My favorite time waster-slash-guilty pleasure weblog, Engadget, has posted a surprisingly thorough review of the new Microsoft digital audio player, the Zune.
The review is here: http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/15/zune-review/.
This review is better than most popular press reviews in that it touches on scenario- and task-based usability issues, as well as describing in great detail what it’s like to actually operate the Zune’s physical and onscreen controls.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, the Zune doesn’t fare so well in the review. I’m not a reflexive Microsoft-hater; in fact I was hoping that M$ would come up with something good enough to motivate Apple to flesh out the iPod feature set a bit more. Alas, the Zune doesn’t seem to be that something.
