Tuesday, November 13, 2007

my promise

I went around to various places looking for the second generation Zune. Mach 2 takes all the good things and makes them better and fixes all the bad things, of Mach 1.
Last night I dropped off my first gen at the Best Buy, who was still very cool about the return. I asked the Best Buy dude if they were getting the 2nd gens in tomorrow (today). He said, yes, they were. They even had a demo unit to play with, but it wasn't charged quite yet.
I said, no prob. I'll come back tomorrow.
He said, "Yes. Do so. You will be able to buy your new thing then! Yay!"
Today, at the Best Buy, the other people who are not the dude from yesterday, told me they didn't know what I was talking about, that they had no such thing as an 80Gig 2nd generation Zune and had in fact never heard of a 80Gig 2nd generation Zune. They asked if, perhaps, I was referring to the 8Gig 2nd generation flash Zune. Hmm? Was that what I meant? Hmm? Perhaps?
I may be deranged and obviously have a bit of a obsession issue, but I know when a thing exists and when it does not.
But then they looked on their computer and still didn't find it, so I was like, oh, well then, if you looked on your COMPUTER... I wasn't expecting that. I'll go away ashamed now.
Grrr.
I won't go into the details, but I will tell you that I went to many places and that none of them had them. One guy in another Best Buy told me he had a whole box of them, but that he was not able to sell them. They were being sent back...
I asked where they were being sent back to, but I think he must have Normalized me, because I don't recall to where he said.
I got one. That's all you need to know.

Here's the promise. I am done writing about MP3 players. That's not the promise, though it's the truth. The promise is this:
If I am displeased in any way with this new Zune, if I am tempted to bring it back, I will construct a pendulum type device to which I will attach my Doc Marten. I will set it up so when I pull on a rope, the shoe swings towards me and connects with my shnutts.
I promise, I will kick myself in the shnutts.
Not only will I kick myself in the shnutts, I will record the video and share it with you all.

There is no EQ on the Zune...

Where's my hammer?

Just in case.

5 comments:

leej said...

I am a bit perplexed that you would leave the comfort of your creative, go to (in your opinion) the evil iPod then jump to (in my opinion) the most evil MS Zune. What not just buy a new creative? Why do this to yourself? It's a shame, are the Doc's steel toed?

mister swarvey said...

Steve said that I was trading an overlord type corporation for a worser overlord type corporation, too. Lookit you guys on the same wavelength.
The Creative had its own issues, the topper being the inclusion of the European Volume Cap. It also had a bad tendency to freeze if you did not take at least 4 seconds between songs when scrolling through songs. 4 seconds is a really long time.
Your point is well taken, though. In the Zune situation, you have almost all of the same things I didn't like about Apple.
Proprietary software.
Proprierary cables.
Inability to move my songs where ever I want.
And so on...
The issue is this, sadly. All MP3 devices and the corporations who produce them are falling under the demands of the RIAA and are being more and more locked down. So that's going to be an issue with whoever you go with.
Also, there is the issue of album art, which I was surprised to find, I care about. The Zune has a screen almost as big and nice as the iPod touch.
What I've learned throughout this whole MP3 device farce, is that I am a big pain in the ass and that there is no such device that answers all my needs and wants.
If I were to design a device, it would end up looking like "The Homer".

Stove said...

I think it is ok for you to be displeased and don't need to construct any fancy apparatuses. However, if you come here and complain about said displeasure, well, then, build away.

Johnny said...

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/zune-redux.ars

Johnny said...

and here http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/zune-second-generation-80gb/4505-6490_7-32638989.html

and funny you can buy them from BB here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8595978&type=product&id=1190678776536&ref=09&loc=01&srccode=cii_5766179&cpncode=09-44959557-2