October 16, 2006 - If you've been following our coverage of Microsoft's forthcoming iPod competitor, the Zune, you're no doubt aware that its big feature is the ability to wirelessly interface with other Zunes for transferring songs to your friends or strangers. When you share a song with another Zune, the receiver is able to play the song three times, or keep it for three days, whichever comes first. After that the song can be flagged for easy purchase via the Zune store.
How exciting this ability is seems to depend on your own style of sharing. It's one of the first really new features we've seen in mp3 players for a while, but some people aren't impressed. At the top of the nonplussed list, hardly surprisingly, is Steve Jobs. The Apple kingpin recently chatted with Newsweek's Steven Levy, and when asked whether he was worried about the community building abilities of the Zune, replied: "In a word, no. I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear."
We dig that Jobs immediately steered the conversation to how to use mp3 players to hit on girls, but we're not so sure his advice is really all that good. In most circumstances girls aren't all that excited about exchanging bodily fluids with dudes they just met, and while we're not sure if ear-wax can carry STDs, just sticking your thing in a chick's ear sounds like a good way to get slapped, or worse. Famous billionaires have it so much easier, obviously.
In any case, if you're anxious to begin practicing safe song transferring, EB Games has opened pre-orders for the Zune. The $249.99, 30GB, 3-inch screened player will launch on November 14, and if you're lucky a pre-order will ensure that you'll be thumbing your nose at the Apple-sheep while you broadcast your tunes to all the Zune carrying hotties in town. Hotties that also went to the effort of pre-ordering a Zune…which sounds to us like an oxymoron, but you can always dream, right?
We dig that Jobs immediately steered the conversation to how to use mp3 players to hit on girls, but we're not so sure his advice is really all that good. In most circumstances girls aren't all that excited about exchanging bodily fluids with dudes they just met, and while we're not sure if ear-wax can carry STDs, just sticking your thing in a chick's ear sounds like a good way to get slapped, or worse. Famous billionaires have it so much easier, obviously.
In any case, if you're anxious to begin practicing safe song transferring, EB Games has opened pre-orders for the Zune. The $249.99, 30GB, 3-inch screened player will launch on November 14, and if you're lucky a pre-order will ensure that you'll be thumbing your nose at the Apple-sheep while you broadcast your tunes to all the Zune carrying hotties in town. Hotties that also went to the effort of pre-ordering a Zune…which sounds to us like an oxymoron, but you can always dream, right?
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