Zune 3.0 – One Month Later

Posted by Julio Angel Ortiz in Mobile on Oct 18th, 2008 | View Comments

It has been roughly a month since the release of the Zune 3.0 software for desktops and devices. Now that I’ve had that time to work with the products, I wanted to offer several thoughts on the platform.

The Good

Compatibility for first generation Zune 30GB devices. For Microsoft, this is a surprising but refreshing change. Early adopters received the 2.x software for free as a thank you by Redmond for sticking with the Zune. But the fact that they made the 3.x software available as well (and thus giving the early devices vastly improved capabilities from their roots) was a classy move, and it put to shame Apple’s $10 upgrade for the first-generation iPod Touch.
Wireless Marketplace downloads. You can now purchase or download (if you subscribe to Zune Pass) music right to your device. Look up top songs or search the Marketplace, and you can even enter wireless network information and passwords on the go. This feature is hot. The ability to be anywhere with a WiFi connection and stream or download music is amazing, and it works very well. Basically, you can have millions of songs available to you at any moment with WiFi. Awesome.
Permanent Badges. Some people don’t like or get the idea of having badges for music in the Social (basically, how many times you listen to a band / tracks earns you different levels of badges). Before, the badges rotated on a 28-day basis, which didn’t make much sense. Not any more. Permanent badges, I do like.
Mix View. On the Zune desktop software, the Mix View, which allows you to view an artist’s influences and related artists in a funky Now Playing screen, is slick and very helpful in discovering new artists. I’ve hit it up already for some new bands and I love it.
Zune Picks. Another music discovery feature in the Marketplace, which offers recommendations based off your listening habits, along with other useful features such as new releases from your artists.
Audible support. And not a moment too soon.
A clock. I wasn’t dying for one, but now having it, I find the clock pretty convenient.
Games. The included games, Texas Hold ‘Em and Hexic, are loads of fun and show the potential for how good games on the Zune can look. But there is a caveat (see below).

The Bad

Quick list is gone. Sure, the Now Playing list took its place, but is lacking compared to the old “on the go” playlist. Hopefully, with the new input mechanism in place, true OTG playlists will be added.
Zune Channels. What a disappointment so far. Touted as another music discovery feature, Channels rocks in theory. A large number of channels programmed by DJs and artists spanning genres and popularity, which can be subscribed to and update weekly? Sounds like a great recipe; unfortunately, the implementation tastes salty. A number of channels feature multiple tracks by the same artist and album, which in my mind defeats the purpose of discovery a variety of music. Early on, several channels were not updated for a few weeks. And since many of the channels are listed as “Top of {genre},” the same tracks can remain for weeks. In short, this feature could be extremely useful but is flawed in its current implementation. Also, you need Zune Pass in order to use this feature- another head-scratcher.
Buffer bug with last 15 seconds of music. If you are listening to a track, and you change to a different song in the last 15 or so seconds, one of two things will happen. One, the next track will show as playing but no sound will be heard. Or two, the Zune locks up, prompting a reset of the whole device. Many have reported this issue and it can’t get fixed fast enough.
Multi-CD albums bug is still present. In the Zune desktop, there is an atribute for which number a CD is in a set. Most times, they are simply “1.” But is you have a two-disc set (say, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”), the album will only be listed once and the tracks will be listed in order, because there the second CD will have “2″ for the CD property. Unfortunately, there is a bug still present since 2.x where the Zune device lists the track order incorrectly. Instead of listing them by 1 to 12, then 1 to 12 of the second CD, the devices lists the tracks in the following order: 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4, etc. Very annoying.
Games. Yes, games are a positive, but the implementation is incomplete. Currently, aside from the two included games there is no way to load other games from the Zune desktop. And, at the time of release, the version of XNA Studio to create and load Zune games was not compatible with Zune 3.x. A tad half-baked, and so I don’t give them a total pass on it.

Undecided

Buy from FM. The feature for using the built-in radio to purchase or download tracks from the Zune Marketplace wirelessly is a neat idea, but for me the jury is still out. Only two radio stations came up as having the additional song information required to use this feature (the radio stations need to support sending out the data over the airwaves), and one of them only showed the band name. I still need to tinker with this feature more, but as it stands it feels more like hype than substance.

Overall, there are a lot more positives than negatives, and I remain satisfied with the latest implementation.

Okay, now it’s your turn. How do you feel about the latest Zune platform? Did I miss anything or do you agree / disagree? Let me know!