Well, I decided to keep my ZUNE, due in part to the fact that there are two other ZUNE owners where I work so I can be “socialable” with my ZUNE.
One of the first things I discovered about the ZUNE is that the 3.5mm headphone (audio out) jack seems to be very “stiff” causing me to worry that I might damage the headphone jack while swapping out my headphones for my car audio patch cable. So my search ensued for a short dongle/extension cable that I could plug directly into the ZUNE headphone jack that would eliminate the necessity of connecting headphones of patch cables into the ZUNE itself. Unfortunately I was able to find at first was 6-10 ft long extension cables when all I really needed was something about 6 inches long… Finally I tried Radio Shack and they had a 1ft long Radio Shack brand “Volume Control Cable” for about 8 bucks which is actually working quite well!
Written by Stan on April 5th, 2007 with no comments.
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OK, I’m a sucker for a good deal and when I discovered via SlickDeals a way to get a brand new ZUNE Personal Media Player for under $150.00 I was all over it like Willie on Weed!
I’ve already got an iPod Shuffle (1st Gen, 1GB) and an original iPod Mini (1st Gen, 4GB) but was in the market for something a little larger and the 30GB ZUNE seemed perfect.
Once I got the new ZUNE out of the box I was even more elated - large color screen (compared to the iPod), FM receiver, pre-loaded content, WIFI capability, plus I just liked the feel of the ZUNE compared to the iPod…the texture of the casing gives it a “warm” feel.
So I follow the instructions and pop the cd into my Windows XP SP2 MCE 2005 desktop and…oooops, “Operating System not supported”! What???
OK, plan B - Click on the “ZUNE System Requirements” link.
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2
If your computer is running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, it must have Update Rollup 2 installed. Click here for information about Update Rollup 2.
Plan B Step Two - visit Windows Update and get the Rollup 2 update…oooops, Rollup 2 won’t install despite being listed as an optional update.
Plan C - visit every ZUNE site I can find looking for a work-around (none of which worked for me).
Why did I assume a Microsoft hardware product would work with existing Microsoft software? I know, I should have know better but it’s Microsoft’s OS and they can’t get thier own Personal Media Player to work with thier current OS releases…come on Bill, WTF? For crying out loud, iTunes/iPod will just about run on a toaster if it has a USB or Firewire port (OK, so it’s a slight exageration).
My recommendation is if you buy a ZUNE make sure the store has a liberal return policy!
Written by Stan on March 18th, 2007 with no comments.
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