From www.hemmy.net
Glasswing Butterfly (Greta Oto) is a brush-footed butterfly where its wings are transparent. The tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. They are found in the range which extends throughout Central America into Mexico.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Glasswing Butterfly
Unlocking the iPod
Looks like DVD Jon is back and this time he's freeing all that music you legally own.
Jon Johansen became a geek hero by breaking the DVD code. Now he's liberating iTunes - whether Apple likes it or not.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Robert Levine, Fortune
(Fortune Magazine) -- Growing up in a small town in southern Norway, Jon Lech Johansen loved to take things apart to figure out how they worked. Unlike most kids, though, he'd put them back together better than they were before. When he was 14, his father bought a digital camera that came with buggy software, so Jon analyzed the code and wrote a program that worked better.
Apple's iPod is turning 5
When Johansen bought an early MP3 player that kept crashing, he studied how it worked, wrote a more reliable program, and posted it on the Internet so other people could download it for free. Later, the company that made the device asked him about writing a new version, but he didn't hear back after he sent in his résumé. "I assume it had something to do with my age," Johansen says dryly. He was 17.
Sometimes, however, the things Johansen tries to improve were made a certain way for a reason. When he was 15, Johansen got frustrated when his DVDs didn't work the way he wanted them to. "I was fed up with not being able to play a movie the way I wanted to play it," that is, on a PC that ran Linux.
To fix the problem, he and two hackers he met online wrote a program called DeCSS, which removed the encryption that limits what devices can play the discs. That meant the movies could be played on any machine, but also that they could be copied. After the program was posted online, Johansen received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation - and a visit from Norwegian police.
Johansen, now 22 and widely known as "DVD Jon" for his exploits, has also figured out how Apple's iPod-iTunes system works. And he's using that knowledge to start a business that is going to drive Steve Jobs crazy.
A disruptor
If you want to be specific - and for legal reasons, he does - Johansen has reverse-engineered FairPlay, the encryption technology Apple (Charts) uses to make the iPod a closed system. Right now, thanks to FairPlay, the songs Apple sells at its iTunes store cannot easily be played on other devices, and copy-protected songs purchased from other sites will not play on the iPod. (The iPod will play MP3 files, which do not have any copy protection, but major labels don't sell music in that format.)
Johansen has written programs that get around those restrictions: one that would let other companies sell copy-protected songs that play on the iPod, and another that would let other devices play iTunes songs. Starting this fall, his new company, DoubleTwist, will license them to anyone who wants to get into the digital-music business - and doesn't mind getting hate mail from Cupertino.
So far, DoubleTwist consists of four cubicles in a generic-looking glass-and-steel building in Redwood Shores, Calif., one client, and no full-time employees other than Johansen and co-founder Monique Farantzos.
As he and Farantzos explain DoubleTwist in a conference room they share with several other companies, he points to a sheet of printer paper tacked on the wall that has a typed quote Jobs gave the Wall Street Journal in 2002: "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." As Johansen sees it, Jobs didn't follow through on this promise, so it's up to him to fix the system, just as he fixed the software for his father's camera.
"Today's reality is that there's this iTunes-iPod ecosystem that excludes everyone else from the market," says Johansen. "I don't like closed systems."
Companies that rely on closed systems don't much care for him, either. For his role in writing DeCSS, Johansen was charged with breaking the Norwegian law that prohibits gaining unauthorized access to data, then was acquitted twice when courts ruled the data were his own. The movie studios didn't like that decision, which almost certainly would have been different in the U.S., where the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA, for short) prohibits circumventing digital-rights-management technology (or DRM) for any reason. The movie studios used that law to successfully sue a hacker magazine called 2600 that linked to DeCSS on its Web site.
Johansen, who had left high school at 16 to become a programmer, testified in the 2600 case and became frustrated that companies could prohibit customers from using a product the way they wanted. "I really became interested in these issues," he says. He also became something of an icon to hard-core geeks: When Johansen announced on his blog that he was selling the old iPod he had used to break FairPlay, a Berkeley researcher bought it to keep as a souvenir.
