Ok, so I'm in the market for a new MP3 player. Nothing pressing, but my 8 Gig Zune is getting beat up. I love my Zune. I like the software, and the device itself. However, I had to opportunity toplay around with an iPod Touch, and was very impressed with it. The ability to have not just music, but multiple apps, and the internet on a single device appeals to me. However, using iTunes made me want to take a baseball bat to Steve Jobs . I have no clue how people can use it.

So, here's my issue. I want a touchscreen device with internet access, and apps, thats easy to use. I like Zune, and the software, but have a chance to buy an 3rd Gen 8 Gig iPod touch for $100. So do I suck it up and use iTunes for the device, or wait and save my pennies for a Zune HD?

What says the Hive?

I tried out both.

The ZuneHD is decent and worth the coin.  But I went with the iPod Touch.  this thing is the tits.

I hate itunes.

ipod touch FTMFW!

iPod touch good.
iTunes bad.  

That said I like mine.

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After you try the much more responsive touch screen of the Zune HD, see the VASTLY superior screen quality of OLED Zune, then play with the unlimited music of the Zune pass, the choice becomes very easy...

I am torn between the the Zune HD and the Touch myself.  I hate iTunes but I am thinking that it is becoming the standard and every other MP3 just wants to be an iPod.

I have a few questions about the Zune HD
How are the apps and are they expensive?

How is the web browsing? Is the keyboard QWERTY and is it easy to use?

The Touch is really a mini computer, can the Zune handle the same processor intense tasks?

Does the Zune have a microphone?  With the Touch you can use Skype or Fring to make phone calls on it.

Iphone or fail.


Once you go iphone you never go back.

Zune is compatible with Xbox 360. That's a big selling point for me.

Get a zune 120gb.

The touch thing is a gimmick to me, unless you're goint to be playing games.

I like to beable to put my MP3 player in my pocket and have buttons that i can feel and press without having to look at it.

Also the price of the flash memory touch screens is rediculous. I got a zune 30gb for $99 two years ago.

I honestly cannot believe you ipod fanboys. Lol! Have you even comparedt he sound quality? It takes a deaf man to say that ipod is better.

So is the iPod, I hook my 120 gig classic up to my xbox all the time.

this.

I i'm an iphone user and the zune software just beats the holy hell out of Itunes.

this is actually what I want, except without AT&T

256+kbps mp3's through decent headphones sound just fine on my iPod Touch.



There are some great games in the Apple App Store. They make wasting time in airports and boring meetings pretty fun.




There are also some awesome apps for the Touch/iPhone. This is what puts it over the top, IMHO.



Also, the newer iPod Touch has Voice Control. Voice Control is fucking awesome. You don't need to push buttons in your pocket to change your music. You can use Voice Control to play a specific album, play all songs buy a particular artist, or even to generate a random playlist based on the current song your listening to...



http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/voice-control.html



I've had a Touch for about a year and a half... and my wife and I just dumped our Blackberries for iPhones last month...



 

Im pretty sure you can use Winamp to load songs onto the Ipod. I'll find out soon, I ordered a 16 Gig Nano (new one) from Air Miles for free

I highly enjoy my 32GB iPod Touch, but i have no hands on experience with the Zune to give a compare/contrast.

Do not buy a zune hd, I got one last sunday, and I have finaly figured out the video out function will not work without another bulky $100
accessory dispite the salesmans assurance that it would, he also told me it would work like a hard drive (just drag and drop) and that it would play any wmv format. It does not.

Well it has a funky zune interface that adds about 5 setps to an opperation that takes 1/2 second on sd based units, it must reformat all video to it's own special codec ( about an hour per hour of video), and there is no method to enter bookmarks in the internet browser(I have to type it in everytime i change sites(on the tiny keyplate)).

Like I said before it does sound good and the video is great, but I was going to pair it with my 3m mpro110 portable video projector for very mobile
movie action.

And I had to install sp3 to get it to work and now my xp is much slower and they screwed with all of my apps.

and now my computor locks up quite often when the zune is pluged in, save yourself some pain and avoid the zune hd.

I have an iPod classic and I love it.
I just handled an iPod touch that belongs to a friend and that thing seems GREAT!

I've got the Ipod Classic after many happy years with an Ipod 3rd or 4th gen.  I do hate that all apple products require dedicated apple software and such, but really, I've never really had any issue with iTunes.  I do hate the fact that bought music has all those "rules" aattached to them with itunes licensing, but other than that I import my music and dump it onto my ipod classic (120GB).

Since I've got 2 ipods, I decided to toy with my older one and tried YamiPOD - 3rd party ipod software.  You can move music to and from the ipod and don't need itunes EXCEPT for the first time to get one song onto the ipod to get it started.  The program is FREE and there is no installation required onto your PC.  Just drop the program into a folder of your choosing and create a shortcut for easy access and it works just like iTunes (playlists, etc...)

My uncle got a itouch free when he bought an imac for his kid.  I set up the wifi for him and he says it's pretty decent once it's set up.  He says that he wanted one since all the nurses at his hospital watch soap operas on their itouch during the day.  
I bought a Palm Treoo 750 phone for the wifi access to the internet and the ability to use MS Office programs, but I soon found out that surfing the net or trying to use word or excel on a 3" screen is quite annoying.  It's good for quick searches like movie times or a quick reference search, but forget using it for a long time in one sitting - you just end up scrollling to see anything.

I have both (cuz I'm a true arfcommer )

Get the Zune if you want to save $$ on music and if you think you want to check out lots of music for low $$.  The software is also way better than iTunes which is funny to me that Microsoft software is more user intuitive than Apple.

Get the iPod if you want apps and more than a music player.  iTunes freaking downloaded every piece of media to the ipod the first time I connected it, it didn't ask, just started filling the iPod until it ran out of space and then I had to figure out what the freak it did and then delete and start over.  Thought that was a basic omission in their fancy itunes app they should have caught.

Also there are more accessories for the ipod.  

But the zune is great for downloading HD movies off the net and then taking it and the dock on the road and plugging into hotel tv's - usually at places like the W which have HDTV's with an extra HDMI input.

I have an ipod touch and it would be the coolest thing ever if it wasn't made by mac.

iTunes has had me so frustrated at times that my ipod touch usually just stays in my junk electronics drawer.

FYI, I have over 30,000 mp3's and have never purchased any music from iTunes.






 

Zune HD

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