16 August 2007 – Microsoft’s Zune portable media player has taken a beating from those who accuse it of having more onerous DRM than the iPod, but at least the Zune lets you share files wirelessly — regardless of whether they time out. I broke mine out the other day and found it to be as good a player as I remembered.
Toshiba’s announcement of a flash-based Gigabeat U jibes interestingly with rumors of an upcoming flash-based Zune. The original Zune was based on Toshiba’s hard-drive-based Gigabeat, so it stands to reason that the upcoming flash Zune will be a remake of the Gigabeat U.
I think those odds are fairly strong; what remains to be seen is whether Microsoft will try to include a wireless connection in an ultracompact Zune. On one hand, it’s a key element of the Zune brand, and offers a feature that — if properly implemented — would make the iPod look positively old-school. But the Zune’s wireless feature is widely misunderstood, and I’ve never seen anyone use it outside of my own testing.
If Microsoft tries again, it should allow over-Wi-Fi downloads, robust internet radio, and all of the other wireless features that should have been included the first time around (some of which are also missing from the iPhone ).