"We all talk about disruptive forces in business," says Mike McGuire, an analyst at the Gartner Group. "This guy is a disruptive force unto himself."
A thorn in Apple's side
There's an obvious question: Isn't opening the iTunes system illegal? There is no obvious answer. FairPlay is not patented, most likely because the encryption algorithms it uses are in the public domain. (Apple would not comment for this story.) And Johansen says he is abiding by the letter of the law - if not, perhaps, its spirit.
To let other sites sell music that plays on the iPod, his program will "wrap" songs with code that functions much like FairPlay. "So we'll actually add copy protection," he says, whereas the DMCA prohibits removing it. Helping other devices play iTunes songs could be harder to justify legally, but he cites the DMCA clause that permits users, in some circumstances, to reverse-engineer programs to ensure "interoperability."
"The law protects copyrights," he says, "but it doesn't keep you locked into the iPod." Johansen isn't the only one who feels that way - or the only one who has found a way around FairPlay.
In 2004, RealNetworks (Charts) released a program called Harmony that would allow songs from its RealPlayer Music Store to play on the iPod. Steve Jobs memorably accused the company of using "the ethics and tactics of a hacker" and threatened to sue.
Instead, Apple released a software update that made Harmony ineffective - although Real subsequently fixed that. Another company, Navio Systems, has announced that it has developed a way to play iTunes songs on other devices. Several more programs on the Internet will strip the FairPlay encryption from a file, but none of them has a large following.
And not everyone who wants to open up the iPod is a hacker. There have been demonstrations in the streets of France over Apple's DRM, and lawmakers there have attempted to require Apple to license FairPlay. Apple said that such a move would be "state-sponsored piracy."
In the U.S., courts have traditionally allowed inventors to reverse-engineer products to determine how they function. But the DMCA allows programmers to do that only in certain cases. "What he's working on is clearly in the spirit of the reverse-engineering the courts have been most friendly toward," says Fred von Lohman, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has informally given Johansen advice. "But the law is untested, and the case is complicated."
Since the DMCA was passed, the most relevant legal precedent is a case in which the videogame maker Blizzard sued an ISP that hosted an unapproved server where people could play its games, which the court found to be a DMCA violation.
"On the surface, Apple would have a good case," especially when it comes to making iTunes songs play on other devices, says Robert Becker, an attorney at Manatt Phelps & Phillips who has represented the copy-protection company Macrovision. "Apple would say you're buying music under certain restrictions."
Indeed, how you feel about what Johansen is doing may depend on how you feel about a question that will become more important as the media business gradually embraces digital distribution: What exactly are you buying when you purchase a song on iTunes?
An unscientific survey of friends generated only one answer: a song. An attorney, though, might say that you are buying a license to play a song on a specific set of devices - and that using Johansen's software violates Apple's user agreement (the one you didn't bother to read when you signed up for iTunes).
If the distinction seems minute, suppose you replace your iPod with another digital music player; unless you convert them to MP3s, your songs from iTunes will be as useful as eight-track tapes.
A tense atmosphere
For a man so intent on changing the way music is sold, Johansen isn't a big fan himself. "I've probably bought ten CDs in my whole life," he says. Much of the music he does have - mainly techno - he buys from iTunes. When the store went online, it didn't accept foreign credit cards, so Johansen bought iTunes gift certificates on eBay.
Instead of going to concerts, Johansen bakes. His blog, "So Sue Me," features dessert recipes along with news about technology and arguments about copyright law. When DoubleTwist signed its first client - which Johansen declines to identify - he made an apple pie to celebrate.
Johansen has a soft-spoken modesty that belies his stature as a hacker. He was among the first to crack FairPlay - he did it for fun on a vacation in France - and he has also broken a Microsoft code. "If reverse-engineering were a sport," says Michael Robertson, the Internet entrepreneur for whom Johansen worked before setting up DoubleTwist, "Jon would be on the all-star team."
