For years I’ve been denying the MP3 revolution so to speak. I remember when I had a bunch of MP2’s (yes, ther once was MP2s) on my old computer, and when MP3’s came out I remember being blown away by the jump in sound quality. We couldn’t do anything else with the computer while playing an MP3 then. Even moving the mouse made it skip. What a dinosaur that computer was…a whopping 486 with 8MBs of RAM.

I don’t even have a scary collection of CDs. I just had no desire whatsoever to rip them all, and it didn’t bother me to grab a few CDs for the car or to bring in to work. A few weeks ago I suddenly realized I had like 10GBs of MP3s on my hard drive…not including any of my CDs, and figured it was time to make a purchase on an mp3 player.

I went with the Zune. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of Apple and I’m not a huge fan of iTunes either (don’t get me started on the iTunes store and the amazing rat trap that is). However, the 80GB iPod Classic was looking attractive, but I wasn’t willing to just go and buy what everyone else does. So I looked into the Zune and actually find it to be a really nice alternative. While the resolution is less than the iPod’s, the screen is bigger. I’ve been watching “Flight of the Conchords” on it and it looks really nice. The “Zune Pad” allows you to simply brush your finger on it to scroll through long lists. Clicking the pad allows you to jog through a step at a time. I like this feature because sometimes on the iPod I have trouble getting the click-wheel to stop where I want it to.

The software Microsoft crams down your throat isn’t terrible and has some nice drag and drop features missing from iTunes. It also allows you to monitor a folder as opposed to manually importing files like iTunes does. Drop an album into any user defined folder, and the Zune software automatically updates itself and the Zune hardware. In other words, the moment you rip a CD to your computer, its ready to be synced to your Zune.

However, I’ve noticed that as my collection is getting bigger, the software is becoming cumbersome and takes a while to load. I’ve also noticed that battery life on the Zune isn’t as good as the iPod is rated to be. It says it can run about 20 hours of music and about 5 hours of video…that sounds about right during my use. Finally, the much touted Wi-Fi isn’t all the super. The idea is that your Zune can see other Zunes in the area, and you can send songs to each other. They are temporary and will be automatically deleted after a few listens. Plus, one can synz their Zune over Wi-Fi with their collection, however this only works if the Zune is plugged into a wall outlet charging. This plug doesn’t come with the Zune, so if I’m going to bother charging it, I might as well just plug it into my USB port and just sync it that way. However, having the ability to charge is without a computer nearby is a nice plus.

So there we go. The Zune is a nice little alternative to the iPod that I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone.