Crappy Zune Site

MajorNelson.com had a bit of news about the new Zune site. For those who don’t know, the Zune is Microsoft’s attempt at cutting a piece of the MP3 market’s pie. Apple dominates said market (and for good reason), so Microsoft’s new player has a hell of an uphill battle.

So anyway, I go to the site and see a picture which encourages me to click on it to see more pictures of the Zune. I’m thinking it’ll be something like Apple’s closeup shots of their products they have on their respective pages. Nope. It’s all pictures of slackers lounging around at the local Starbucks, or on a street corner somewhere, or some other totally marketing-inspired locales. They all look like some sort of subspecies of human, with the casually tousled hair and the designer clothing, people who have it all and somehow don’t have to go to work to get it.

Somewhere in those photos might be a Zune. It’s usually stuffed in their jeans pockets, or in their purse. If you’re lucky, they’re actually somehow centrally placed in the frame. You might even be able to make out the fact it’s a Zune, too. Some product shots. Looks more like a site advertising underachievement than something legitimately trying to sell a product.

Here’s a tip to Microsoft: Apple dominates the mobile music market by creating and marketing their quality products, not an overall lifestyle image.

BSG2.5 and TDU

Ahh, acronyms…

Yesterday saw the release of the second half of season two of Battlestar Galactica, which has to be the most absurd way to release a season of a television show. Many who know me know that I think Battlestar Galactica (the new series) is possibly the best television show done by man, and the second half of season two does not disappoint.

While I was there at Best Buy, I decided to pick up Test Drive Unlimited for the 360. The demos really do not do this game justice, as many of my friends have claimed. It’s a total blast to be able to have free-for-all access to the entire collection of Hawaii roadways presented by this game. This is like a guy’s Pokemon in a sense, where the “gotta catch em all” phrase can be applied to the many vehicles the game lets you buy and race.

The free roaming nature of the game is the one thing Project Gotham Racing 3 lacks. For all of PGR3’s incredible visuals and sim-ish racing dynamics, you’re unable to just take a car out for a spin on the streets of the different locations. Here you can conceivably drive around for hours and hours (like in real life I suppose), taking in the nice visuals of the island and its assorted locales. I’ll have to put up a review of this one in the Games section after I spend some more time with it.