The Microsoft Zune

Unlike Taoski, I am not dedicated to Apple and becoming an even less loyal fan of the iPod, especially now my iPod is having problems, I love what the iPod does, not what it is, the ability to play a shed load of music is the reason I have one (and the fact I got it Mega cheap).

I have been reading up on Microsofts' music player the Zune which, although has been out quietly for a while, has had some improvement.

All the Ipod fanboys seem to do (obviously) is constantly slag off the Zune as they do with everything non-apple, I, like a lot of others am not too fused, the comment from a reader at Engadget which sums it up perfectly.

I am constantly baffled by people who care what a device that is going to be in your pocket 90% of the time looks like. Function over form for me any day of the week.

I totally agree, who cares what device you listen to your music on, I prefer to have as many functions built into a device as possible (although it means more things to go wrong), but a music player with as large a capacity as possible, ability to play all music formats, video, show photos, FM radio would be perfect.

When you compare an iPod to the Zune, there are advantages and disadvantages with both of them and.... get me... I've done a comparison

	Ipod Classic	Microsoft Zune
Capacity	160Gb	80Gb
Size	61.8 mm x 103.5 mm x 13.5 mm	61.1 mm x 108.2 mm x 12.9 mm
Weight	162g	128g
Screen Size	2.5"	3.2" scratch resistant glass
Controller	Jog wheel	Zune pad
Music Format	aac, mp3, vbr, aiff, wav,	wma, mp4, m4a, m4b, mov, mp3, aac, vbr
Video Format	H.264, mov AAC-LC mpeg-4 (m4v, .mp4)	wmv, HD wmv, mpeg-4 (mp4/m4v) H.264
Video Output	None	Yes - Through headphone jack
FM Radio	No	Advanced FM Tuning (see the name of the current track ).
Connection	Ipod connector	Wireless or cable
Music Downloads	iTunes	Zune Marketplace
Photos	jpeg, bmp, gif, tiff, psd (Mac only), png	jpeg
Wireless	NO	Yes - 802.11b/g wireless (30ft range)
Sych	iTunes	Zune software, sync wirelessly
Other Info		Import recorded TV from Windows Vista Media Centre and playback

To Sum up
If there was a 160Gb Zune with the aftermarket accessories of the iPod, I'd have one in a flash, as I have a iHome (clock radio), an iStation (speakers) and a iPod connector fitted to my car stereo.