RE: Zune HD or iPod?

I've been a Zune user (30GB non-HD) for several years, and I'm very happy
with the device itself. It's the third MP3 player I've owned, and by far the
best.

However, I'd like to add to your list of downsides.

First is the fact that it can't be addressed as a mass storage device. In
fact, there's not even any (practical) way to hack around needing the Zune
software (as iPods can), so running the Zune software is absolutely
required. 

That would only be a minor nuisance (can't hook up to a friend's PC) were it
not for the usability of the Zune desktop software. I'll agree with you to a
certain extent: for what it is, the software works well. However, it's got
two gaping holes.

First, for very large collections it's a headache. As a player it does fine,
but for library management it is almost completely useless. Searching and
browsing are poor, and the ability to create subsets (channels the call
them?) with filters is useless because the filters are too simplistic (as I
recall, I can say "give me music from the 80s", but I can't say "give me
music from the 80s except thrash metal").

Second, there are just too many other things that a player can do
above-and-beyond just playing. For example, I use MediaMonkey, which offers
scripting via VBScript. This has led to a pretty good ecosystem of scripts.
I constantly use a set of them that communicate with Last.FM in order to get
"related tracks". It lets that web service act as an auto-DJ: I seed it with
a song, and it picks a next song that's related; when that 2nd song starts,
it goes to locate a 3rd song related to that, etc.

Marc - for ripping CDs, I recommend Exact Audio Copy [1]. This is probably
on the slow end of the spectrum, but it guarantees that you'll get it ripped
correctly. It works with a database of CRCs for any recording you've ever
heard of, and at the end of a rip, shows you a confidence level that it was
correct by comparing to the results from other users. To make this work, it
also does some kind of calibration of timing offsets for your specific drive
as well. You're only going to rip it once, and listen lots of times, so I
think it's worth the time investment in getting the rip correct.

[1] http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (free software)