Johansen realizes that taking on Apple could make figuring out FairPlay look easy. But he seems to regard the fact that he could get sued as one of those complicating factors an engineer must deal with, and he keeps the reverse-engineering clause of the DMCA near his desk for easy reference. "We don't want to go to court, because it's a waste of time and money," he says. "But if it comes to that, we will test these issues in court."
Johansen's legal arguments involve the rights of consumers, but opening the iPod could also be good for the music business. The major labels worry that compatibility concerns will slow the digital-music market, especially when Microsoft (Charts) comes out with its own closed system this Christmas. Chafing at Apple's one-price-fits-all policy, they would love to see more retailers enter the market. But it says something about the power of Apple that none provided an executive who would speak for the record.
It is anyone's guess how Apple will react - the company hasn't contacted DoubleTwist. (Johansen says he had lunch with Jobs last January, but he hadn't yet started his company.)
So far, Apple hasn't sued anyone who has created or distributed any of the FairPlay hacks. That could be because the company is afraid that losing a case would set a precedent that would encourage imitations of the iPod. Or it could be that Apple doesn't want to give anyone the publicity.
Whatever Apple does, Johansen could have a hard time making DoubleTwist into a viable business. Companies could be reluctant to license Johansen's software for fear of being sued along with DoubleTwist. And they might have a tough time convincing the major labels to let them sell their music, since the labels know how much that would upset Apple.
"There has to be an agreement between the label and the retailer," says Josh Wattles, an attorney at Dreier and a former corporate counsel at Paramount Pictures. "What's the likelihood of a record company granting that?"
Whether or not Johansen makes any money with DoubleTwist, he will almost certainly make his point. "The iTunes music store was getting so popular, and I was kind of fed up that people were accepting that DRM."
On the other hand, if Apple gets fed up with him, he'll end up making his point in a courtroom.
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More Smart Things Andy Said > Part 3
From Tony Morgan's Blog.
46. Your current system is perfectly designed for the results you're getting. That may be great news, or that may be bad news.
47. Connect the dots. You need to figure out a way for every single volunteer in your organization to understand what they contribute to the whole.
48. The very best people are busy people. Because of that, you need to define the terms of service. What's the commitment required?
49. Fresh starts always provide momentum. Let volunteers take a break and then start up again. (Tony's side note: That's why launching a new weekend series every 5 or 6 weeks is so important.)
50. Eliminate the competition. If you try to do everything, you'll run out of volunteers. One of the questions that's asked around NP is this: Where do we have competing systems?
Dr. Charles Stanley took the platform for this morning's session. I hope I can get these notes down, because I tend to get mesmerized by his voice. When I grow up, I want to have a voice like that. I think Emily would swoon every time I speak. I like it when Emily swoons.
51. Don't run because you face conflict. If you start running, you'll never stop. There will always be conflict. Wherever there's change, there's conflict.
52. To be leaders, you have to be strong and courageous. Don't show your fear. You cannot carry out your responsibility by being fearful.
53. Conflict in our ministry divides our mind. We think about it all the time. It's a distraction that keeps us from our goals. It destroys relationships.
54. Obey God and leave all the consequences to him.
55. The message must never change. The methods can.
56. Learn to fight your battles on your knees.
57. Just tell the truth.
58. If you focus on your opposition, that's bad. If you focus on God, that's good. It's easy to get distracted. Keep your focus where it belongs.
Friday, November 10, 2006
More Smart Things Andy Said > Part 2
From Tony Morgan's Blog.
19. God works through systems. For example, your body is a complex system designed by God. It's systematic and predictable. God created systems. That doesn't make him small. Likewise, God works through systems in our ministry. Systems aren't secular.
20. You can pray your heart out for change to take place in your church, but change will not take place without change to your systems.
21. Your church is a conglomeration of systems. You can't pray that away. You can't faith that away. You can't inspire that away. You can't preach that away. Somebody has to address those systems.
22. McDonalds and Coke have accomplished their "great commission." We say, "That's the worlds way." Maybe not. Maybe it's God's way. God works through systems.
