Until I read the comment from Karl.

Where again did I read that in any MS vs Apple discussion at one point someone brings up the Nazis? Thanks, Karl, for making my day…*lol*

“Microsoft screwed up.” –no, Freescale screwed up. Zune users complained that their devices didn’t work, but they didn’t complain that their devices sucked.

Karl, I’m surprised, but I’m also quite happy that you were shoveled out if this is your attitude to posts on the site.

See, this is a propaganda technique called the ‘Big Lie’. It was used by Goebbels where the government blamed every single problem on the Jews, no matter how small and no matter if there was any evidence at all. It’s a startlingly effective technique. Microsoft fanboys use it to blame any and all bad publicity about Microsoft on Apple, as though Apple is part of some zionist conspiracy bent on controlling your precious bodily fluids.

Microsoft screwed up. Zune users were angry (not iPod owners, Zune owners. No iPod owner would even know about it if no zune users complained). The media picked up on it in the same way the media goes crazy every time Google’s down for a few hours. It was a pretty strange event to have all zunes just shut down and not start back up all of a sudden. Anybody would think so. Microsoft needs to take responsibility for their screw ups, and their customers (you) need to hold them accountable instead of blaming some mythical foe for a black ops mission to disable all zunes while their owners were sleeping.

Sorry about your luck. I actually haven’t heard of anything like that so I can’t give you any direct help. What I would say is that (and this goes for issues with any electronic product) once I’m dealing with support feeling like time’s just going to be wasted, send it out. Hopefully it’s covered still but if not you have two options. 1) Call support one last time to get the return info and explain that you’ve had the issue since day one. Let them know you sent it out and an update seemingly fixed it but that it’s ultimately defective. Even if it’s not covered most companies will not charge the repair fee. I know MS is very good about Xbox repairs but I haven’t had any issues with my Zunes. 2) You could just pay for the repair or buy a new one. I will advise you not to let this purchase steer your interest elseware. Well, at least not to a vendor who doesn’t allow for subscriptions. Regardless, I’ve owned many mp3 players and have had broken ones from 2 different brands and as much as I dislike one of the brands I know the broken mp3 player had nothing to do with them. It happens, you know?

-Zac

CC

@Jonas,

There is a reason why Zune owners are defensive. We have witnessed almost every Zune feature somehow turned into a negative quality (3 play shared song limit, OPTION for subscription, wireless sync w/o a store (at the time), etc, etc, etc). I’ve never owned a product where so much lying and misleading statements were not only spoken, but were literally everywhere.

I have recommended this in great detail to many friends, explaining and showing them all of the amazing features, only to have them come back from the store stating that they needed to think more about it. Most of the time I would hear how the sales employee suggested so strongly against it; raising concerns that if they cancelled the subscription they couldn’t play music at all, the wireless sharing only works for 3 plays and then deletes itself and that they couldn’t use any of their iTunes music with it (even though they had random non-DRM mp3s). In two specific cases I had friends tell me that the sales person literally said they wouldn’t sell it because they couldn’t with good conscious. This happened at Best Buy and GameStop.

When I say I recommended this, I don’t mean just a little bit. I felt like I was a spokesman at times. I would have many of my friends, family and colleges extremely interested and down to the store. Not to mention I’ve purchased 5 myself so I know exactly what these sales reps were saying. Although I mentioned two stores above, the negative suggestions against the product were from any store I set foot in such as Circuit City and a couple college campus stores. Wal-Mart was the one place I didn’t happen to have bad luck at so I started referring people there which ended up working fine.
So yeah, Zune owners can get a little defensive but there’s a reason behind it.

-Zac

Nevertheless, it’s still Microsoft’s responsibility, even though they didn’t write the bad code. Even if the Freescale code had been correct, there could still be subtle issues dealing with the interaction between otherwise-working components. Integration testing should always explore the edge cases, and leap years are a classic edge case.

I use both Microsoft and Apple. It doesn’t matter to me the platform. The big difference between the Zune crash and the iPhone crash is like night and day. The iPhone could be your ownly lifeline in an emergency. A Zune music player isn’t going to do jack if you’re in an emergency.

I am just as critical to Microsoft as I am to Apple. The only difference here is that Microsoft is actually attempting to get better. Apple keeps being lapse about security and the proof is in the National Vulnerability Database, Secunia, and tons of security research companies. So please, don’t give me this Mac vs Windows bias. I’m equally harsh on both. The difference is I equate a Phone over Music player differently.