Zune wifi podcast synching

Kilarney

So, Scott...

You've been requesting wi-fi podcast synching for years. Does the new Zune meet your demands?

My complaint is that your computer has to be turned on in order to synch via wi-fi. If my computer is on, then how much harder is it to just plug the darn thing in. I want to be able to synch when I'm on the road or if my computer is off.

Apreche

NO! It sucks balls. These people just can't seem to wrap their heads around what you can really do with wi-fi. All their use cases involve downloading media from the Internet to a PC, then transferring from the PC to a portable device. Letting me transfer from the PC to the device over my local wifi network only saves me the trouble of having to plug the thing in. It's a nice feature, and every player with wifi should have it. However, it is not the killer feature that would make me run out and buy a Zune.

The killer feature is so obvious, and so technologically feasible, that I am constantly shocked by how it isn't available yet. We're reaching the point where our portable devices, like the iPhone, are as capable as our PCs. There is no reason that a portable player should ever ever ever have to connect to a PC you own in any way. It should connect to the Internet, on its own, and get podcasts, on its own. If I owned a company that produced electronics, I would have destroyed the market already by producing a device with these obvious features.

HMTKSteve

Doesn't the PSP already do this?

Apreche

Doesn't the PSP already do this?

Yes. It's the only device I know of that does this. But it's too big, too expensive, requires memory sticks, has a giant useless screen, etc. There is no reason that a device the size of the iPod nano could not also do this. Why such a device does not yet exist is continually baffling. We already have the technology to do X, Y, and Z yet companies only produce devices that do X. WTF?!

Andrew

If I owned a company that produced electronics, I would have destroyed the market already by producing a device with these obvious features.

They why not do it? Capitalism ftw.

Apreche

If I owned a company that produced electronics, I would have destroyed the market already by producing a device with these obvious features.

They why not do it? Capitalism ftw.

Need starting moneys.

Omnutia

Try and think of the amount of people who would buy a product with all those advanced features? not that many.
That said I think there could be room for a really high end mp3 player with all that wifi and stuff. All I really want is a Cowwon D2 with a hard drive instead of flash memory; wifi isn't that much of a concern.

Question: How much battery would it eat to run the wifi for long enough to download about 100mbs worth of podcasts at about 300kB/s? Could be the reason for the download to station first thing as then you transfer much faster and the wifi is active much less.

Apreche

Question: How much battery would it eat to run the wifi for long enough to download about 100mbs worth of podcasts at about 300kB/s? Could be the reason for the download to station first thing as then you transfer much faster and the wifi is active much less.

While wifi would take quite a bit of battery power, the wifi would be disabled when not in use. If the Internet connection is of any reasonable speed, it should take long to download a few podcasts, nor will it significantly hurt the battery life. It would be no different than the iPhone and its current iTunes music store. It doesn't take me more than a few minutes to download almost any audio podcast, so the loss of battery life would be incredibly outweighed by the ability to sync podcasts without needing a computer.

Besides, only needing to plug the device in to charge is a lot less work than having to open up an application, click around, etc. I already plug my cellphone in to charge, so it's not a big deal. Hey, if the iPhone does it, that will be my cellphone. It can only make life easier, not harder.

sK0pe

I'm already doing what you people are talking about -
I wake up in the morning, my desktop is off, I pick up my PDA, click my RSS catcher and click refresh, it connects to my router wirelessly, downloads all my regular podcasts at 200 - 400 kb/s,  and I'm ready to start listening for the rest of the day  (with my closed Sennheiser foldable headphones - might need to try out these "in ear" ear phones or blue tooth headphones / earphones).
There are a bunch of 3rd party programs which do this but the one I use is Newsbreak by Ilium software.
The only problem everyone else on the forum will see - is that I use a Windows Mobile device.
There's only a few more months to years before Linux starts popping up on PDA / Phone hardware (not the crap that Palm is releasing though).
 

Apreche

I wake up in the morning, my desktop is off, I pick up my PDA, click my RSS catcher and click refresh

Yes. Any portable device with wifi that allows third party software and mp3 player can do this because somebody can just write a podcatcher for it. However, I don't think your Windows Mobile device is really the best mp3 player. And how much space does it have? Clearly it doesn't have 4 gigs or more of flash to store this music.

sK0pe

I wake up in the morning, my desktop is off, I pick up my PDA, click my RSS catcher and click refreshYes. Any portable device with wifi that allows third party software and mp3 player can do this because somebody can just write a podcatcher for it. However, I don't think your Windows Mobile device is really the best mp3 player. And how much space does it have? Clearly it doesn't have 4 gigs or more of flash to store this music.

I agree the sound quality is pretty poor when compared to my iPod, my brother's Creative mp3 player.
I currently have 1 4gb SD card, and 1 8gb CF minidrive.  There is only 112mb of memory for me to use on the player itself.
 

WallyBman

OK, so a Zune would be okay if it could connect to the internet via wifi directly, but a PSP is too big? And the PSP is too expensive? To me, a slim PSP at $170, without a bundle, and a 4 gig official Sony memory card for $45 is not that bad a price for what you get. Also, considering it plays games, runs emulators, has a built in tabbed web browser, can catch podcasts, AND can do video out to a tv, Its not that bad of a deal.

And if you are SOOOO worried about the size, don't worry about that, you can wear a fanny pack. Everyone already thinks that you and Rym are gay anyways, right? ;)