsoft should make this option more visible.

Music Presentation: iTunes 7 divides your music up into your library, the store, and your playlists. Zune has playlists, your library, and marketplace. Quite similar, save for a little rearrangement of items. When browsing your library, iTunes has Coverflow view, album view, and list view, whereas Zune has icon/tile view, which shows all the album covers, and details view. Once you get to a single artist, you get an album view which looks similar to iTunes. Honestly there’s not that much difference here, but you do get Coverflow when you go with Apple’s software.

Music Organization/Playlists: Zune only has regular playlists here, which causes my own experience to suffer since I love smart playlists. And when you view a playlist in Zune, you can only view by detail view and not album view. iTunes wins here, but only if you like smart playlists.

Music Searching: Both suites search “while typing”, but Zune’s search is quite a lot faster. Not a huge deal if you have a fast machine, but if you search often the times add up. Zune also downloads the Zune Marketplace database locally, so even store searches are fast. Another bonus to Zune is that if you search for something you don’t have, it’ll show a link to Zune’s Marketplace automatically. So if you’re on a subscription plan, you can go and download the song quickly.

If you’re just starting out and picking either an iPod or a Zune, you should be satisfied with either music management suite. The two match each other pretty well in functionality, save for smart playlists, but are just about equal in other ways. iTunes has more music, but Zune has the subscription plan.

If you’re already an iTunes user, you may find it harder to switch over to the Zune because the Zune doesn’t carry over your purchased songs, nor does it import your play counts. You lose smart playlist functionality, plus whatever plugins you’ve got for your software. And if you’re a Mac user, you’re just plain out of luck.

Of course, this is just for the software, and you’ll have to consider the other half of the puzzle, hardware, to make up your mind. – Jason Chen

Zune vs. iTunes Image [Gizmodo]

Zune Product Page [Amazon]

iPod Product Page [Amazon]

When we’re making a comparison between the iPod and the Zune, it’s also important to note that the software makes a big difference in your music experience. You’ll have to use the software suite extensively for both playing back music at your computer and organizing songs onto your portable device. This is why both iTunes and Zune Software play such a large part in determining which music player you should purchase.

So which one is better? That depends largely on your personal usage habits, but suffice it to say iTunes has a challenger on its hands. Find out why after the jump.

It’s hard to customize a music player or music library for everyone’s use. Some people don’t use ratings at all—I love them—and some people don’t use smart playlists. So to figure out which one’s better for you, you’ll have to pick and choose the features you like and decided on that. Here we go.

Music Importing: On install, the Zune automatically imports your existing iTunes database, for the most part without any hiccups. It even grabs the playlists and converts them to Zune’s default playlist format. What it doesn’t do is import the smart playlists, so you’ll have to start all over with those. Except you can’t, because there aren’t any smart playlists in the Zune. In any case, the Zune should carry over the non-protected iTunes music, but if you purchased songs from the iTunes store (or any other online store) you’re out of luck.

Also, you can’t drag and drop stuff onto the Zune, you’ll have to set up folders that it automatically monitors. Useful in one way, but kinda awkward in another, since it has to rescan all folders every time you add a new folder.

Music Store: Some of you won’t care about this, *cough* file sharers *cough*, but in the realm of selection, Apple has a couple million more songs than Zune. Eventually Zune should be able to catch up, but if you want more music now, you’ll have to go with Apple. However, if you’re looking to buy tons and tons of music, Zune has a all-you-can-eat subscription plan to rent music for $15 a month, which is great if you want to load up your entire 30GB with songs that you don’t currently own. Buying music is equally simple on both, as long as you’ve either already have an Apple account or a Hotmail/Xbox 360 Marketplace account.

Also, there are no TV and Movies on Zune. This may either be a big deal or a non-issue.

Music Playback: This could be me, but on the default equalizer settings the Zune Software sounds a lot fuller and better than iTunes, even on the same MP3. Even after fiddling with iTunes’ equalizer I couldn’t get it to sound as good as Zune’s. This is subjective, and could totally be in my imagination, but there ya go. Both have a “Now playing” area in the player, a minimized mode, and playback control.




Music Transfer/Loading: Thanks to iTunes’ smart playlists, you can easily pick only the songs you want, in interesting combinations, to sync to your iPod. Only five starred songs that you’ve played between three weeks and a month ago? Done.

The Zune Software (which just locked up as I plugged in a Zune, incidentally) has a concept of “Auto Playlist” for syncing, and only for syncing. You can filter by all the song’s criteria, including play count and rating, which makes it similar in functionality to iTunes, but it’s kinda hidden. You’ll have to right click on your Zune’s name, then go to “Set up Sync” in order to see your lists. The functionality’s there, but Microsoft should make this option more visible.

Music Presentation: iTunes 7 divides your music up into your library, the store, and your playlists. Zune has playlists, your library, and marketplace. Quite similar, save for a little rearrangement of items. When browsing your library, iTunes has Coverflow view, album view, and list view, whereas Zune has icon/tile view, which shows all the album covers, and details view. Once you get to a single artist, you get an album view which looks similar to iTunes. Honestly there’s not that much difference here, but you do get Coverflow when you go with Apple’s software.

Music Organization/Playlists: Zune only has regular playlists here, which causes my own experience to suffer since I love smart playlists. And when you view a playlist in Zune, you can only view by detail view and not album view. iTunes wins here, but only if you like smart playlists.

Music Searching: Both suites search “while typing”, but Zune’s search is quite a lot faster. Not a huge deal if you have a fast machine, but if you search often the times add up. Zune also downloads the Zune Marketplace database locally, so even store searches are fast. Another bonus to Zune is that if you search for something you don’t have, it’ll show a link to Zune’s Marketplace automatically. So if you’re on a subscription plan, you can go and download the song quickly.

If you’re just starting out and picking either an iPod or a Zune, you should be satisfied with either music management suite. The two match each other pretty well in functionality, save for smart playlists, but are just about equal in other ways. iTunes has more music, but Zune has the subscription plan.

If you’re already an iTunes user, you may find it harder to switch over to the Zune because the Zune doesn’t carry over your purchased songs, nor does it import your play counts. You lose smart playlist functionality, plus whatever plugins you’ve got for your software. And if you’re a Mac user, you’re just plain out of luck.

Of course, this is just for the software, and you’ll have to consider the other half of the puzzle, hardware, to make up your mind. – Jason Chen

Zune vs. iTunes Image [Gizmodo]

Zune Product Page [Amazon]

iPod Product Page [Amazon]

Microsoft’s Zune music player, a rival to Apple’s iPod, goes on sale in the US, receiving mixed reviews.