October 21, 2009 • 32 mins
In this episode, the TechStuff guys tackle a topic often requested by listeners: the Microsoft Zune. Tune in to hear them discuss the Zune's history, features, and how it stacks up against other digital media devices.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette
and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com.
(00:22):
Sitting in crush from me as usual is senior writer
Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So what do you want to
talk about today? Today? I thought we'd talked about something.
It's one of those topics that we get a lot
of requests for out of tech Stuff. Yes, it is
not the Tech Conspiracy Theory podcast that's still in the works.
(00:42):
We're getting tons of mail about that, guys. We know
you're interested. We want to do a bang up job
on that, so we're still working on that one. This
is a different topic that we've received several requests for.
It's the Microsoft Zoom Ah. Yes. Now, not that long ago.
Microsoft unveiled the Zoom HD, the newest in its line
of Zoom products. But it's one of those things that
(01:06):
it's one of those products that people have heard about,
but they don't really know that much about it because
I mean, it's, let's face it, the Zoo is in
a market space that is dominated by one particular company, yes,
one being Apple. Right, I was gonna say creative, but
that's not true. No, not anymore. So we're talking about
(01:27):
MP three players, actually personal media players, really is what
we're talking about. Yeah, that's true. They they're probably gonna
have to start calling them that, I would assume, since
so many of them do more than one thing these days. Right, Yeah,
it's you know, you're talking about more than just music.
Now you're talking about video and you know you can
subscribe to television shows and movies that kind of thing.
It's not just MP three's however. Uh, the Zoom HD
(01:52):
clearly is in the same general market as the iPod Touch. Yes,
they're not. They don't stack up the same against each other.
I mean you can't say that that one. You know,
comparing them is not exactly apples to apples, but they are,
thank you. I was gonna go with oranges to oranges,
(02:13):
but why um, but this way, I mean, they do
enough of the same things that the comparison is impossible
to avoid. So let's talk a little bit about the Zoo. Now.
Microsoft unveiled the first zoons back in two thousand six,
right back in November two thousand six. So this this
was their their attempt to enter the personal media player
(02:34):
uh marketplace, you know, a place that already at that
point was dominated by Apple and their iPod line. And
despite that, actually there were a lot of people who
felt that Microsoft's entry into this market was going to
make a big splash because, after all, they had the Xbox,
and the Xbox, you know, is one of the biggest
(02:55):
players in the video game console industry. They came from
nowhere to take a side zable chunk of the industry,
and people said, hey, this is uh, this is Microsoft
totally getting into the home entertainment market. They're gonna be,
you know, producing this zoom. They're gonna be doing the Xbox.
Look out everybody here they come. Yeah. That if they
(03:16):
had been able to throw their weight behind the product
the same way that they were with the the Xbox, Um,
I think we'd have a different podcast right now. We'd
be talking. In fact, we might not even be calling
it a podcast. Uh. See, here's the thing. Apple has
dominated this market so much over the last several years.
(03:38):
I think most people just use iPod as the generic
term for an NB three player. Well, you know, Sony
had to give up the Walkman thing eventually. I mean,
of course they still make Walkman actually that that's true.
But you know, it's back in the days where everybody
had a portable cassette player, everybody called it a Walkman,
(03:58):
whether it was a Sony brand machine or not. That's true.
And so or in the South, if you're from the
South such you know, like such as myself, you would
call every kind of soft drink a coke. You would
go into a diner and you'd order a coke. In
the waitress say which can sugar, and you'd say, I
want to sprite. But you start off with the coke
(04:19):
and then you work your way to specifics. Same sort
of thing with the iPod. I mean, a lot of
people just you know NP three player iPod that's synonymous.
We call them podcasts for the most part, despite the
fact that you can listen to these on various devices,
not just iPods. So any manufacturer, no matter how big,
has a huge, uphill battle to fight against Apple to
(04:42):
to really get into the minds of the general consumer.
I don't I don't think Microsoft did enough with that
with the Zoom back when it was unveiled three years ago. Well, uh,
you'd figure if anybody's gonna try to take on someone
who has that sizeable a piece of the market, uh,
that it would take a lot of money to do that.
(05:03):
And if anybody could do it, do you think Microsoft could? Yeah?
Maybe Microsoft or Google. Yeah. I can't imagine what a
Google music player would be like. Oh, but I don't
think they're not thinking about it. Well, and you could
run a MP three player on the Android system. I
mean you could create a handheld media player device running Android.
(05:24):
Someone has suggested it somewhere, you know, I don't know
who that person is. Well, someone has like tablets and netbooks,
possibly using the Android operating system. So yeah, it's not
a big stretch of the imagination. So let's get back
to the Zoom though. So the Zoom is running its
own operating system for the device, um, and it has
its own environment music environment that you can use very
(05:49):
similar and in concept anyway too iTunes. You have the
Zoom Marketplace, So this is kind of your software where
not only would you shop music and uh and other
content like TV shows or videos or even games to
some extent tiny extent um, but you would also use
(06:10):
this to organize your music, create playlists, um and use
other features as well. M Uh, I should also go
ahead and point this out before we move on, because well,
we'll eventually be talking about the Zoom HD because that
is the latest and greatest model on the market, and
it's changing a lot of what the approach Microsoft approach
had been up to this point. One of the features
(06:33):
of early zooms Zooms before the HD was something called squirting. Really, yes,
I am not joking. This is this is straight from
the bomber. I thought squirt was a kind of soft drink.
It is a kind of soft drink. It's a kind
of coke. Yeah, yeah, you know what kind of coke
(06:54):
do you want? Squirt um? Actually that's really hard to find.
But anyway, so we're talking about about this weird squirting thing.
What is squirting? So squirting in the zoo world? I'm
I'm gearing now that I'm gonna get Chris to walk
out of this podcast. And it's funny because right before
the podcast he said he was going to mention it,
(07:14):
and now he I couldn't remember what he was talking about.
And now it's it's slowly dawning on me. Is it yes,
So let's say about it's about sharing music exactly. That's exactly.
Now zooms are WiFi enabled and you can even make
a connection with another zoon owner. So let's say that
you're on a bus. Someone else gets on the bus.
They have a zoom. You have a zoom, and you
(07:37):
have this song that you've been listening to that you
take is absolutely awesome, and this other person should totally
hear that song, and they by the look at them,
you know this person has not heard it. So you
get the idea. You know what you're gonna do. You're
gonna share your song with this person. You're gonna squirt
that song right on over to their zoom, alright, and
you can do that. You can send a song from
your zoom to someone else's zoom wirelessly. That other person
(08:01):
can can listen to that song up to three times
or hold onto it for up to three days, so
it's three plays or three days. After that, the song
automatically erasist itself from that person's zoom and it rhymes.
It's kind of like play pay or play contracts, so
(08:22):
similar to that. So that was the concept. The idea
here was that you would be able to share your
your songs with other people for a limited number of
plays or the limited number of days. Here's the problem.
There are two problems really. One is that people, a
lot of users thought that this was way too restrictive.
And I have to give Microsoft props. It is not
(08:43):
necessarily Microsoft's fault for those restrictions. These were the terms
that were dictated by content providers. So we're talking about
music publishers really, so you know you might think like, well,
that's what happens if you know, I'm trying to listen
to this song and it just it, you know, for
some reason, I have to posit or whatever. And then
(09:05):
now I've got one song at one time, that one
fewer time that I can listen to the song, right, So,
I mean, it's the idea here is that you could
conceivably listen to a song enjoyed enough that you would
go out and buy it yourself. All right, that's the
concept behind here. But people thought that, well that it's
just there's not you don't get enough, you don't get
to play it enough. It's just not worth it. Plus
(09:27):
the other part of this problem is just that because
the Zoom did not take off the way that everyone
had hoped at Microsoft that it would. It was really
hard to find another Zoom owner, So just using the
squirting feature became a challenge because you had to track
someone else down who had a Zoom. Well, they weren't
(09:48):
completely impossible to find, you know. And in May two eight,
which was a little I guess, a little bit close
to a year and a half, I guess, within the
time that Microsoft had released the zoon um it had
sold two million units since its debut, and uh, you know,
it's at one point about three percent of the market. Uh.
(10:09):
You know, in the two thousand eight holiday season, Um,
according to the information I found, uh, they had sold
about a hundred and eighty five million dollars worth of Zoom.
Of course, in the fourth quarter of two thousand eight,
Apple's revenue from iPods was three point three seven billion
dollars with a B, not an m. Um. Pretty big change,
(10:31):
pretty big difference. But yes, five million dollars. You know,
that's not chump change. But when you're looking at the
big picture, it's it's a drop in the bike. And
like you said, three percent of the market, Yeah, I
mean that's tiny, tiny, tiny, So yeah, you're talking short
two million zooms that are out there in the wild.
There's you know, three times as many of that many
(10:53):
people just in the city of Atlanta alone. So again,
finding someone else who has one not the easiest thing
in the world. Somebody's gonna write and say that we
are zoom heaters, and I, you know, personally speaking, I
am not a zoom heater. Um. But I'm also not
as fond of the Zoom as the guy who had
the logo tattooed on his shoulders. Didn't he eventually get
(11:13):
really upset at them and want to remove that tattoo. Um.
I don't remember if he did. But there was somebody
else who was a really vocal Zoom fan who made
this big public uh deal of switching to an iPod.
I do remember someone getting a tattoo with a company
logo and then later throwing a hissy fit at that
company and saying that that he would change the logo.
(11:36):
But I cannot remember as the zoom guy. Right. But
and you know, you think about it, you put yourself
in the somebody else's shoes, and you say, you know,
this person is probably really fed up with seeing iPods
everywhere and seeing all the commercials and everybody's got an iPod,
and I don't particularly care for Apple products. They might say,
(11:57):
you know, forget it, I'm gonna get a Zoo. I'm
gonna make a big deal out of getting a Zoom
because it's the big competitor. Maybe we can get rid
of the iPod. But well, you know, I don't think
I like any product enough to get a tattoo. I
think put another one. I think that the I think.
I think competition is always a good thing. Um. I
(12:18):
would love to see MP three players rise up to
challenge the iPod. If nothing else, that means getting better iPods.
I mean, Apple is already motivated to improving its products,
but if you put competition in there, they're motivated to
do it faster and better than before. Otherwise they're just
doing it on their own schedule. Now, the Zoom, I've
(12:39):
I've played with them before. I do not own a Zoom.
I do own an iPod Classic, and I old own
in a very old creative zen which feels like a
lead brick. Um. I loved that zen, I just I
find it finally was too old for me to really
use anymore, which is why I upgraded to the iPod.
(13:00):
UM the Zoom's a nice device. Now, I was using
the old Zoo and I've only played a little bit
with the Zoom HD. Um, so I don't I'm not
familiar enough with all of the features to speak about
them from a user perspective, but I will say that
it was it was a good device. I mean, the
(13:21):
sound quality was good, the features were pretty easy to
use the Zoom HD. It took a little more time
for me to get used to. The layout was a
little odd, um you could because you had to swipe
left or right or up or down depending on whichever
menu you were in. I'm used to vertically scrolling menus
for my MP three players. I'm not used to having to,
(13:43):
you know, like, oh wait, no, the information I needed
was to the left, not below what I was looking at. Um.
But but the quality of the device itself is fantastic.
I think I think they've really got a good device.
I think that they've made so poor decisions based upon
the the market as it stands right now. Like, for instance,
(14:08):
one of the big ones I would say is the
lack of an app store, you know, I mean you
kind of have to remember that Apple approaches the iPod
Touch in a different way that than Microsoft approaches the
Zoom HD. Microsoft is building up a personal media player. Okay,
(14:29):
so they're taking they're going from the MP three player
to the next step where it's the personal media player
where you've got video and uh and you've got some
other capabilities. Apples taking a different approach. They're taking the
iPhone and they're making it dumber by taking the phone out.
And then you've got the iPod Touch essentially, so you've
got two different approaches. You're building up the MP three
(14:50):
player or you're tearing down the smartphone. You're you're you're
arriving at a place that's similar. But because those approaches
are slightly different, you end up with products that support
different applications. So with the iPod Touch you've got a
fairly large application library to choose from. Oh yeah, I
mean there's some that obviously you can't run on the
(15:12):
Touch because it was designed for the phone, right, you know,
the uses the phone capabilities that the Touch just doesn't have.
But there are still tons of games and other applications. Right, Yes,
I do have an iPod Touch. Yeah, I'm sure you're
familiar with their app store. Oh yeah, and I um
I've tried lots of different kinds of applications. Of course,
(15:32):
anything with a have a first generation I thought touch,
so anything with a GPS or a camera is pretty
much not useless. But a lot of them that rely
on that I can't do anything with anything particularly useful
with it. And there are a lot of other applications
where that kind of functionality is built in, but it's
only part of the application. Um. And then there of course,
(15:55):
you know, personal productivity applications and games and things like
that that that don't so you know, there's there's tons
and tons of that stuff available, and uh, of course
podcasts and the ability to download that kind of content
from the video store, but it isn't a high definition
but well, and we'll get to that. But here's here's
the thing that I was trying to get to is
(16:15):
that Microsoft does not support apps the way Apple does.
Different it's a different business model. They have specifically said
that they do not plan to create an app store
for the Zoom. For one thing, they're creating apps for
Windows Mobile and the Zoom does not run on Windows Mobile.
It's two different operating systems. They don't want to have
two different stores. Yeah, I mean, I can understand the
(16:40):
need to separate that out because you don't want to
confuse the consumer. You don't want to have two different
stores to run. But you're competing with yourself. It means
that the Zoom cannot compete with the iPod Touch when
it comes to that that part of the iPod touches capabilities,
it's just not on that level. It can compete when
it comes to the quality of music. It can definitely
(17:03):
compete when it comes to the quality of video. Now
the Zoom. I should also point out Zoom HD. You
know HD, of course high definition, right, it does not
display video and high definition right, you have to you
have to connect it to an HD TV, right, and
then it's at seven. It's not at a full yeah,
but still seven. I mean, I've seen the the video
(17:25):
from a Zoom HD hooked up to a high definition television.
I was floored at how gorgeous the video was. So
you could purchase or rent some video content from the
Zoom marketplace, download it to your Zoom, hook your Zoom
up to your TV, and watch it that way. So
(17:47):
that's kind of cool. I mean, that's a nifty feature
that you can't really do with the the iPod, it's
not going to be the same quality as if you
were to try that with the iPod. But there are
other Apple offers, other things besides the ip that would
let you do that kind of stuff, like the Apple TV.
So let's talk a little bit more about the Zoo HD.
It has an o LAD screen. It's very very bright.
(18:11):
It's very glossy. Actually, some people have said that it's
a little difficult to see when you take it outside.
That sunlight can be very it can reflect a lot
of sunlight, so it's hard to see the screen. It's
three point three inches, yeah, so a little bit smaller
than the iPod Touch. I believe I think that I
pod touches three point five I'm not certain off the
top of my head. Just have WiFi, of course, yes,
(18:32):
which is good because that's how you get a lot
of content. Also has an FM tuner. Actually it has
an HD radio tuner. That's true. It can get n
HD radio does not stand Ford High Definition. It's market term.
It's so yeah, it's marketing term. Just means HD radio,
but it means that you've get access to a lot
more radio stations than you would if it were just
a normal FM tuner. That's true, and it is. It
(18:54):
is digital, so it is high quality. It's just not
high definition. It's one of those things where again, you know,
people have been asking about that kind of tuner for
an iPod Touch for a while, so the Zoom is
ahead of the game there. Now, my question is is
radio still relevant enough for that to be a feature
that people would would like? Would people be shopping for
(19:16):
that feature? There are some who I think would. I mean,
there are a lot of people who were interested in
the Serious XM application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Um,
of course you have to be a subscriber uh of
Serious XM and you know, have the right package in
order to take advantage of that. But there are a
(19:36):
lot of people who were excited that that application was coming,
I suppose. So I just from a personal standpoint, um,
I hardly ever listened to the radio now because I
love Internet radio, and I love like personalized radio applications,
things like Pandora or Last Film or whatever. I think.
I think to a to a certain audience, radio is
(19:59):
something people would look for. It's probably not the number
one thing. A differentiation between the Ipode and the Zoom
from my own perspective, if I were in the market
for a brand new MP three player, I think the
applications outweigh the FM tuner for me, but for someone
else that might not be the case. Um. You can
(20:21):
also subscribe to something called the Zoom Pass with the
Zoo m Now, this is anything you can show up
at the ride and they just let you in the
sideline and you don't have to wait. At the Zoom Ride.
It's almost as good as the iPod Ride, you know,
the the everybody's gonna brand you and iPod fan and
a zoom hater. I am an iPod fan. I am
(20:42):
not a zoom hater. I just it's just not the
device for me, you know. I mean if I mean
it's a good device, it's just not for me. The
Zoom passed, though, what it allows you to do this
is actually I really like this idea. It's a subscription service.
It's fifteen dollars a month, and for that fifteen dollars
a month, you can download uh pretty much unlimited songs.
(21:03):
Now unlimited in the sense that you are not limited
by how many you can download. It is limited in
the sense that not every song in the Zoom marketplace
is available for zoom Pass subscription. Now, if you were
to stop those songs go away, you don't. You can't
(21:24):
burn them to CD. You do not get to keep them.
You only get to have them on your Zoom for
as long as you're a subscriber. So that is the downside.
On the on the plus side, if you're a su
and you don't have to be a subscriber to use
the Zoom, this is just one thing you could do
with the Zoom if you wanted to, Like you could
use as a normal MP three player, video player, whatever.
(21:45):
But if you wanted to and you subscribed, you would
be able to download any of the approved songs in
the Zoom marketplace. And these are again, are approved by
the content providers. It's not Microsoft saying this song can
go on zoom Pass and this one can't. That's the
record labels telling Microsoft which ones can and cannot. Okay, So,
(22:06):
but you could download me as you like and listen
to them as many times as you like as long
as your subscription stays current. Once that subscription goes away,
you no longer have those songs. You can always purchase
those songs. Uh. And they have a thing like they
have the Zoom Points. It's Microsoft Points. It's the same
system they use for Microsoft Live for their Xbox games
(22:29):
and things like that. You can spend money to get points,
and spend those points to buy things like songs or
games or whatever. I always think of Disney dollars, you
know what I'm talking about, Okay, listeners If you don't know,
if you were to go to some place, to to
Disney World, you could trade in real currency that can
(22:53):
buy anything anywhere, for Disney dollars, which can only buy
Disney products within Disney parks and not everything within Disney parts.
I might ask you can buy some store credit. Essentially,
you're buying store credit. And if you're if you have
Disney dollars left over at the end of your vacation souvenirs,
(23:13):
so you've just wasted money. It's the marketplace points form,
in my view, are very similar to that. Uh everybody
else is doing that though too. I mean, you've got
the iTunes card. If you buy an iTunes card, you
can't convert it back to cash, right, exactly can't. I
mean it goes for just about any of those gift
cards that you see now. Of course, you could always
just purchase songs outright or burned or you know, rip
(23:34):
music from CDs and put onto your Zoom that way. Um,
you do have to have the zoom uh software in
order to activate a Zoom HD. Right, you can't just
hook your Zoom HD up to your computer and use
it as a like a flash drive and drag music
over without installing the software. Well, Zoom software is a
free download. Yeah, it's a free down. Well so is iTunes?
(23:57):
Now all iTunes work with Zoom. No, iTunes won't work
with anything other than iPods, and the Zoom probably will
not work managing I would imagine not. I've never tried to,
I do. I did have the Zoom software on my
computer for a while because I wanted to play with it.
