
Why does the Zune HD have the message “For our Princess” inside of the case? - edroche
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180914-00/?p=99735
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_zskd
I went with the Zune / have avoided apple products for years because I find
their advertising smarmy. So, I went with Zune and received ENDLESS RIDICULE.

BUT! Zune was great. I had the zune app with spotify-style music subscription
before spotify was a thing.

The Zune software was really pretty and nice, and you could plug your zune
into your computer and it would act as an external hard drive without fighting
with it.

~~~
paulie_a
I never understood the love for the iPod, it was pretty mediocre. It did have
iTunes integration which had the ability to purchase music and sync, but it
had and still has a shitty interface.

Edit: I get that we have to worship Steve jobs, but the iPod wasn't
revolutionary. Others before and after did it better.

~~~
biotech
Not sure I understand the disagreement here; I think you're right on. I had an
mp3 player before the iPod came out; it's not like iPod was the first mp3
player. The iPod had a nice external "look" and great marketing, but
functionally it was much more difficult to use than other mp3 players that
were available at that time. I was told iTunes worked better on the mac, but
my experience using it on the PC was nothing short of painful. Other mp3
players had the capability of of using simple drag-and-drop functionality to
move your mp3's over to the player, without the need to learn a new program
and without forcing a different idea of music library management on the user.

~~~
kungtotte
The only thing I can remember it having was the smart playlist feature, where
you could construct playlists using criteria like "Has at least 3 stars" and
"Not played in five days" etc.

Though that was more of an iTunes feature, that I wouldn't mind seeing in
Spotify!

It let you make auto-updating lists to keep your library fresh, and not rely
on the shuffle feature.

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vedtopkar
The Zune HD was really a great device. Hadn't heard about this dedication, but
it's incredibly touching.

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blondin
zune was the most underestimated mp3 player ever. it just never got the fame
it deserved.

~~~
prolikewh0a
Agreed. I still use my original Zune every day. It's off the grid now, the
Zune software still works but can't connect to any MS servers, has an FM
radio. They can be picked up very cheap.

I have a Zune 120 and Zune HD as well but I don't find them either as good,
especially on FM radio.

~~~
xenihn
Which model do you have? I think I'm going to grab one.

~~~
prolikewh0a
I have each generation they made. I personally like the 1st gen Zune 30 since
I listen to a lot of KEXP and it has the best performing radio, but I'd
suggest looking at the models and figuring out what you need. None of them are
bad in my opinion.

~~~
xenihn
Do you have a recommendation if I just want to play MP3s through my car aux?
Don't really care about size as long as it's at least 2 GB.

Every time I look for something, it seems like there's only $20 junk and $100+
players to choose from. I've gone through 3 Sansa Clips that just keep dying.
I bought a Fiio x1 and had the wheel die on me in the first year, and using
the warranty was way too much hassle.

~~~
jodrellblank
Not a Zune, but consider a Blackberry 9900 - there are some on eBay for around
$40 [1], they take micro SD expandable storage, appear as USB drives so they
don't need sync software, have a standard headphone socket, have wifi and
bluetooth and touchscreen as well as physical keyboard, and the hardware and
build quality is "high end business device from ~2011".

Software is nothing special, but shuffle play artist/album/song/playlist it
can do.

[1] e.g. [https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-Used-BlackBerry-
Bold-9900-Unlo...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-Used-BlackBerry-
Bold-9900-Unlocked-T-Mobile-4G-Smartphone-8GB-GSM-
Qwerty/292657895786?hash=item4423c5196a)

~~~
crtasm
Agreed, this was my phone for years and the speed of opening the music app and
typing to filter down to what you want is fantastic. Easily swappable battery
too.

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orf
This is really sweet. I wonder what the cost was to do this for every unit,
and at what point in the production lifecycle her death occured?

~~~
dlgeek
From the pictures a few links through, it was silkscreened on along with some
other information that was going to be there anyway. I imagine if it was
before that silkscreen was made, it didn't cost anything extra.

~~~
GauntletWizard
Further on this point: It's common for PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) to have
Easter eggs in either the copper or silkscreen layers. They're also often in
the photolithography masks used for making silicon chips:
[http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/index.html](http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/index.html)

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dawnerd
Was just talking about the Zune the other day. I really with Microsoft would
release a new one or a phone or something. I’d love to just have a dedicated
music player when traveling so I don’t use up my phones battery.

~~~
URSpider94
Music playback from local storage uses a minuscule amount of battery - if you
listen all day, you’re going to lose only an hour or so of standby on a modern
phone.

You’d be better off spending the same money to buy a battery pack to recharge
your phone when it runs low.

~~~
larkeith
Uses, or should use? On an Android device (S5) I've found the battery usage
from music playing not-insignificant - perhaps it prevents the phone from
fully entering standby, or something? At a very rough estimate, I'd say it
uses 20% as much power to play music as active usage requires, though this is
very much anecdata.

Either way, I'll second the recommendation to get an external battery pack - a
high-quality one will give more audio playback time than a media player, with
much more utility and convenience.

~~~
izacus
Most modern phones (not sure for S5 which is pretty old these days, but Nexus
5 was the first to introduce it) have a separate DSP for music playback.

The app must use Androids playback API though.

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protomyth
I wonder how many electronics ship with this type of thing. The Macintosh is
fairly famous[1], and the Amiga had signatures and a dog print[2].

1)
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Signing_Party.txt&topic=Apple%20Spirit&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium)

2)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000)

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accrual
The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller also includes a small hidden message just
above the right analog stick, "THX 2 ALL GAME FANS". [0]

[0]
[http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/03/have_you_seen_the_h...](http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/03/have_you_seen_the_hidden_message_inside_your_switch_pro_controller)

