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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The iPods, the Zune HD
Back when there were just a few MP3 music players on the market, it was easy to make a recommendation on the best one — it often came down to price and features.
But in the post-iPod age, there’s much more nuance. Do you want a music device that can also download apps, play video games and serve as a mobile Internet device? Do you want a music player that can also shoot video, but is still small enough to fit in a tiny pocket? How about a music player that can play HD videos on your television and can download a practically unlimited amount of music for a monthly fee?
In this way, buying a portable music players is a lot like buying a computer or car — there’s a popular model from two of the big players — Apple and Microsoft — for just about anyone at prices ranging from just over $50 to about $400.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been test driving Apple’s new line of music players including its revamped iPod Nano, the iPod Touch (which recently received a slight speed boost on some models) and its iPod Shuffle, which remains largely the same as the last time we wrote about it, but is now available in new colors and in a 4-gigabyte stainless-steel version.
Microsoft also sent us their latest salvo in the music wars: the Zune HD. While the previous versions of the Zune have barely made a dent in Apple’s music player empire, the HD model should definitely have an audience with some of its very strong features.
Here’s are my thoughts on each.
The iPods
When Apple announced its new iPod upgrades, the biggest changes were in the iPod Nano, the thin, oval-curved, colorful music player.
The iPod Nano.
Not only did the Nano gain the ability to shoot video — only the iPhone 3GS among Apple’s mobile products shares that features — is now has an FM tuner that can pause and rewind live radio broadcasts, a voice recorder, Nike+ integration and a pedometer feature. It comes in nine colors and costs $149 for an 8-gigabyte version and $179 for a 16-gigabyte version. (That choice is a no-brainer: if you’re buying a Nano, spend the extra $30 for double the memory.)
If you’ve seen the iPod Nano before, the physical design is not much different that the last generation — it’s got a pleasing metallic finish, a curvy, design and a small, but bright screen that plays videos and displays photos. The Nano has also picked up the Shuffle’s trick of reading out the names of artists, songs and playlists with its “VoiceOver” feature.
The biggest change, of course, is the ability to record video. A very tiny camera lens on the bottom left side of the back records pretty decent-quality video. When I heard about this new feature, I thought that such a small, light device would be too hard to shoot video on because you’d have constant shaking from tying to hold the Nano still. I shot two videos, indoor and outdoor and you can judge for yourself on the video quality and image stability:
Will it replace your Flip video player or camcorder? Probably not. But if you carry a Nano with you, you’re likely to find yourself relying on it more and more for spontaneous video shooting, the way I do with my iPhone 3GS.
The built-in FM tuner is also a surprise. I took Apple to task from introducing an old technology far too late to its iPods, but it’s hard to argue with how it’s implemented. A plugged-in set of earbuds or headphones serves as the antenna and the Nano picks up FM signals well and plays them clearly. The 15-minute buffer, which allows you to rewind or pause live radio is very nicely done and you can also flag songs you hear on the radio to download later from iTunes. It’s a great feature I thought would be extraneous; instead, I’m pressed with how well it works.
Of all the devices in this roundup, the iPod Nano seems to me to be the clear choice for someone looking for a decently priced, but powerful music player. If you don’t need apps, Internet access or a large touchscreen, the Nano is the best of the bunch in its combination of price, portability and features.
The Shuffle, as I mentioned before, went through minimum changes, but is now available in colors that aren’t so easy to lose in a gadget satchel or even on a dark-colored desk. It’s still a very good player for hitting the gym or a long road trip. I’m still not a fan of keeping the controls on the included earbuds (I never use Apple earbuds; they usually don’t have great sound), but there are other headphones available that incorporate Shuffle controls. Of course, having to buy them separately negates some of the value of a $59 or $79 music player.
The iPod Shuffle.
Other than the iPhone 3GS, Apple would say that the iPod Touch is its top-of-the-line iPod and it recently got a speed boost that makes it snappier, a boon for those designing 3-D game apps for the Touch and iPhone. The 8-gigabyte model ($199) remains at the same speed, but the other two iPod Touch models — 32-GB ($299) and 64-GB ($399) — get the speed boost. It’s most noticeable when doing Web surfing, playing some graphics-intensive games and navigating the icon menus on the home screen.
It’s pretty much the same iPod Touch that Apple says has sold more then 20 million units. Of course, it has access to Apple’s large library of apps (though some aimed at the iPhone don’t work with the Touch).
The iPod Touch.
Many, myself included, were surprised that the upgraded Touch devices did not incorporate a new camera the way the Nano does. Some have speculated that Apple had technical troubles making it happen in time for the September unveiling, but Stan Ng, senior director of iPod product marketing, told me that wasn’t the case.
