There are many folks that hate both Apple and Microsoft portable media
products. Apple makes iPod and Microsoft makes Zune. Fortunately for the
consumer, there are other good portable media players out there now but
do not have the same visibility as Apple and Microsoft products.
Discussion about these other portable media players like SanDisk’s Sansa
series and Creative’s Zen series devices are beyond the scope of this
article. This article is about basic iPod and Zune similarities and
differences. In addition, sources for purchasing music online for iPod
and Zune will be briefly discussed.
The iPod is a portable media players designed and marketed by Apple and
released to the public in 2001. Currently, as a digital audio player,
the iPod is the best-selling music player in history. Zune is
Microsoft's digital audio player, released in 2006, directly competing
with Apple’s iPod. Each of these portable media players deliver what it
was intended to do which is to play music or audio, display images, and
play video. Each has their pros and cons.
There are many Zune and IPod similarities and I will list major ones.
They each have the same starting price of around $249, disk storage,
picture capacity, screen resolution, and aspect ratio. They play audio,
pictures, and video. They have USB connection (to another device,
typically a computer), battery, and similar battery life.
Both devices support MP3, MP4, M4A, M4B (for audio), and MOV (for video)
file formats. The Zune favors Windows Media Audio (WMA) while iPod has
its protected AAC format. When it comes to exchanging files, you will
need software tools to convert your iTunes files to MP3 or convert Zune
WMA files to MP3. Both systems support JPGs (for still images) and MPGs
(for video).
There are advantages that Zune has over iPod. Approximately 60 hours
more video can be stored in the 30GB version. Zune has a larger screen
size and is capable of portrait mode display. Zune has wallpaper, FM
radio, wireless connectivity, and faster battery charge. Zune Plays WMA
audio formats and WMV video formats. It has one more standard case
color: brown!
There are advantages that iPod has over Zune. iPod plays games, is
compatible with the Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV audio
formats. It plays H.264, M4V, MP4, MOV, MPEG-4 video formats. It is
slightly smaller and lighter than Zune. The iPod software works on PC
and Mac. Zune only works with PCs.
The primary websites for music downloads are iTunes Store for iPod and
Zune Marketplace for Zune. Both sites offer music downloads of 0.99
cents per song. With Zune Marketplace, you can buy a monthly
subscription for $14.99 a month for unlimited downloads as long as you
have a subscription.
But there are other online music stores out there so you are not limited
to Apple and Microsoft. Do an online search for “online music stores”
and determine what works for you.
The stores that I recommend are offered here and have one time fees:
For iPod music and video downloads, click on
http://simretha.feedipods.hop.clickbank.net
For Zune music and video downloads, click on
http://simretha.zreactor.hop.clickbank.net
Have fun with what ever portable media player you choose!
by: Argee Gallamoza