It was, you know, get a free download, you can
(24:19):
mess with it. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like
any other really advanced kind of jukebox sort of program,
just like iTunes, um, with lots and lots of bells
and whistles. But yeah, I don't have a Zoom, so
really the usefulness is somewhat limited for me, right right?
What does it features? Such as a quick play, which
is you know, gives you history and favorites things like that.
(24:39):
The smart DJ, which is uh, you know, sort of
figures out what you're interested in listening to and creates
playlists from kind of like genius on the iPod. Yeah,
I was, yeah, I didn't want to use the G word,
but well, I mean, you know, like I said, comparisons
are impossible to avoid, so we might as well just
go ahead and say it. And then there's mosaic, which
shows you the uh one artist connection to another artist.
(25:02):
So it's sort of like the music geno my guess
on on Pandora. Speaking of comparisons, I mean you say, okay,
well I like this band, and go, well, if you
like them, you'll probably like these guys because they sort
of sound similar, um, and they're they're working out the
the functionality, the connection to the Xbox three sixty. So yeah,
there there's some things about the Zoom that I think
(25:22):
are really cool. There are other things that I don't like.
And again a lot of the things I don't like
are not Microsoft's fault. Like I don't like that some
songs you cannot purchase some songs without purchasing the entire album. Okay, Well,
that same thing is true in iTunes as well. There's
some some some record labels I should say album only. Yeah,
(25:43):
they will only sell you the full album. They will
not sell you song by song, or they'll tell you
some of the songs, but you can only buy you know,
like tracks ten through if you can get tracks three, seven,
and you know twelve and that's it. But and that
drives me nuts because, um, I mean, maybe maybe eventually
(26:04):
albums will get back to the way that they used
to be, or at least that people claim they used
to be, where it was an experience to listen to
an album from beginning to end. But so many albums
out there just feel like it's just a collection of songs,
you know, it's not like there's any theme or any
kind of thread moving through it. Even the quality can
vary quite a bit from one song to the next.
(26:27):
So I love being able to purchase song by song
the stuff that I like, even from bands that I
really enjoy, because I'm not a collector, so I don't
have to have every single song that The Kinks made.
I do. But I don't have to That was a
bad example better things, Um, but yeah, I mean I
(26:50):
don't have to have every single song from a particular
artist if and if I have the option to buy
it song by song, I like that. Now. Again, not
Microsoft fault. This is some thing that the record labels dictate,
but that affects the Zoom Pass as well. You know,
some of these songs you can't get on Zoom Pass
because again, the record labels want you to purchase that music,
(27:11):
they don't want you to just rent it. Um. Overall,
I would say the Zoo is a really really nice
personal media player. And if there if it were in
a world where there were no iPod Touch, or if
the Zoom HD had come out a couple of years ago,
I think they'd be a major player in the space
(27:32):
right now. But because of the iPod Touch, because you
have this essential essentially a miniature computer that's competing against
this personal media player, it's almost guaranteed to be an
also ran. Well then I think, uh, to to your
point earlier, Um, part of the reason that Microsoft isn't
(27:53):
doing better with the Zoom is because of all the
features that they could put in the Zoom but belong
to Windows Mobile to ices, and so the Zoom is
always and I just can't. They're supposed to add in
Twitter and Facebook features, So I would assume you would
be able to update your status with whatever it is
(28:13):
you're listening or consuming on your Zoom. Yeah. Yeah, it
just it just seems like Microsoft, by by imposing its
own rules, has sort of limited what they can do
with the zoo. Again, if this were a world where
the iPod Touch did not exist, I think it would
be a killer device. Yeah. But and it's got it's
got some serious, uh seriously powerful media capabilities. It's just
(28:37):
that it's going to appeal to a different audience, and
and Microsoft has split its audience, right, and there are
people out there who are die hard Zoom fans, and
you know what I can understand. Like, like I said,
it's a great device, Um, I just I don't see
it winning over any Apple fans. Like I don't think
it's any I don't think it's compelling. Not No, I mean,
(29:00):
unless you're talking about people who want a personal media
player that's slightly less expensive than the iPod Touch, because
it's it's just a little less than the iPod touches.
It's interesting. I'm curious to know if Apple is considering
putting HD in any of the iPods. I'm sure that
(29:23):
as long as they can find a way of cramming
it into that case without making it any bigger, because
they're absolutely obsessed with keeping that that small, thin, sleek,
sexy style. I'm done. Okay, well, then let's go on
to a little listener mail. And this listener mail comes
(29:45):
from Cow. Cow says, Holy, I am a not so
long time listener, but I've listened to every podcast all
the way back to how the Google Apple Cloud Computer
Will Work from June two thousand eight. I love your
podcast and all of your sister podcasts. This is the
podcast I've listened to the most episodes about the others
(30:06):
I listened to. Don't compare stuff you should know with
stuff you missed in history class with high speed stuff
with about, and lastly stuff on the B side with about.
This is very very precise. Moving on now, think way back,
and I mean way back. There are a lot of
a's in that way back to December two thous eight,
(30:29):
when you recorded your podcast on how M M O
RPGs Work. I told you the thing way back when
I was listening to it the other day, I was
hit with a completely unexpected little thing, puzzled Pirates. I've
played it for about a year total now, but never
really thought too many people knew about it. I was
really surprised when you mentioned it. Also, since stuff you
should know has stopped getting high kus, I think you
(30:51):
guys would love one enjoy this high kup text stuff
is the best, much better than Josh and Chuck. Listen army. First,
the last line was only four syllables, but who cares
when it comes to well listener? Who cares? Lastly, I
(31:16):
would be interested if you did a podcast on fictional
devices things like lightsabers, warp drive, et cetera. From the movies.
Your biggest seventh grade fan, cow Cal specifically requested that
I use that voice, and I haven't done it in
a really long time, So there you go. Cal. Chris
was thankful that I hadn't done that in a really
long time, and probably most of our listeners too. So
(31:37):
please direct your email account. No, I'm kidding, I'm not
going to give out Kel's AMIL address. Well, guys, if
you have any listener mail you'd like to send us,
and hey, you know what fictional devices sounds like fun.
We'll have to do that in the future. If you
guys have any suggestions, questions, comments that kind of thing.
You can email us. Our address is text uff at
how stuff works dot com. Remember we've got our live
(31:58):
show every Tuesday one o'clock UM Eastern time. You can
find that at our blogs. Just go to how stuff
works dot com. Look on the right side. You'll see
the link to the blogs there and you can read
all about m P three players at house stuff works
dot com. Chris and I will talk to you again
really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(32:18):
is a how stuff works dot com. And be sure
to check out the new tech stuff blog now on
the house stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette
and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com.