“Our focus was in the update to the iPod Touch was driving down the price as much as we could without adding anything else,” Ng said. “It’s the most affordable thing to get (people) to the App Store.”
That’s great, but an iPod Touch that still can’t shoot video is a bit of a disappointment. At the very least, the $399 high-end Touch should have included that feature.
It’s easy to begin believing that the iPod is starting to lose relevance as the iPhone and music players and smartphones from other companies evolve, but there’s no denying there’s a gigantic market of accessories, a continually growing list of apps that work on the iPod Touch and new features on the Nano that seem just enough to keep Apple’s dominance in digital music going.
They’re still elegantly designed, have great software and simply work well. It’s very hard to recommend against Apple’s dominating lineup of iPods.
The Microsoft Zune
…But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.
Microsoft’s Zune music player brand has become a bit of a joke as it has failed to catch fire even with those who dislike Apple’s iPod dominance.
But the new Zune HD is serious business. It aligns most closely with the iPod Touch — it has a large, bright touch screen, can download (a very limited number of) apps and has a built-in Web browser.
By far the best feature on the Zune HD is its exceptionally bright, inviting OLED screen. Colors pop more than they do on the Touch and browsing photos and watching video on it is a joy.
The Zune HD also includes HD radio, allowing you to listen to sub-stations on FM frequencies and to glance at station messages and song/artist titles. It’s a nice, rare feature in a portable music player and some may find it the Zune HD’s strongest selling point.
With an accessory dock (sold separately), it can also play high-definition videos on a connected HDTV screen.
The Zune can also be hooked up to a $14.99-a-month unlimited music download service from Microsoft. If you’re tired of your music library and want to connect to a fire hose of new music, this is a good way to do it. The music will only be accessible for as long as you keep this subscription, but it opens up a world of new music, TV shows and other content for a flat rate. With the service you also get 10 permanent music downloads a month. It’s a very good deal for anyone with a small music collection who doesn’t want to invest in creating their own digital music library.
Some will love the Zune HD’s slick, modern menus which have large-typeface words that fly in and out of range, but hang around in the top of the screen in case you want to go back to a previous menu. When playing music, you can see a lovely artist image in addition to the usual cover art. In some ways, it’s more intuitive than the dated click-wheel menus on the Nano.
The Zune HD.
That’s the good. Now comes the bad news about the Zune HD: it’s tied to Microsoft’s Zune software, which in some ways is a complete trainwreck. While a recent 4.0 update is a vast improvement over the previous version, I found Zune 4.0 to be buggy, filled with too many menus that seem at cross purposes and simply hard to use. It’s so over-designed that it actually doesn’t look like it belongs in a Windows operating system environment. Even the flashy new Windows 7 feels vastly different from the lovely, but hard-to-navigate Zune software.
It also is software that isn’t available on the Mac, making the Zune HD effectively a PC-only product without jumping through some major hoops.
The Microsoft Zune software.
It takes a while to simply figure out how to get music, videos and other content onto the Zune using the software. And even then, some video formats won’t convert properly to play on the Zune HD or take a very long time to do so. On the other hand, it can sync wirelessly over Wi-Fi to your computer’s library, something none of the iPods can do at this point.
The Web browser included in the Zune is not nearly as easy to use as the iPod Touch’s Safari browser (which is probably the best mobile browser today) and there are only a handful of apps that are available for the Zune HD.
Using the Zune as a music player was a great experience — it gives you plenty of screen eye candy and sounds good. But other non-music-related features were more problematic. The device’s “Social” features didn’t seem very useful to me and I’m not sure why the device has buttons on the side that DON’T control volume.
Nevertheless, I think the hardware is nicely designed, the screen is absolutely gorgeous and for all the Apple haters out there, the Zune HD is a perfectly good alternative to the iPod Touch. It’ll get better with more apps and refinements to the Zune software, but it would be foolhardy to believe we’ll see it catch up to the kind of refinements Apple has made to the App Store and to iTunes anytime soon.
The Zune HD
At $229 and $289 (for 16-GB and 32-GB models), the Zune HD also seems slightly overpriced given the competition it’s up against. At $199 and $249, it would be a much stronger candidate for your gadget-buying dollar. (It doesn’t help that the AV dock, for connecting it to an HDTV for video/photo watching is a ridiculous $90 extra. And it doesn’t even have the capability to rotate photos you’re viewing on it.)
The Zune still isn’t an iPod killer, but it’s the closest Microsoft has come so far in catching up with Apple on the music player front.
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