Microsoft announced on July 21, 2006 that they will be releasing the Zune portable media player in the near future. This announcement confirmed months of rumours which had been circulating regarding Microsoft's possible entry into the portable media player maket. How will the Zune be unique? Will it be able to take away any of the iPod's market? What kind of features will make up the Zune?

Here I’ll list a few key differences between zune and ipod. Below are the list of features supported by zune and not Ipod.

1. Preloaded Audio and video

2. Built in FM tuner

3. Zune to Zune sharing by Wi-Fi wireless (social networking)

4. Custom background

There is talk of a zune shortage during the release time and this can always be met with many trying to get their hands on them as soon as possible. There are at the moment 3 great colors for the zune and odds are there will either be updated colors or skins that could possibly go over the case. Microsoft is also setting up a song site where zune owners can get a membership to and get a ton of songs that will go right into the zune.

Along with the media player the Microsoft Zune music store has sprung to life and at the same price as the iPod music mart - ninety nine cents per. Currently, they have two million tunes available compared to Apple's 3.2 million. Early Microsoft press releases hype song sales from labels "DTS, EMI Music's Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records."

Bill Gates talked about the futuristic home that Microsoft has on campus where they dream about how any house could be in years to come. Bill Gates showed us a bedroom of the future with a multi-screen wall panel with at least 16 screens going over two bedroom walls; the gigantic screen controlled by a simple remote was used to display videos such as a thrilling car race or a soothing aquarium setting, for any mood and ambiance, and with music of course!

Many people, however, value function over style, and the techie crowd will concern themselves with the technical specifications and performance features of products when making a purchase. When you compare the Zune to the Ipod with such criteria in mind, the Zune starts looking... Well, cool!

One feature of the Zune that I do not see much value in is the ability to share music with other Zune players wirelessly. Once a song is sent to another Zune, the user can only listen to the track three times within a three day period, then the song expires and is no longer playable unless it is flagged and purchased from the Zune marketplace. I recommend disabling this feature because it decreases battery life.

Know How to Get It

As they say, the best things in life are free. Unfortunately, this software isn't - free, that is. Still, it almost is. A minimal fee is required to take advantage of the fine features of this Zune software. After all, the people behind it still need to eat. How else would they be able to come up with constant improvements to keep the software updated?

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