(00:22):
Sitting in crush from me as usual is senior writer
Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So what do you want to
talk about today? Today? I thought we'd talked about something.
It's one of those topics that we get a lot
of requests for out of tech Stuff. Yes, it is
not the Tech Conspiracy Theory podcast that's still in the works.
(00:42):
We're getting tons of mail about that, guys. We know
you're interested. We want to do a bang up job
on that, so we're still working on that one. This
is a different topic that we've received several requests for.
It's the Microsoft Zoom Ah. Yes. Now, not that long ago.
Microsoft unveiled the Zoom HD, the newest in its line
of Zoom products. But it's one of those things that
(01:06):
it's one of those products that people have heard about,
but they don't really know that much about it because
I mean, it's, let's face it, the Zoo is in
a market space that is dominated by one particular company, yes,
one being Apple. Right, I was gonna say creative, but
that's not true. No, not anymore. So we're talking about
(01:27):
MP three players, actually personal media players, really is what
we're talking about. Yeah, that's true. They they're probably gonna
have to start calling them that, I would assume, since
so many of them do more than one thing these days. Right, Yeah,
it's you know, you're talking about more than just music.
Now you're talking about video and you know you can
subscribe to television shows and movies that kind of thing.
It's not just MP three's however. Uh, the Zoom HD
(01:52):
clearly is in the same general market as the iPod Touch. Yes,
they're not. They don't stack up the same against each other.
I mean you can't say that that one. You know,
comparing them is not exactly apples to apples, but they are,
thank you. I was gonna go with oranges to oranges,
(02:13):
but why um, but this way, I mean, they do
enough of the same things that the comparison is impossible
to avoid. So let's talk a little bit about the Zoo. Now.
Microsoft unveiled the first zoons back in two thousand six,
right back in November two thousand six. So this this
was their their attempt to enter the personal media player
(02:34):
uh marketplace, you know, a place that already at that
point was dominated by Apple and their iPod line. And
despite that, actually there were a lot of people who
felt that Microsoft's entry into this market was going to
make a big splash because, after all, they had the Xbox,
and the Xbox, you know, is one of the biggest
(02:55):
players in the video game console industry. They came from
nowhere to take a side zable chunk of the industry,
and people said, hey, this is uh, this is Microsoft
totally getting into the home entertainment market. They're gonna be,
you know, producing this zoom. They're gonna be doing the Xbox.
Look out everybody here they come. Yeah. That if they
(03:16):
had been able to throw their weight behind the product
the same way that they were with the the Xbox, Um,
I think we'd have a different podcast right now. We'd
be talking. In fact, we might not even be calling
it a podcast. Uh. See, here's the thing. Apple has
dominated this market so much over the last several years.
(03:38):
I think most people just use iPod as the generic
term for an NB three player. Well, you know, Sony
had to give up the Walkman thing eventually. I mean,
of course they still make Walkman actually that that's true.
But you know, it's back in the days where everybody
had a portable cassette player, everybody called it a Walkman,
(03:58):
whether it was a Sony brand machine or not. That's true.
And so or in the South, if you're from the
South such you know, like such as myself, you would
call every kind of soft drink a coke. You would
go into a diner and you'd order a coke. In
the waitress say which can sugar, and you'd say, I
want to sprite. But you start off with the coke
(04:19):
and then you work your way to specifics. Same sort
of thing with the iPod. I mean, a lot of
people just you know NP three player iPod that's synonymous.
We call them podcasts for the most part, despite the
fact that you can listen to these on various devices,
not just iPods. So any manufacturer, no matter how big,
has a huge, uphill battle to fight against Apple to
(04:42):
to really get into the minds of the general consumer.
I don't I don't think Microsoft did enough with that
with the Zoom back when it was unveiled three years ago. Well, uh,
you'd figure if anybody's gonna try to take on someone
who has that sizeable a piece of the market, uh,
that it would take a lot of money to do that.
(05:03):
And if anybody could do it, do you think Microsoft could? Yeah?
Maybe Microsoft or Google. Yeah. I can't imagine what a
Google music player would be like. Oh, but I don't
think they're not thinking about it. Well, and you could
run a MP three player on the Android system. I
mean you could create a handheld media player device running Android.
(05:24):
Someone has suggested it somewhere, you know, I don't know
who that person is. Well, someone has like tablets and netbooks,
possibly using the Android operating system. So yeah, it's not
a big stretch of the imagination. So let's get back
to the Zoom though. So the Zoom is running its
own operating system for the device, um, and it has
its own environment music environment that you can use very
(05:49):
similar and in concept anyway too iTunes. You have the
Zoom Marketplace, So this is kind of your software where
not only would you shop music and uh and other
content like TV shows or videos or even games to
some extent tiny extent um, but you would also use
(06:10):
this to organize your music, create playlists, um and use
other features as well. M Uh, I should also go
ahead and point this out before we move on, because well,
we'll eventually be talking about the Zoom HD because that
is the latest and greatest model on the market, and
it's changing a lot of what the approach Microsoft approach
had been up to this point. One of the features
(06:33):
of early zooms Zooms before the HD was something called squirting. Really, yes,
I am not joking. This is this is straight from
the bomber. I thought squirt was a kind of soft drink.
It is a kind of soft drink. It's a kind
of coke. Yeah, yeah, you know what kind of coke
(06:54):
do you want? Squirt um? Actually that's really hard to find.
But anyway, so we're talking about about this weird squirting thing.
What is squirting? So squirting in the zoo world? I'm
I'm gearing now that I'm gonna get Chris to walk
out of this podcast. And it's funny because right before
the podcast he said he was going to mention it,
(07:14):
and now he I couldn't remember what he was talking about.
And now it's it's slowly dawning on me. Is it yes,
So let's say about it's about sharing music exactly. That's exactly.
Now zooms are WiFi enabled and you can even make
a connection with another zoon owner. So let's say that
you're on a bus. Someone else gets on the bus.
They have a zoom. You have a zoom, and you
(07:37):
have this song that you've been listening to that you
take is absolutely awesome, and this other person should totally
hear that song, and they by the look at them,
you know this person has not heard it. So you
get the idea. You know what you're gonna do. You're
gonna share your song with this person. You're gonna squirt
that song right on over to their zoom, alright, and
you can do that. You can send a song from
your zoom to someone else's zoom wirelessly. That other person
(08:01):
can can listen to that song up to three times
or hold onto it for up to three days, so
it's three plays or three days. After that, the song
automatically erasist itself from that person's zoom and it rhymes.
