So if Microsoft actually releases the Zune in December, do you think it will out beat their rival the shitPods... I mean iPods? What do you all think?

Time, and our ears, will tell.

Personally, I can't stand I-Pods. I don't care what the users of the media think, music sounds like shit to me on those damn little fuckers.

If the "zune" uses a different sampling rate or can make whatever compression they plan to use sound better on a Beethoven Symphony or a John Williams soundtrack, then yeah maybe.

But if it's just another "oh wow i got teh new post-baby brtnay speers song lolomg!11!" device, then fuck 'em.

I completely agree with you.

There were just way too many negative reviews about the iPods, ranging from freezing up, to freezing up and loosing all the data then eventually just quit working all together for no reason. That is why I stayed away from the iPods and got the Creative Zen Vision: M. Plus iTunes sucks major ass, I had installed iTunes once to try it out. I converted an mp3 into the ACC file or whatever the fuck iTunes requires and iTunes seriously would NOT import the fucker no matter how many times I tried. I eventually gave up and just deleted iTunes off my computer.

As far as the sound quality goes, I did notice with a lot of reviews a lot of people were not happy with the sound quality at all. The sound quality for my Creative Zen is awesome and I hope Microsoft's Zune is as well..even though I have no plans on getting one but still.

There was a little video about the Zune on MSN that I saw the other day and one thing it pointed out is that customers were unhappy with how small the screen was for the iPods. The Zune has a much bigger screen...I think it is a 3'' screen. My Creative Zen has a 2.5'' screen which is fine with me.

Personally I hope that the Microsoft Zune outbeats the shitPods.

Zune uses the same standard bitrate as iTunes/iPod. 128 kbps. I don't think it will be very good, because the built in wifi card is going to suck the hell out of the battery. I had an iPod at one point, but sold it. I might get one of those new Nanos since they look pretty cool, but I surely won't be buying a Zune.

- http://digg.com/tech_news/Zune_s_Viral_ ... ns_License

Apparently long story short, any file sent over WiFi player to player will have on-the-fly DRM slapped on it, which only allows for the music file (regardless of type) to be played three times, or for 3 days.

It is also important to remember that the Zune will not play protected windows media.

So considering MTH's post with this explination. Go get yourself a nano.

Pah fuck the iPods. If anything people should go the Creative route.

I love my iPod.

I doubt Creative's players would work very well with my iMac.

From Creative's page:

REQUIREMENTS

Microsoft® Windows® XP (Service Pack 1 or higher)
Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz, AMD® Duron 1GHz or better processor
256MB RAM
170MB free hard drive space

You could run Boot-Camp or Parallels. It works surprisingly well on my MacBook Pro to game with, it's just a pain to restart and select the different HD partition to boot from. That and allocating enough space.

Agreed. I've had my fifth gen for almost a year now and have never had any problems with it. Of course I should note the first thing I did was throw away the earbuds and buy better headphones. I also don't use iTunes but instead a plugin for winamp.

Eh, I use a Mac to get away from Windows if you know what I mean. I tried BC when it first came out and wasn't that impressed. Back to Tiger (and soon Leopard) for me.

Yar, I love my iPod, too. But I think it's universally know that the earbuds that come with it suck. Is't it nice that you pop down a few hundred bucks for this thing and you get the worst earbuds ever made? Aside from that, I don't get all the iPod hate... I think it sounds great (with the $50 Sony earbuds I got), and I can't really say that I've ever had any problem with the iTunes, either. Maybe it's just cool to be against the establishment...

The new iPods have redesigned earbuds.

I just got an ipod nano. Not on my own volition - it was a gift. I think it's actually pretty slick. Comes in a pretty box too.

Anyways, anyone have suggestions for a good quality pair of headphones? I don't have any lying around, and those earbuds don't fit well in my ears.

I'd also be up for some headphone recommendations. Under $50.

Okay for those who want high end priced headphones...

Here's a pair from Sony which is for $71.28 and they make some pretty damn good headphones.

For the lower end if you don't want to go that much get these kind from Sony. These are the best street style headphones I've owned. The sound quality for them is pretty damn good especially for just about $20.00. Though the black plastic things that are sticking out above the ear speakers themselves I always take out since they hurt the ears to much to have them in.

Anyways hope this helps!

Those street style ones are good, and yes those plastic things do hurt your ears. Another thing that sucks about them is that the cord is just too long in my experience. I had to tie it up.

I will agree about the cord. It is a tad too long. If it was an inch or two shorter then it would be fine.