ZZSpeler wrote:
Dude, the Zune-team worked months on the new Zune-software, and I think it's great. The fact that one feature is missing which some of us would like back doesn't mean they have to respond within a few hours (or even days) after the release.
{...SNIP...}
Also I´m sure the zune software-team will notice that a proportion of the Zune-owners like the autoplaylist and I'm sure they will consider it for a future software update.
Wow, that's great, I'm glad they've won you over.
There's a couple of problems with your statement. It's not just one feature that's missing. It's a lot of features. Take a look around the forum and you'll start to get the picture.
Secondly, it's not like they aren't reading this. They have responded to some posts, but they are not responding at all to the hundreds of users that are upset about their design decisions.
I have my own software development company. If a client complained about the look of their software, and I made some enhancements to that, but then tried ripped away several core functions that the client depended on; I wouldn't expect them to be happy about it; and if I didn't apologize and immediately correct the situation, I'd expect that they'd fire me. Just because this is a product and not a custom job doesn't mean you can ignore your customers, or that we should be happy little victims to the veritable design tyranny that is the current mess. No way.
The reality is that the V2 update is much like the laser etching; does a lot for the esthetics, but completely worthless otherwise. It's like they gave the design team the ball, and if they couldn't figure out how best to fit a particular feature in, it ended up as a "phase two" item. But they forgot--this IS phase two.
The only thing that should have happened with autoplaylists was to fix them. They were buggy on the last version.
Again, take a look around to get the big picture of what's missing, what should have been in this release, or changes that have been recieved negatively, but here are some more: rating system "simplified"; autosync priorities missing (resulting in "device full" message); nonsensical track ordering for artists, lack of ability to organize video or even the metadata for the videos, overly compressed album art images that look like crap, still no way to delete tracks on the device, inability to determine or set the target video bitrate, ...the list goes on.
Not only did this release not fix problems that were discussed again and again on the previous device--with some third party solutions rising up to fill the void left by the zune team--but it actually took away things that WERE working.
Further, there is so much more they could have done. Here are some ideas, since the team is having trouble thinking of new concepts:
Use the wifi to create an ad-hoc network of local area zunes. Now you have multiple people on multiple zunes listening to a broadcast off one zune. Imagine hanging out with your friends and simulateously bobbing your heads to a group beat. 1337!
Use the wifi to listen to internet radio wherever you can find a access point, or download podcasts from the net direct to your device without needing the desktop software.
Use the wifi to get to your social inbox directly to download sent tracks without the need of the desktop software.
Add a feature on the radio to scroll only to favorite stations.
The ability to assign a genre to a track on the device, similar to changing the rating.
I'll be the first to admit that they did a lot right with this version: yes, the software looks good, yes, the integration with the marketplace is fantastic, yes, the podcasts work even better than I had expected... yes, wireless sync is nifty (but as I said before, since the device can only be charged out of the box with the included USB cable, this feature is pretty much useless unless you feel like shelling out more money for another charger).
But let's face it--these aren't where they spent the most time; they clearly spent the most time on the software in the UI. Unfortnuately, this is an example of form over functionality; and I think a lot of users would rather rather have something that looked like excel if it had all the features we wanted.
I didn't buy the zune because it looked good, or to impress my friends. I'm not an applehead. I've always stuck with MS because they have a history of practicality--a features-first mindset. I hope that corporate gets the zune team in line.
So fine, maybe an apology and timeline is asking for a little much. But at least, can we have a little recognition on this issue???
-The Squeaky Wheel