It's kind of like play pay or play contracts, so
(08:22):
similar to that. So that was the concept. The idea
here was that you would be able to share your
your songs with other people for a limited number of
plays or the limited number of days. Here's the problem.
There are two problems really. One is that people, a
lot of users thought that this was way too restrictive.
And I have to give Microsoft props. It is not
(08:43):
necessarily Microsoft's fault for those restrictions. These were the terms
that were dictated by content providers. So we're talking about
music publishers really, so you know you might think like, well,
that's what happens if you know, I'm trying to listen
to this song and it just it, you know, for
some reason, I have to posit or whatever. And then
(09:05):
now I've got one song at one time, that one
fewer time that I can listen to the song, right, So,
I mean, it's the idea here is that you could
conceivably listen to a song enjoyed enough that you would
go out and buy it yourself. All right, that's the
concept behind here. But people thought that, well that it's
just there's not you don't get enough, you don't get
to play it enough. It's just not worth it. Plus
(09:27):
the other part of this problem is just that because
the Zoom did not take off the way that everyone
had hoped at Microsoft that it would. It was really
hard to find another Zoom owner, So just using the
squirting feature became a challenge because you had to track
someone else down who had a Zoom. Well, they weren't
(09:48):
completely impossible to find, you know. And in May two eight,
which was a little I guess, a little bit close
to a year and a half, I guess, within the
time that Microsoft had released the zoon um it had
sold two million units since its debut, and uh, you know,
it's at one point about three percent of the market. Uh.
(10:09):
You know, in the two thousand eight holiday season, Um,
according to the information I found, uh, they had sold
about a hundred and eighty five million dollars worth of Zoom.
Of course, in the fourth quarter of two thousand eight,
Apple's revenue from iPods was three point three seven billion
dollars with a B, not an m. Um. Pretty big change,
(10:31):
pretty big difference. But yes, five million dollars. You know,
that's not chump change. But when you're looking at the
big picture, it's it's a drop in the bike. And
like you said, three percent of the market, Yeah, I
mean that's tiny, tiny, tiny, So yeah, you're talking short
two million zooms that are out there in the wild.
There's you know, three times as many of that many
(10:53):
people just in the city of Atlanta alone. So again,
finding someone else who has one not the easiest thing
in the world. Somebody's gonna write and say that we
are zoom heaters, and I, you know, personally speaking, I
am not a zoom heater. Um. But I'm also not
as fond of the Zoom as the guy who had
the logo tattooed on his shoulders. Didn't he eventually get
(11:13):
really upset at them and want to remove that tattoo. Um.
I don't remember if he did. But there was somebody
else who was a really vocal Zoom fan who made
this big public uh deal of switching to an iPod.
I do remember someone getting a tattoo with a company
logo and then later throwing a hissy fit at that
company and saying that that he would change the logo.
(11:36):
But I cannot remember as the zoom guy. Right. But
and you know, you think about it, you put yourself
in the somebody else's shoes, and you say, you know,
this person is probably really fed up with seeing iPods
everywhere and seeing all the commercials and everybody's got an iPod,
and I don't particularly care for Apple products. They might say,
(11:57):
you know, forget it, I'm gonna get a Zoo. I'm
gonna make a big deal out of getting a Zoom
because it's the big competitor. Maybe we can get rid
of the iPod. But well, you know, I don't think
I like any product enough to get a tattoo. I
think put another one. I think that the I think.
I think competition is always a good thing. Um. I
(12:18):
would love to see MP three players rise up to
challenge the iPod. If nothing else, that means getting better iPods.
I mean, Apple is already motivated to improving its products,
but if you put competition in there, they're motivated to
do it faster and better than before. Otherwise they're just
doing it on their own schedule. Now, the Zoom, I've
(12:39):
I've played with them before. I do not own a Zoom.
I do own an iPod Classic, and I old own
in a very old creative zen which feels like a
lead brick. Um. I loved that zen, I just I
find it finally was too old for me to really
use anymore, which is why I upgraded to the iPod.
(13:00):
UM the Zoom's a nice device. Now, I was using
the old Zoo and I've only played a little bit
with the Zoom HD. Um, so I don't I'm not
familiar enough with all of the features to speak about
them from a user perspective, but I will say that
it was it was a good device. I mean, the
(13:21):
sound quality was good, the features were pretty easy to
use the Zoom HD. It took a little more time
for me to get used to. The layout was a
little odd, um you could because you had to swipe
left or right or up or down depending on whichever
menu you were in. I'm used to vertically scrolling menus
for my MP three players. I'm not used to having to,
(13:43):
you know, like, oh wait, no, the information I needed
was to the left, not below what I was looking at. Um.
But but the quality of the device itself is fantastic.
I think I think they've really got a good device.
I think that they've made so poor decisions based upon
the the market as it stands right now. Like, for instance,
(14:08):
one of the big ones I would say is the
lack of an app store, you know, I mean you
kind of have to remember that Apple approaches the iPod
Touch in a different way that than Microsoft approaches the
Zoom HD. Microsoft is building up a personal media player. Okay,
(14:29):
so they're taking they're going from the MP three player
to the next step where it's the personal media player
where you've got video and uh and you've got some
other capabilities. Apples taking a different approach. They're taking the
iPhone and they're making it dumber by taking the phone out.
And then you've got the iPod Touch essentially, so you've
got two different approaches. You're building up the MP three
(14:50):
player or you're tearing down the smartphone. You're you're you're
arriving at a place that's similar. But because those approaches
are slightly different, you end up with products that support
different applications. So with the iPod Touch you've got a
fairly large application library to choose from. Oh yeah, I
mean there's some that obviously you can't run on the
(15:12):
Touch because it was designed for the phone, right, you know,
the uses the phone capabilities that the Touch just doesn't have.
But there are still tons of games and other applications. Right, Yes,
I do have an iPod Touch. Yeah, I'm sure you're
familiar with their app store. Oh yeah, and I um
I've tried lots of different kinds of applications. Of course,
(15:32):
anything with a have a first generation I thought touch,
so anything with a GPS or a camera is pretty
much not useless. But a lot of them that rely
on that I can't do anything with anything particularly useful
with it. And there are a lot of other applications
where that kind of functionality is built in, but it's
only part of the application. Um. And then there of course,
(15:55):
you know, personal productivity applications and games and things like
that that that don't so you know, there's there's tons
and tons of that stuff available, and uh, of course
podcasts and the ability to download that kind of content
from the video store, but it isn't a high definition
but well, and we'll get to that. But here's here's
the thing that I was trying to get to is
(16:15):
that Microsoft does not support apps the way Apple does.
