Preliminary Hands-on with the Zune

I used to be a music writer, so I got invited to a Zune preview party in NYC earlier this evening thrown mostly for the benefit of music industry types. No-wave band 120 Days and electro-outfit MSTRKFRT played as Po-Boys, mini-sliders, cocktails and demo units of Zune players were served up to the 150 or so mostly hipster attendees.

It was also my first opportunity to get a brief hands-on with the Zune player, which launches next week on November 14 (along with the Zune service). Contrary to some of my earlier complaints about Zune right after it was announced, I was pleasantly surprised by the device. Navigation is simple and responsive. The interface itself rocks: Everything from the firefly-like icon that indicates where you are in a song to the side-scrolling menu (very Vista) is original and user-friendly (in a word, fresh!).

I particularly dig the FM-radio dial (station number in a big font above a side-scrolling, old-school onscreen "dial"). I had previously complained about the FM-radio feature, but at least it's not a complete afterthought, handling- and design-wise, on the Zune (as it is on many other players).

I'm still feeling ho-hum about the Wi-Fi-enabled music sharing feature, mainly because you'll need to have a lot of other friends with Zunes to make it at all worthwhile. And I'd want the tracks more than three days (the limit on these shared tunes). But it turns out you'll be able to just download a subscription version of the song your friend sends you, so three-days-schmee-days, it won't cost me extra to just get the song for myself. Unfortunately, I won't be able to download the song (or any other) directly to my device via Wi-Fi, as I can on Music Gremlin, but I will be able to just download the song using the Zune service on my desktop and transfer to the device later. I don't see why direct-to-device downloads over Wi-Fi it wouldn't be added at later date, however.

Zune also won't have downloadable TV shows or movies at launch, I was told by some people who work on the device, but it doesn't take an advanced degree to see where all this is headed, particularly in light of today's Xbox 360 announcement on direct-to-console downloads of HD movies and TV shows.

Though no free Zunes were given out, alas, Microsoft actually managed to be cool by offering party guests a two-CD and two-vinyl-disc set of cool new tunes custom-compiled by KCRW's Jason Bentley. So regardless of what happens with Zune, I'll at least have a valuable music collector's item many years from now.

Check back for a more extensive Zune hands-on right around launch time November 14.

Related Links:

Zune: Straight From The Horse's Mouth
Should You Drop iTunes and Get The Zune?