//WARNING// The following is me writing things out in order to help myself make a decision. I would recommend skipping this post, unless you're in the market for an mp3 player too, in which case, omfg help.


Blehhhh. Trying to pick out a new mp3 player is annoying. I had to go up a price-range, because the 8gb Zune I was thinking about is an old (and apparently iffy) model.

So. iPod Nano 16gb: $179. Zune HD 16gb: $199. blehhhhh.

I *like* my current Nano. I'm used to it, and god knows my iTunes has hours and hours and hours worth of effort already put into playlists. (I am playlist-happy. I use playlists like most things use tags.)

Tom has heard nothing but rave reviews on Zunes, and I think the software has a lot more going for it in terms of growth.

The Nano has VIDEO CAPTURE. ickickick. The Zune's big advertisement is the ZunePass music-buying deal, which I am not so sure I would do.

...Tom finally had to tell me that I need to look at what things I WANT, not things I DON'T want. lmao. How sad is that. But the problem is, that with each new generation of mp3 player, they add more bells and whistles. The Nano does voice-overs that will tell you (in basically any language) the title and artist. The Zune has an oled screen and will supposedly play HD quality (on a 3" screen). I DO NOT CARE. I rarely watch video on a screen that small (I'm an art kid, I want to be able to see details!). It does not cause me any trouble to glance at the screen if I'm not sure on a track title, and the need to do that is insanely rare anyway.

I rarely buy things from the iTunes store. The ZunePass deal lets you download all you want, but only 10 of those songs each month will be playable after 30 days. (Which, honestly, is a huge leap forward - thank you for being reasonable about letting people try out new music. But... I need more than 10 songs a month if I'm after an album or two.)

The fact that the Zune will sync wirelessly is making me lean pretty heavily that direction. But, my iTunes is so nicely organized right now - and having used both, I feel like iTunes handles huuuge quantities of music better than the Zune software. Granted I've only thrown in a test batch of music, just to poke at the Zune software, but.. meh I don't know.

I'm aware that there are other things out there, buuuut, I want to stick with a major-major brand on this. I use my iPod.. probably 6 hours on a workday. All but like two or three waking hours on a day off. So reliability is a major issue, as is compatibility. I haaate that nothing will handle flac or ogg or anything still, but, I can deal. What I do not want to happen, is have major chunks of my stash inaccessible. MUST have Audible support. Occasionally I have weird formats floating around, and goodness knows what I'll get in future, audiobooks I download are sometimes in weird things.

Zune also has a touch screen, which I'm not sure if I want or not. I probably do. But I also foresee it potentially causing problems.

Both of them are stupid annoying sizes. I do not want something as big as a phone, but apparently there's not much choice on that one.

Lmao this should be such a fun, exciting thing to think about, but it's just making me angry! Maybe I *am* becoming a curmudgeon. (Tom keeps accusing me of this, but he also tends to forget what the word actually means.) sigh. idek. I *did* *want* a nano, but having looked at all the info... it really looks like apple is just rehashing the same old things and trying to keep up with microsoft, in this round of releases at least. The Zune just looks like it handles all the extra goodies in a MUCH more logical way, while the nano has to kind of fudge things into working. (Tag a song you hear on the radio, so you can buy it from iTunes when you plug your iPod into your computer! Or, hear a song on the radio, click and buy as long as you've got wifi going.)

Damnit I'm leaning toward the Zune. I can't believe something non-Apple costs more than something Apple. But then again, touchscreen (and a bigger screen, and an oled screen) and wifi for $30 more. That's not bad at all.

Blehhhhh I did not want to spend much over $100. And I do NOT want to have to migrate eeeeverything into Zune from iTunes. But if I do it now, I should have a few playlists good to go by November, which is when they're most crucial.


My iPod isn't dead yet - it still comes back from screen-death if I let it sit untouched for about 15 minutes - but as Tom's pointed out, the SECOND it does die, I am going to OMFGNEEEEEEED!11!! a replacement.

Labels: griping, product whoring, technology