Different it's a different business model. They have specifically said
that they do not plan to create an app store
for the Zoom. For one thing, they're creating apps for
Windows Mobile and the Zoom does not run on Windows Mobile.
It's two different operating systems. They don't want to have
two different stores. Yeah, I mean, I can understand the
(16:40):
need to separate that out because you don't want to
confuse the consumer. You don't want to have two different
stores to run. But you're competing with yourself. It means
that the Zoom cannot compete with the iPod Touch when
it comes to that that part of the iPod touches capabilities,
it's just not on that level. It can compete when
it comes to the quality of music. It can definitely
(17:03):
compete when it comes to the quality of video. Now
the Zoom. I should also point out Zoom HD. You
know HD, of course high definition, right, it does not
display video and high definition right, you have to you
have to connect it to an HD TV, right, and
then it's at seven. It's not at a full yeah,
but still seven. I mean, I've seen the the video
(17:25):
from a Zoom HD hooked up to a high definition television.
I was floored at how gorgeous the video was. So
you could purchase or rent some video content from the
Zoom marketplace, download it to your Zoom, hook your Zoom
up to your TV, and watch it that way. So
(17:47):
that's kind of cool. I mean, that's a nifty feature
that you can't really do with the the iPod, it's
not going to be the same quality as if you
were to try that with the iPod. But there are
other Apple offers, other things besides the ip that would
let you do that kind of stuff, like the Apple TV.
So let's talk a little bit more about the Zoo HD.
It has an o LAD screen. It's very very bright.
(18:11):
It's very glossy. Actually, some people have said that it's
a little difficult to see when you take it outside.
That sunlight can be very it can reflect a lot
of sunlight, so it's hard to see the screen. It's
three point three inches, yeah, so a little bit smaller
than the iPod Touch. I believe I think that I
pod touches three point five I'm not certain off the
top of my head. Just have WiFi, of course, yes,
(18:32):
which is good because that's how you get a lot
of content. Also has an FM tuner. Actually it has
an HD radio tuner. That's true. It can get n
HD radio does not stand Ford High Definition. It's market term.
It's so yeah, it's marketing term. Just means HD radio,
but it means that you've get access to a lot
more radio stations than you would if it were just
a normal FM tuner. That's true, and it is. It
(18:54):
is digital, so it is high quality. It's just not
high definition. It's one of those things where again, you know,
people have been asking about that kind of tuner for
an iPod Touch for a while, so the Zoom is
ahead of the game there. Now, my question is is
radio still relevant enough for that to be a feature
that people would would like? Would people be shopping for
(19:16):
that feature? There are some who I think would. I mean,
there are a lot of people who were interested in
the Serious XM application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Um,
of course you have to be a subscriber uh of
Serious XM and you know, have the right package in
order to take advantage of that. But there are a
(19:36):
lot of people who were excited that that application was coming,
I suppose. So I just from a personal standpoint, um,
I hardly ever listened to the radio now because I
love Internet radio, and I love like personalized radio applications,
things like Pandora or Last Film or whatever. I think.
I think to a to a certain audience, radio is
(19:59):
something people would look for. It's probably not the number
one thing. A differentiation between the Ipode and the Zoom
from my own perspective, if I were in the market
for a brand new MP three player, I think the
applications outweigh the FM tuner for me, but for someone
else that might not be the case. Um. You can
(20:21):
also subscribe to something called the Zoom Pass with the
Zoo m Now, this is anything you can show up
at the ride and they just let you in the
sideline and you don't have to wait. At the Zoom Ride.
It's almost as good as the iPod Ride, you know,
the the everybody's gonna brand you and iPod fan and
a zoom hater. I am an iPod fan. I am
(20:42):
not a zoom hater. I just it's just not the
device for me, you know. I mean if I mean
it's a good device, it's just not for me. The
Zoom passed, though, what it allows you to do this
is actually I really like this idea. It's a subscription service.
It's fifteen dollars a month, and for that fifteen dollars
a month, you can download uh pretty much unlimited songs.
(21:03):
Now unlimited in the sense that you are not limited
by how many you can download. It is limited in
the sense that not every song in the Zoom marketplace
is available for zoom Pass subscription. Now, if you were
to stop those songs go away, you don't. You can't
(21:24):
burn them to CD. You do not get to keep them.
You only get to have them on your Zoom for
as long as you're a subscriber. So that is the downside.
On the on the plus side, if you're a su
and you don't have to be a subscriber to use
the Zoom, this is just one thing you could do
with the Zoom if you wanted to, Like you could
use as a normal MP three player, video player, whatever.
(21:45):
But if you wanted to and you subscribed, you would
be able to download any of the approved songs in
the Zoom marketplace. And these are again, are approved by
the content providers. It's not Microsoft saying this song can
go on zoom Pass and this one can't. That's the
record labels telling Microsoft which ones can and cannot. Okay, So,
(22:06):
but you could download me as you like and listen
to them as many times as you like as long
as your subscription stays current. Once that subscription goes away,
you no longer have those songs. You can always purchase
those songs. Uh. And they have a thing like they
have the Zoom Points. It's Microsoft Points. It's the same
system they use for Microsoft Live for their Xbox games
(22:29):
and things like that. You can spend money to get points,
and spend those points to buy things like songs or
games or whatever. I always think of Disney dollars, you
know what I'm talking about, Okay, listeners If you don't know,
if you were to go to some place, to to
Disney World, you could trade in real currency that can
(22:53):
buy anything anywhere, for Disney dollars, which can only buy
Disney products within Disney parks and not everything within Disney parts.
I might ask you can buy some store credit. Essentially,
you're buying store credit. And if you're if you have
Disney dollars left over at the end of your vacation souvenirs,
(23:13):
so you've just wasted money. It's the marketplace points form,
in my view, are very similar to that. Uh everybody
else is doing that though too. I mean, you've got
the iTunes card. If you buy an iTunes card, you
can't convert it back to cash, right, exactly can't. I
mean it goes for just about any of those gift
cards that you see now. Of course, you could always
just purchase songs outright or burned or you know, rip
(23:34):
music from CDs and put onto your Zoom that way. Um,
you do have to have the zoom uh software in
order to activate a Zoom HD. Right, you can't just
hook your Zoom HD up to your computer and use
it as a like a flash drive and drag music
over without installing the software. Well, Zoom software is a
free download. Yeah, it's a free down. Well so is iTunes?
(23:57):
Now all iTunes work with Zoom. No, iTunes won't work
with anything other than iPods, and the Zoom probably will
not work managing I would imagine not. I've never tried to,
I do. I did have the Zoom software on my
computer for a while because I wanted to play with it.
