Zune

The Zune music player is probably not a topic on many people's radar, but given the Zune-specific origins of this site, here's a short double-header of music news:

My Dear John Letter from MSN Music
The shoe drops: MS officially tells its PlaysForSure customers to get bent.

Zune Sales Still In the Toilet
Well, not much need to explain that article's premise, is there.

You know, Zune probably isn't an awful product in terms of, say, falling apart or blowing up or just plain dying after a month... so, what is it that makes it so danged unpalatable? Like Vista, it just has this taint that goes beyond actual product flaws. All jokes and snark aside, it's truly a fascinating phenomenon to see.

As of today, this is the state of http://www.zune.com :

Hacked? Down for maintenance? Sign of a product about the exit the marketplace? The domain uses MSFT.NET name servers, so appears to be a Microsoft property, but odd that they'd use zune.net for the product site and not zune.com.

As I mention here, while Microsplot.com still carries its old Boycott Zune content, I've stopped my full-time bullying of the product; it's not much fun to kick the helpless.
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We interrupt our regularly scheduled snark for some visual snark.

What could be any worse for Microsoft's bottom line than its Entertainment Devices division? Its Entertainment Devices division, now with more Zune! Get ready for some gushing-from-the-jugular financial action:
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If you're a Zune owner and not yet too depressed to get out of bed, this may be the news that knocks you back under the quilts for good. Remember that kewl "WiFi sharing" feature – "squirting" if you're with Microsoft – that Zune apologists clung to as the last reason to justify a Zune mis-purchase? Looks like that ship is sinking too.
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