23. There are some organizational systems that impede ministry. In effect, we are resisting the Holy Spirit.
24. Some systems free leaders and some obstruct leaders.
25. "I may not be right, but I'm going to be critical."
26. I know a pastor that is supposed to lead his church but a separate committee hires the staff. "That's stupid." It's obstructing ministry in his environment.
27. When you don't understand systems thinking, you always blame the players.
28. Systems create behaviors. For example, if you're a youth pastor, your teaching can't outweigh the influence of a dysfunctional family system. Or, if you're a parent, the wrong system of friends trumps what you teach at home.
29. The systems you inherit, adopt or create will eventually impact what staff and volunteers do.
30. The reason people are not inviting friends to attend services and events in your church is because you have a system that discourages people from doing that.
31. If you have to get up on the platform and beg people to do something (like recruit volunteers), that's a system problem.
32. Anytime you hear, "our people just won't," you're listening to someone who doesn't understand systems. They're blaming people instead of addressing the systems. (Tony's note: And these people are not leaders. They're just whiners.)
33. Components of a system include: expectations/rules, rewards (or lack of), consequences (or lack of), communication (content and style) and behavior of those in charge.
34. What's rewarded gets repeated.
35. Systems have a greater impact on organizational culture than do mission statements.
36. This principle explains why it is so difficult to transition a church.
37. You can't change, add or delete programs to change a church or change lives. Programming doesn't change behavior.
38. The NT does not present us with a comprehensive system model. We discover what the early church did, but it doesn't instruct leaders what to do.
39. Always ask the question: Is this what we are told to do or is this just what they did? Is it prescriptive or descriptive?
40. Delegation, accountability, authority, interdependence, point leadership and seeking counsel are all examples of systems outlined in the OT and NT. There's nothing to suggest congregational rule is an appropriate system for a church.
41. Your system should allow you to involve and hire the best person for the job. If you hire great people, great things happen.
42. Your system should provide you with the flexibility to get the right people to the table to make decisions.
43. Your system should allow you to make complex decisions within the context of a small group of empowered individuals. You cannot effectively communicate complicated information to a lot of people.
44. Your system should ensure that only person answers to "they." At North Point, Andy is the only person that works for a group. You can't answer to a boss and a committee.
45. Romans 12 indicates leaders need to "govern diligently." This is all about the systems.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Smart Things Andy Stanley Said > Part 1
From Tony Morgan's Blog.
1. We're not there yet. And we won't be.
2. We all do ministry in communities where people think church is for church people. That's the type of world we live in. People care about God. People want to connect with God. There's a hunger for God, but the church is in the way. "I'm giving the rest of my life to change that."
3. The church ought to be the magnet. It should be irresistible. If we're the body, we should be irresistible.
4. Sinners liked to be around Jesus. They liked him, but they were nothing like him.
5. Leaders are very dissatisfied unless there's progress.
6. Since the beginning of the church, the "insiders" have been making it difficult for the "outsiders." From the very beginning, the church has tried to change the outsiders before they can connect with the church. (Acts 15)
7. If we create obstacles for people to connect with the church and God, we are working against God.
8. The majority of churches have made it difficult for people to turn to God.
9. The Gospel should be easy and accessible.
10. For some reason, there's something in us that wants to make church a formula. We make it difficult for people who are turning to God.
11. The gravitational pull of your ministry is to create insider language, rules and programs that makes it more difficult for people to turn to God.
12. The only people that really love a big church are the pastors. It's a hassle for everyone else.
13. We had to create empty seats at optimal times in order to make room for people who were unchurched. Otherwise, I would have just been talking to the Christians.
14. This is the difficult question we need to continuously ask: Is it still easy and accessible here?
15. When a local church gets off-mission, God gets uninterested. God says, "They don't need me."
16. We made a fundamental decision years ago that we were going to be more committed to reaching people than keeping people.
17. We're not here for the party going to Heaven.
18. Are you willing to take a critical look at your organization or ministry team and determine whether or not you're unintentionally making it harder for people to take steps toward Christ?
