Zune
Zune was an MP3 player developed by Microsoft that was sold in the United States and Canada.
Launch and models
On November 14, 2006, the first generation of the Zune was presented with a 30 GB hard drive . The retail price was initially 250 US dollars , then depending on the color between 200 and 250 US dollars . The device was built by Toshiba and sold by Microsoft .
The second generation followed on November 13, 2007. The retail prices (MSRP) for the hard drive variants of the Zune were $ 249.99 (120 GB) and $ 229.99 (80 GB). The devices with flash storage were priced at $ 179.99 (16 GB), $ 139.99 (8 GB), and $ 99.99 (4 GB). Microsoft had this generation manufactured at Flextronics , where the Xbox 360 was also manufactured.
Rumors of a market launch in Europe in 2007 were not confirmed. In the US, the third generation was released in autumn 2008 and the Zune HD in autumn 2009.
At the beginning of October 2011, Microsoft announced that it would not develop any further Zune players. The service was initially continued as software. On October 26, 2012, this was also replaced with the introduction of Windows 8 by Xbox Music on Xbox 360 , Windows Phone and Windows 8.
Functions
Radio and WiFi
Was the second generation of the Zune with an FM receiver (frequency range from 76.0 to 108.0 MHz) and a 80- or 120- GB - hard disk respectively, 4-GB, 8 GB or 16 GB flash Storage equipped. Music and photos could be passed on to other Zune players in the immediate vicinity (~ 10 m) via WLAN ( 802.11b / g ). Transferred pieces of music were, however, provided with DRM protection and could only be played back to a limited extent (3 times, see review ). Pieces of music that could no longer be played could only be marked for purchase via the Zune portal.
Playback formats
The Zune supported playback of audio, pictures, videos, and podcasts . The synchronization can take place via wireless LAN .
- The audio formats MP3 , AAC and WMA (also the variant wma- lossless ) were supported. The free format Ogg Vorbis was not supported; Audiobooks in Audible format will not be available until the Zune 3.0 update.
- The JPEG format was intended for images .
- Videos could be played in H.264 , WMV or MPEG-4 format ; for this they had to be adapted to the image resolution of the device, which the management software does. Microsoft's own standard PlaysForSure was not supported by the Zune.
- Audio and video podcasts were recently supported by both the software and the player.
On September 8, 2008, Microsoft had the Zune 3.0 update announced for 16 September 2008, which belonged to the radio songs for later purchase online via the Zune Marketplace tagging allowed. Other announced functions include: "Music Channels" with music preferred by the owner (see Last.fm ), the purchase of songs directly from the device at the "Zune Marketplace" and two games, Hexic and Texas Hold'em . The update supported Audible audiobooks and the OverDrive media format used by (US) public libraries .
Appearance
Device variants and display
The second generation devices with 80 GB (hard disk) were sold in red and black, the 120 GB version only in black. They had a 3.2 inch large QVGA - display , arranged vertically. The iPod Classic, on the other hand, had a 2.5 ″ display that was arranged horizontally. The 4: 3 resolution of the two displays was the same (320 × 240 pixels). Just under three-quarters of the front of the Zune was taken up by the screen.
The second generation of the Zune with flash memory was available in black, red, pink and green (4 GB), the 8 GB in blue and the new 16 GB variant in black. The QVGA resolution display measured 1.8 ″ and took up a little more than half of the front of the Zune.
The third generation of the Zune, called the Zune HD, had 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory. The 16 GB version was sold in black, the 32 GB version in silver. They had a 3.3 ″ capacitive touchscreen , which was multi-touch capable and arranged upright. However, an acceleration sensor also allowed it to be used in landscape mode. The resolution in the 16: 9 format of the screen was 480 × 272 pixels; In addition, the Zune HD is capable of playing 720p videos (up to 30 fps). However, since such small displays were unable to play high-resolution videos, an HDMI cable for the television was included.
service
The first generation of the Zune had a control pad, which optically was based on the “click wheel” of the iPod. In contrast to the "Click Wheel", the control pad did not have any touch-sensitive properties. The control pad allowed the user to operate the interface via the functions “up” and “down”, “left” and “right” as well as in the middle to “confirm” menu entries . The Zune also had a "Back" and "Play / Pause" button.
In the second generation, Microsoft replaced the original control pad with a specially developed touchpad (“Zune Pad”) with a diameter of 24 mm. The touchpad now allowed the user to scroll through the interface both horizontally and vertically. However, there was still a control pad under the touchpad, so that the user did not necessarily have to rely on the touchpad for operation. This circumvented some of the disadvantages of a touchpad. For example, the Zune could still be operated with gloves or wet fingers.
The Zune was held upright when playing music, while it was rotated 90 ° to the left when playing back pictures and videos. Games provided the "correct" posture themselves. The Zune was held upright in the game "Hexic" while it was held sideways in "Texas Hold'em".
