The battery in my ever-faithful iRiver H10 finally quit, and I was forced to choose my new media player.  My choices were:

• The ever-dominant, high-quality iPod with its gazillion inexpensive accessories
  —  or  —
• The much maligned, near-beta-quality Zune with its vaporware promises of features and technogasms.

The answer was simple:  The Zune.  I’m a sucker for hope.

I am the senior software architect (whatever that is) at an all-Microsoft shop, my entire house is wired to my Microsoft Media Center PC.  Most importantly, Apple’s iTunes’ silo of exclusion is strong enough to withstand a nuclear blast.  For all of the anti-Microsoft talk that goes on in the “haters’ forums,” few people admit that Apple’s customers voluntarily participate in benevolent dictatorship called ”the iPod experience.”  Compared to Apple’s iPod business model, Microsoft Zune stragtegy looks like open-source.  I expect to see a Zune developer support from MSDN within the next 12 months.

Now. the obligatory Pro/Con list:

Pros: 

• Great user interface and logical controls.
• Great sound.
• Great sync speed with the PC
• Cool wireless sharing (but it’s not “super cool”)
• Good price ($200 at WalMart, OfficeDept)

Cons:

• Many accessories have not yet hit the market
• The Zune is a bit thicker than the iPod counterpart,
• Zune’s battery life is suspect due to the “ver 2.0″ hardware’s use of descrete components.  Expect better battery life with the next generation of hardware.
• Zune software is a clunky version of Windows Media Player.
• Zune software doesn’t yet do RSS/podcast feeds.
• No direct integration with Windows Media Center’s dvr-ms format?  Whaaaat?

…and yet, Steven Colbert and I are still very happy with our purchases.  I will probably buy one for my wife.  Why?  Because I know that Griffin Technologies and Belkin are bringing accessories to market, and that the Microsoft developers hate the current version as much as I do (though they would say that “we see enormous potential in the future of Zune.”)

Besides, check out this mean-ass case!  Reminds me of something that Halo’s Master Chief would carry.  Beotch.

I was honored to be a guest on a recent ExtraLife Radio, hosted by web comic artist, video game expert, and mini media mogul Scott Johnson.  Brian and Obsidian were great, and fun was had by all. 

Come listen to us talk about He-Man, Saturday morning cartoons, and Xanadu!  It’s the most important thing you’ll ever do.  Ever.

http://www.myextralife.com/?p=5060
(Check the graphic on the post at his site, yo.  Priceless.)

In addition to being the “bronze voice of podcasting,” I am also software developer.  If you’re a fan of the Podcheck Review show, you know that I have been working 60 hours-a-week for the last several months to grunt out genius and sophisticated (read “complex and cantankerous”) systems for a new software product.  That has pre-empted 99% of all of my participation in this new media landscape since October.  Gee, where has all the time gone?  Oh, wait.  I remember now, and every moment of time has been excruciating.

In any event, I have self-allocated a company American Express card and have booked my trip to MIX ‘07, a developer conference in Las Vegas April 30 through May 2, 2007.  If you’re gong to be there, drop me an e-mail at show -at — podcheck.com, and we can connect.  I’ll be at the PURE party thing for a while, but will probably prefer to spend much of the 72-hour conversation time actually having conversations.