AfterDawn: News

Microsoft ready to let you pimp your Zune

In its never ending quest to beat Apple at the digital music player game, Microsoft has officially announced what some have known for some time. The Zune player will not only come in 3 new varieties, but also be available with custom artwork and laser engraved text that the consumer can pre-select on order.

Should a would-be consumer want to customize their new music player, the Zune Originals line comes with laser engraved designs from some 18 different artists. These artists include the likes of Colletivo Studios, Catalina Estrada, Laurent Fetis, Sam Flores, Klaus Haapaniemi, Pierre Marie, Kenzo Minami, Parskid, Mike Perry, Phunk Studios, Chisato Shinya, Skwak, Iosefatu Sua, Tado, Nobumasa Takahashi, Ramiro Torres, Darvin Vida, and Steve Wilson. The zuneoriginals.net website is set to go live tomorrow.



In addition, consumers can also add up to 3 lines of their own personalized text, or 5 lines of text with no art. Also, they can choose from some 20 different "tattoos" and all with no additional charge over the player.

The three new models themselves come in a 4Gb flavor for $149, an 8Gb for $199 and an 80Gb for $249.

Source:
Reuters

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 12 Nov 2007 11:38

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• 8 comments

• elfman12

  Man, there's some sweeeet artwork on there. Nice option for personalizing you player... and I thought that Apple was the "creative" one?

  12.11.2007 12:35 #1

• sciascia

  "4Gb flavor for $149, an 8Gb for $199 and an 80Gb for $249"
  
  I'm not really into the zune v. ipod war, but those prices look ridiculous. Spend $200 for 8 GB or get 10x more space for just fifty dollars extra?

  12.11.2007 12:44 #2

• elfman12

  Originally posted by sciascia: I'm not really into the zune v. ipod war, but those prices look ridiculous. Spend $200 for 8 GB or get 10x more space for just fifty dollars extra?
  The 4GB and 8Gb versions are smaller FLASH MEMORY based players. (great for music while jogging, since it can't skip, etc.)
  
  The 80GB is a HARD DRIVE based player, and about 60% bigger. (great size for watching video) The 80Gb is a great fit, with the ipod classic having 80gb storage but a small screen, and the ipod touch having a great screen but puny storage. The Zune 80 fits right in that niche.
  
  BTW, I own a Zune 30 and Microsoft is making all of the features available as a free firmware upgrade to us early adopters! Cool, huh?

  12.11.2007 13:30 #3

• vinny13

  I always thought the Zune was gabbage... I still rather the iPod...

  12.11.2007 14:52 #4

• sciascia

  I understand what the difference is between the 3 versions. I have a Creative zen nano 30GB MP3 player which uses a notebook harddrive and I've never have any skipping problems. Infact, the damn thing is like a tank... or the terminator, I've had it for 4 years and have done everything to it except set it on fire, and I've never had any problems as far as skipping goes. If that is the selling point on the flash memory versions then people are being fooled.

  12.11.2007 16:09 #5

• elfman12

  Flash players = lower power consumption, almost instant media access time, no moving parts, and more. (solid state)
  
  Trust me, no matter how good a hard drive player is, if it gets a good knock it'll possibly ruin some sectors and maybe the whole hard drive. I've learned the hard way.

  12.11.2007 18:56 #6

• Mez

  I just bought the sh1t brown Zune 30 G for $89 (delivered). They are dumping the ugly ones to help their sales numbers. They are losing the war and are up to their tried and true tactics. I has happy to help them in their quest! I would buy now before they make their sales target.
  
  These also-rans have to drop their prices to sell inferior products. I guess they will have to be content with a 400% markup vs Apples 1000% mark-up. Even though I hate Apple, I agree with the winner taking the lion's share of the profits. Although they did not invent anything of concequence, they did show the world 'how to do it right'. That is the best side of capitalizem. The media mafia being the worst side.

  16.11.2007 08:21 #7

• borhan9

  for those prices it would be worth while to go with the 80gig model then you will have plenty of room to move.

  2.12.2007 03:04 #8