Matharu's Rants and Raves » Zune

The future is here, instant song purchase from FM radio!

Kulvinder Matharu — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:14:51 +0000

After my Future of music – my vision! article posted in January 2008, Wired has just put up an article regarding the new Microsoft Zune MP3 players, where it seems that the Zunes will implement the ability to purchase songs heard on the Zune’s FM radio.

My original thoughts were that Apple would be the first manufacturer to get there but it looks like Microsoft got there first. This is good for competition. Let’s hope that competition becomes more competitive, perhaps even with Sony or Creative getting into the action too. As a Zune and iPod owner that makes me feel real good!

Apple 32GB iPod touch

Kulvinder Matharu — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:37:32 +0000

Having bought the 80GB Zune 2 MP3 player, I treated myself to the 32GB iPod touch from Kuala Lumpur after all that hard work on the Borneo Orangutan Adventure.

The iPod touch is a really sleek design, a joy to hold and look at. However, even with the latest firmware (1.1.4), the iPod touch crashes on a frequent basis. By “crash” I mean that in the middle of web browsing or listening to music (for example) the iPod touch will crash whatever it was doing and revert to the main start screen. Not nice at all!

In addition, the album cover flow screen sometimes doesn’t show the album covers which kinda defeats the main purposes for having the album cover flow screen.

And it seems that I’m not the only one who’s experiencing these problems. A quick web search revealed the extent of these problems. I imagine that Apple will eventually get the bugs ironed-out with future firmware releases but I paid a lot of money for what turns out to be a flawed jewel. So, at the moment, I’m really disappointed with Apple’s latest iPod.

Great music, Zune and iPod

Kulvinder Matharu — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:23:30 +0000

There’s a lot of really good music being given airtime by a number of UK-based radio stations such as London’s “Capital Radio”. I do also listen to a lot of classical music, blues and some jazz through Internet-based radio stations but I did want to say something about some songs that I particularly liked at the moment. And why not!

OK, here we go.

Relax (Take IT Easy) – by Mika
Chasing Pavements - by Adele
Superstar - by Lupe Fiasco
Rockstar - by Nickelback
Valerie - by Mark Ronson with Amy Winehouse (I like anything with Amy Winehouse!)
Run – by Amy MacDonald
Sun Goes Down - by David Jordan – fun
Ride It - by Jay Sean
Homecoming - by Kanye West
Carry You Home – by James Blunt (also “1973″ is still being played!)

Check them out!

Next problem. My dilemma is regarding the purchase of my next MP3 player to replace my Sony MP3 player which has hit maximum capacity on its 20GB drive. I was thinking of getting an iPod but the lack of a built-in radio receiver put me off. The new Zune MP3 players from Microsoft do have FM radios built in and the units do seem to have some very good reviews. They look kinda cool too. Unfortunately the Zunes are not officially available in the UK and if I need to use the Zune Marketplace then I need to be a bit creative with my Internet set up to access the Zune Marketplace from the UK. Also, the iPods have a huge array of accessories available. Dilemmas! I think that I’d also lose any option of getting the Zune customised with those graphics on the back of the units. The word on the street is that the Zunes will be launched in the UK in Christmas 2008! I don’t think that I can wait that long even if we do get new and improved Zunes by that time! I’ll try and get myself an 80GB Zune. Unless anyone has a strong objection!