jasoncross.org

I recently reviewed the Zune HD for the fine folks over at Maximum PC. So go there and check out the review. I bring up a lot of points in the review, but overall I love the Zune HD. Microsoft has truly made a great device, great software, and a great service here. A lot of reviews sort of skimp on talking about Zune Pass, but it really is the major differentiator here. The software and device are really made to worth together with it, feeding you more and more music rather than just giving you control over the music you already have. I sum things up thusly:

“If you want a portable player primarily for media, the Zune HD trounces the iPod Touch. Music, video, and podcast offerings are similar, but the Zune has FM and HD radio, marginally better sound quality, 720p video output, the optional Zune Pass subscription service for music, and an honest-to-goodness superior interface. The software on both desktop and device is designed to be vastly better for discovering new music. If you want a pocket computer to run apps and play games, with music and video playing as a second-tier function, the incredibly robust App Store on the iPod Touch make it still the obvious choice.”

Zune Pass is magically awesome. $15 a month gets you all the music you want. Obviously it has DRM so that it expires when you stop subscribing. Otherwise you’d just subscribe for one month, download thousands of songs, and quit, laughing all the way to the bank. But for that $15 a month, you also get 10 song credits you can use to download 10 totally DRM-free songs you can keep forever. And believe me, when you can download and listen to as many tracks as you want, you’ll easily find way more than 10 songs you want to keep a month. This, combined with the software’s new Smart DJ feature, will introduce you to lots of awesome new music you don’t have and let you quickly, easily, and legally download it.