(The launch) Compared to major Apple events, this was underwhelming. Even compared to past Microsoft campaigns, like the hype that surrounded the launch of Origami (codename for the Ultra-Mobile PC), it was tame. Erickson, whose job involved handling the marketing of the entire product line, pitched this as a positive. The Zune was, he said, a product for people. There are two ways of handling such launches, "doing it the flashy way or doing it the human or approachable way." Throwing money at a product launch is the easy way out, Erickson insisted [...]
All Zunes, even the flash models, have 802.11b/g built in and can now sync over a home hotspot. Syncing covers music, recorded TV shows, and podcasts (which the new Zune client software finally supports). There are a few caveats, though.
First, Zunes will sync automatically only when connected to AC power in order to preserve battery life. Manual sync can be triggered from the settings menu, though, if desired. This makes sense to us.
Second, recorded TV shows will only work with the Vista version of Media Center; XP is not supported.
Third, syncing TV recordings can take a long time due to their size. Be prepared.[...]
ArsTechnica hosts Scott Erickson, Senior Director of Product Management for Zune, who gives more explanations about issues as the Zune 2 launch method, Gates' opinion on Zune, says Zune can stream music and videos to Xbox 360, talks about the new Zune Software, the Wifi Sync, the Media Center TV shows sync (only for Vista Media Center!), the touch-pad which can be disabled and used like the Zune 30GB 5-way control and the current Zune which Microsoft selected not to abandon etc...
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