Microsoft’s second generation Zune is due out in 10 days. You can see photos and specs at Zune.net. And isn’t it crazy that Microsoft couldn’t get zune.com? And an additional side-note on that site, what is up with the orange links on the brown text? It’s genuinely hard to read on my screen.
But that’s beside the point. I actually got to use a new Zune the other day and was actually pretty impressed. Not so much that I’d buy one (not that they even work with Macs) but you get the point. The one thing I thought worth mentioning is how the main navigation button works. It allows you to scroll up and down in three different ways:
- Click it in a direction like a mouse button and it moves up or down by one item.
- Hold down and it scrolls continuously.
- Or slide your finger down the navigation and the menu will scroll and eventually slow down. You can also tap it to stop sliding at any point
I think this might actually work better than the iPod’s circular scroll wheel. Lately I’ve found that moving up or down just one item on my iPod can be particularly frustrating. This is especially so if you’re doing moving around (like walking somewhere) or can’t focus on the screen (like driving). The Zune’s nav button addresses this simple case.
I only got to use it for a couple minutes but the only other thing that struck me is that the font it uses is narrow which made it slightly hard to read. It’s definitely not as nice as the fonts used on the latest iPods (Myriad and Helvetica).
Another plus for the Zune, the weird-ass acid-trip ad campaign they’re currently doing features a Rogue Wave track.