It was, you know, get a free download, you can
(24:19):
mess with it. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like
any other really advanced kind of jukebox sort of program,
just like iTunes, um, with lots and lots of bells
and whistles. But yeah, I don't have a Zoom, so
really the usefulness is somewhat limited for me, right right?
What does it features? Such as a quick play, which
is you know, gives you history and favorites things like that.
(24:39):
The smart DJ, which is uh, you know, sort of
figures out what you're interested in listening to and creates
playlists from kind of like genius on the iPod. Yeah,
I was, yeah, I didn't want to use the G word,
but well, I mean, you know, like I said, comparisons
are impossible to avoid, so we might as well just
go ahead and say it. And then there's mosaic, which
shows you the uh one artist connection to another artist.
(25:02):
So it's sort of like the music geno my guess
on on Pandora. Speaking of comparisons, I mean you say, okay,
well I like this band, and go, well, if you
like them, you'll probably like these guys because they sort
of sound similar, um, and they're they're working out the
the functionality, the connection to the Xbox three sixty. So yeah,
there there's some things about the Zoom that I think
(25:22):
are really cool. There are other things that I don't like.
And again a lot of the things I don't like
are not Microsoft's fault. Like I don't like that some
songs you cannot purchase some songs without purchasing the entire album. Okay, Well,
that same thing is true in iTunes as well. There's
some some some record labels I should say album only. Yeah,
(25:43):
they will only sell you the full album. They will
not sell you song by song, or they'll tell you
some of the songs, but you can only buy you know,
like tracks ten through if you can get tracks three, seven,
and you know twelve and that's it. But and that
drives me nuts because, um, I mean, maybe maybe eventually
(26:04):
albums will get back to the way that they used
to be, or at least that people claim they used
to be, where it was an experience to listen to
an album from beginning to end. But so many albums
out there just feel like it's just a collection of songs,
you know, it's not like there's any theme or any
kind of thread moving through it. Even the quality can
vary quite a bit from one song to the next.
(26:27):
So I love being able to purchase song by song
the stuff that I like, even from bands that I
really enjoy, because I'm not a collector, so I don't
have to have every single song that The Kinks made.
I do. But I don't have to That was a
bad example better things, Um, but yeah, I mean I
(26:50):
don't have to have every single song from a particular
artist if and if I have the option to buy
it song by song, I like that. Now. Again, not
Microsoft fault. This is some thing that the record labels dictate,
but that affects the Zoom Pass as well. You know,
some of these songs you can't get on Zoom Pass
because again, the record labels want you to purchase that music,
(27:11):
they don't want you to just rent it. Um. Overall,
I would say the Zoo is a really really nice
personal media player. And if there if it were in
a world where there were no iPod Touch, or if
the Zoom HD had come out a couple of years ago,
I think they'd be a major player in the space
(27:32):
right now. But because of the iPod Touch, because you
have this essential essentially a miniature computer that's competing against
this personal media player, it's almost guaranteed to be an
also ran. Well then I think, uh, to to your
point earlier, Um, part of the reason that Microsoft isn't
(27:53):
doing better with the Zoom is because of all the
features that they could put in the Zoom but belong
to Windows Mobile to ices, and so the Zoom is
always and I just can't. They're supposed to add in
Twitter and Facebook features, So I would assume you would
be able to update your status with whatever it is
(28:13):
you're listening or consuming on your Zoom. Yeah. Yeah, it
just it just seems like Microsoft, by by imposing its
own rules, has sort of limited what they can do
with the zoo. Again, if this were a world where
the iPod Touch did not exist, I think it would
be a killer device. Yeah. But and it's got it's
got some serious, uh seriously powerful media capabilities. It's just
(28:37):
that it's going to appeal to a different audience, and
and Microsoft has split its audience, right, and there are
people out there who are die hard Zoom fans, and
you know what I can understand. Like, like I said,
it's a great device, Um, I just I don't see
it winning over any Apple fans. Like I don't think
it's any I don't think it's compelling. Not No, I mean,
(29:00):
unless you're talking about people who want a personal media
player that's slightly less expensive than the iPod Touch, because
it's it's just a little less than the iPod touches.
It's interesting. I'm curious to know if Apple is considering
putting HD in any of the iPods. I'm sure that
(29:23):
as long as they can find a way of cramming
it into that case without making it any bigger, because
they're absolutely obsessed with keeping that that small, thin, sleek,
sexy style. I'm done. Okay, well, then let's go on
to a little listener mail. And this listener mail comes
(29:45):
from Cow. Cow says, Holy, I am a not so
long time listener, but I've listened to every podcast all
the way back to how the Google Apple Cloud Computer
Will Work from June two thousand eight. I love your
podcast and all of your sister podcasts. This is the
podcast I've listened to the most episodes about the others
(30:06):
I listened to. Don't compare stuff you should know with
stuff you missed in history class with high speed stuff
with about, and lastly stuff on the B side with about.
This is very very precise. Moving on now, think way back,
and I mean way back. There are a lot of
a's in that way back to December two thous eight,
(30:29):
when you recorded your podcast on how M M O
RPGs Work. I told you the thing way back when
I was listening to it the other day, I was
hit with a completely unexpected little thing, puzzled Pirates. I've
played it for about a year total now, but never
really thought too many people knew about it. I was
really surprised when you mentioned it. Also, since stuff you
should know has stopped getting high kus, I think you
(30:51):
guys would love one enjoy this high kup text stuff
is the best, much better than Josh and Chuck. Listen army. First,
the last line was only four syllables, but who cares
when it comes to well listener? Who cares? Lastly, I
(31:16):
would be interested if you did a podcast on fictional
devices things like lightsabers, warp drive, et cetera. From the movies.
Your biggest seventh grade fan, cow Cal specifically requested that
I use that voice, and I haven't done it in
a really long time, So there you go. Cal. Chris
was thankful that I hadn't done that in a really
long time, and probably most of our listeners too. So
(31:37):
please direct your email account. No, I'm kidding, I'm not
going to give out Kel's AMIL address. Well, guys, if
you have any listener mail you'd like to send us,
and hey, you know what fictional devices sounds like fun.
We'll have to do that in the future. If you
guys have any suggestions, questions, comments that kind of thing.
You can email us. Our address is text uff at
how stuff works dot com. Remember we've got our live
(31:58):
show every Tuesday one o'clock UM Eastern time. You can
find that at our blogs. Just go to how stuff
works dot com. Look on the right side. You'll see
the link to the blogs there and you can read
all about m P three players at house stuff works
dot com. Chris and I will talk to you again
really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(32:18):
is a how stuff works dot com. And be sure
to check out the new tech stuff blog now on
the house stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
TechStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Oz Woloshyn
Karah Preiss
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.