Technical specifications
| Zune 30 | Zune 4 | Zune 8 | Zune 16 | Zune 80 | Zune 120 | Zune HD | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Type | hard disk | Flash memory | hard disk | Flash memory | |||||
| capacity | 30 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB | 80 GB | 120 GB | 16 GB | 32 GB | 64 GB | |
| Max. Battery life in h | 14th | 24 | 30th | 33 | ||||||
| Weight in g | 174 | 47 | 128 | 72.5 | ||||||
| size in mm | height | 111.76 | 91.5 | 108.2 | 104 | |||||
| width | 60.96 | 41.4 | 61.21 | 53 | ||||||
| depth | 15.24 | 8.5 | 12.95 | 9 | ||||||
| Display | size | 3 ″ | 1.8 ″ | 3.2 ″ | 3.3 ″ | |||||
| resolution | 240 × 230 | 480 × 272 | ||||||||
| Release date ( USA ) | November 2006 |
November 2007 |
November 2008 |
November 2007 |
November 2008 |
September 2009 |
April 2010 |
|||
| Introductory price in USD | 249.95 | 149.99 | 199.99 | 199.00 | 249.99 | 199.99 | 269.99 | 349.99 | ||
Zune Marketplace
At the same time as the player, Microsoft had launched its own music download shop in the USA , where tracks for the Zune could be purchased and downloaded. Microsoft wanted to attack the market leadership of Apple's iTunes Store . According to press reports, an advertising budget of $ 500 million should achieve a large market share .
The download per song cost 79 Microsoft Points , the equivalent of 0.99 US dollars - this accounting unit was also used on Xbox Live . These points could be purchased in blocks of 400 for five US dollars. In addition, the “Zune Marketplace” offered a flat rate (“Zune Pass”) for 15 US dollars a month, whereby an unlimited number of titles from the repertoire could be downloaded but only listened to for the duration of the subscription due to digital rights management . Since November 19, 2008, users of the “Zune Pass” have been allowed to keep any ten songs from the Marketplace per month. The Zune Marketplace now held around three million titles, competitor iTunes over ten million.
Other offers on the Zune Marketplace included videos from television productions such as Heroes , South Park , Dr. House and EUReKA as well as podcasts.
The service was finally discontinued in November 2015. Since then, customers can no longer access the music they have purchased in the event of data loss.
equipment
In the scope of delivery of the Zune variants, comparable to most vendors of players, there were headphones and a USB 2.0 connection cable for synchronization with the PC ( Windows XP and Vista ) and for charging the built-in battery.
At the end of 2008, the manufacturer's range of accessories included:
- Home A / V Pack: docking station, charger, cable for connection to a TV, remote control
- Car Pack: FM transmitter , charging cable for the cigarette lighter, wired remote control
- Premium headphones: In-ear headphones with three adapters to adapt to the ear size and a protective case
- AC adapter: mains charger
- Leather case for the 4/8/16 GB flash player
Game development for Zune
The XNA Framework , a collection of programming interfaces made available by Microsoft , made it possible for anyone to develop games for the Zune. However, due to the lack of corresponding areas in the Zune Marketplace, it was not yet possible to sell the resulting games at the time.
criticism
The Zune could only play recordings protected with DRM if they came from Microsoft's "Zune Marketplace". Songs from other online music services actually cooperating with Microsoft (using the WMA format and its DRM protection) were not compatible with the Zune. The Microsoft-initiated PlaysForSure was also not supported.
The first generation of DRM protection stipulated that the pieces of music transmitted from Zune to Zune could only be played three times and within three days. With the introduction of the second generation, however, Microsoft relaxed the DRM protection a little and completely removed the three-day limit. This left the restriction of being able to play a song only three times.
This restriction also applied to original compositions and pieces that were actually license-free. This restriction, strange at first glance, met with incomprehension from many customers. A song counted as played after the first minute of playing time. Pieces under two minutes in length were considered played as soon as half of the song was played. Pieces of music that could no longer be played could only be marked for purchase via the Zune portal. Furthermore, pieces of music received from another Zune could not be retransmitted. The music labels were also allowed to forbid the transmission of some artists' pieces altogether.
In the first generation, WLAN functionality was limited to the ability to transfer pieces from Zune to Zune. With the introduction of the second generation, it was possible to synchronize your Zune with your PC via WLAN . The old generation received this capability via a firmware update.
First generation models with a 30 GB hard drive all crashed on December 31, 2008 and would not restart. The manufacturer cited a 2008 leap year problem as the reason for the malfunction. This mistake attracted worldwide media attention.
Modifications
The Austrian national daily newspaper Der Standard reported that despite efforts on the part of Microsoft it was possible to bypass the DRM of the device. As the online portal ComputerBase reported, the rights management is implemented incorrectly and can be bypassed relatively easily in different ways. This also made it possible to use it as a data carrier.
Web links
- Official website
- Microsoft's Zune will be completely discontinued , Golem.de, September 18, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ heise online (March 15, 2011): Report: Microsoft is no longer bringing out any new Zune players
- ↑ a b c d Official Zune Website: Variants, Colors, and Recommended Retail Price (MSRP) , accessed October 3, 2008.
- ↑ Expressedia.com (October 3, 2007): Microsoft taps Flextronics to make new Zune players
- ↑ heise online (June 3, 2007): Zune is not coming to Europe in autumn
- ↑ Zune Support : Zune Support , accessed October 4, 2011
- ↑ Microsoft press release (September 8, 2008): Zune Takes Music Discovery to the Next Level With New Ways to Find and Access Digital Music ( Memento of January 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Zune.net: Download audiobooks from sites powered by OverDrive.com, including over 7,500 public libraries ( memento of the original from September 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 3, 2008
- ↑ Zune.net: Zune 3.0 Software (What's New) , accessed 4 October 2008
- ↑ Zune.net: Microsoft Announces new Zune Pass music subscription model . Retrieved October 4, 2008.
- ↑ Zune.net: Market Place videos . Retrieved October 4, 2008.
- ↑ Zune.net: Accessories (accessories) , accessed 4 October 2008
- ^ Spiegel Online
- ↑ cf. Easily trick the Zune's DRM protection . ComputerBase , November 26, 2006.
