So here I am at the end of my first full week of owning a new Zune, and I have to admit that I stand all amazed at what the folks in Redmond have brought to the mobile-media table in their first offering. Of course, its in no way perfect: I have a few gripes here in there, but mostly to do with the lack of an SDK more than anything else. Of course, digging around through the various DLL's that ship as part of the Zune player/marketplace software suggests that,
1) I can't seem to find any reason why working through the Windows Media Player SDK wouldn't allow at least some level of interop.
2) You don't create COM -> .NET interop assemblies, if you don't plan to -- you know -- interop with the .NET platform in one form or another.
3) There's more underneath the hood than the folks in Redmond have been talking about.
To that last point, it makes quite a bit of sense as to why: They shipped this thing in 8 months, so you can't exactly expect the world (but the world is close to what we've received, or, in other words, what the current world of mobile-media players has to offer, the Zune provides them all, and then some.)
So let's get down to some nitty-gritty details.
The UI
What makes the iPod so unique is "the wheel", and I'll admit, the wheel is pretty cool. Of course, the wheel is also a big phat pain-in-the-usability-a$$ when it comes right down to it. Of course, there are those of you in whom have just fainted, those of you in whom are claiming "Treason!", and those who are now preparing for war. But before you start to shoot, hear me out on this.
We live in a world filled with lists. TODO lists, the standings of our favorite team/sport, playlists, lists of songs on an album, etc... With the iPod, we "travel" these lists (at least as they relate to the world of media files) by scrolling, selecting, and scrolling some more. At first it can be a bit confusing, but not for long, as once you realize what's going on it becomes quite fun...
Scroll... Click... Scroll... Click... Scroll... Click...
It can almost become rhythmic.
The problem?
Lists, by nature, are not circular. They're linear, or in other words, they travel along a path that resembles a line. Take your typical spreadsheet. You have columns and you have rows. When we look at a spreadsheet, it's easy to distinguish the relationships between the items in each column, and the items in each row, due to the fact that they stay consistent with the way our minds group together similar items for comparison and/or review.
Enter, the Zune.
I need to find a better way to present what I mean by this: Attempting to take pictures at the moment isn't turning out how I had hoped, and requires that I do a bit of lighting rearrangement to get the results that are required to properly showcase what I am refering to.
I will update this post a bit later once I have had a chance to do just that. In the mean time, however, think about the difference between circular lists, and linear lists, thinking of the Zune interface in the same way you would think of a spreadsheet that contained a list of artists on the top row, with a list of their songs below them in each column. Of course, there's more to it than this, something I will expound upon once I have some pictures taken that present a much better view of what it is I am refering to, with follow-up as to why I feel it not only matters, but in fact takes the user-experience in regards to mobile media devices to a whole new level.
Stay tuned for more later today.