Friday, November 02, 2007

iPod touch versus Zune

I've got one of each, so what's better? If you have the time to sit in front of an iPod touch and have it as the center of your attention for extended periods of time then it's a clear winner with a better and prettier interface and form factor. However, if you listen to music while walking/jogging/cycling/motoring then the iPod sucks. Why? While it's in your pocket you cant control the mute, vol up/down, skip fwd/back and all that other stuff. You have to take it out, unlock it and then fumble through the landscape/portrait detector until it figures out that you want it right side up and then it lets you control it. Even then, you can't seek without tapping once on the screen and getting to an exact spot is impossible unless you have a 3 millimeter diameter finger. What else pisses me off is that it doesn't remember where you are in a playlist or long format audio and there is no way to create a playlist on the fly. It's great for flights and airports, shit for pocket operation. That's why Rick loves it and I hate it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The part about not remembering where the last song was is really annoying. This is true for all iPods and I hope apple will eventually change that. It remembers where you left video, but not music... wtf!? I can see the touch not being good for active people (i.e. joggers, people on buses, etc...) it really is designed for long travel.

I really do like the slick web interface with the zooming and panning however the stupid thing does not work at airport lounges where they need to open a pop up in order for it to connect.

R.

PGuy said...

Wow. That leaves me in quite a pickle as I decide what my next mp3 player needs to be. I can't believe they didn't plan for pocket operation in the iPod touch. How did that not come out in focus groups or at least test groups!?!

What shall I do?

sanj said...

Peter,
I'd get a 16GB flash zune if I was to pick an active doods mp3 player.