5 Myths of Growing Churches
Another post from Tony Morgan's blog. To me, church is a home. A church can have all the bells and whistles, but if it isn't a home, its not my church.
5 Myths of Growing Churches
As I mentioned the other day, Mark, Kem and I spent a few days at NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. In addition to surviving two of the three showers I took, we spent quite a bit of time with Perry Noble and his leadership team. It was an incredible experience. God is doing amazing things through this church. In fact, the NewSpring story really blows five big myths out of the water:
Myth #1: You have to be in a big community to have a big church. NewSpring had almost 7,800 people in attendance this weekend. The church is located in a town of 25,000 people. There are only 175,000 in the entire county. They're reaching about 1 out of every 22 people that live in their county. That's a staggering percentage.
Myth #2: You have to water down God's Word to reach a lot of people. Perry doesn't water down anything. He's probably the most "in your face" communicator I've ever heard. In the message I heard on Sunday, Perry hit tough issues like sex before marriage, cohabitation and pornography. And, on the flip side, he taught about sanctification. In all of this, he was jumping all over Scriptures to back up every point of his message. Perry doesn't back away from the Truth.
Myth #3: It has to be boring to be church. There's never a dull moment at NewSpring. The team uses lots of humor to help people connect with the message and each other. In one moment the teaching stretches your understanding of God. In the next moment the humor grabs your attention and prepares your heart to hear more truth.
Myth #4: Big churches are all about a big personality. NewSpring reminded me that growth usually happens when a team of people commits to fulfilling a mission from God. NewSpring has a great team. Their staff is incredibly talented and committed to helping people take their next steps toward Christ. And, there are 1,400 people who aren't paid by NewSpring that are volunteering their time and gifts to reach people for Jesus. God isn't working through one person at NewSpring--he's working through about 1,500 people.
Myth #5: Growth is incremental. Many times that may be the case in ministry. But, there are some instances, when the Holy Spirit moves through a congregation and revival happens in a community. When God moves and the church cooperates with God's agenda, amazing things can happen. Eight months ago, NewSpring was "only" averaging 4,000 people. Today, they're almost twice that size. Yes, it's a God thing. But it's much more than that. And, if you're interested in leading a growing ministry, you would be wise to study what's happening at NewSpring.
Thanks, Perry, for inviting us to join you. We had a great time. You and your team stretched our vision for the impact the local church can have on a community.
Are Your Church Services Enjoyable for Visitors?
Tony Morgan always has great ideas on church fellowship and services on his blog. Does it matter if church services are enjoyable?
Are Your Services Enjoyable for Visitors?
My son Jacob is in third grade. As part of his studies, he has to learn arithmetic. He’s a smart kid, but he doesn’t really enjoy doing worksheets in his schoolbooks. He does enjoy following sports, however, so we helped him start a sports card collection.
Jacob counts the cards. He studies the player stats on the backs of the cards. He looks up the value of the cards. And, wouldn’t you know it, in the process of enjoying his hobby, he’s learning some basic mathematical principles he’ll use for the rest of his life. Jacob learns math precepts much more easily if he’s enjoying the learning process.
Visitors at your church are no different than Jacob. But instead of math, these people are studying for challenges they’re facing in their lives. They’re trying to learn basic concepts of hope, purpose and forgiveness. The problem is, they continue to leave the church because they find it boring and irrelevant to their lives. We’re forcing our visitors to complete their biblical worksheets but providing little to no enjoyment along the way.
Since when does church=boredom? I love the book of Acts because it gives me a clear picture of what the early Church was like. This group was committed to the apostles’ teaching, sharing life and prayer together. As a result, many outsiders accepted Christ and experienced a transformed life. And what’s more, these people enjoyed their church experience. See for yourself:
“They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved” (Acts 2:46-47, The Message).
“People in general liked what they saw” suggests the early Church was “enjoying the favor of all the people,” and with that favor, came growth (NIV). Based on passages like this one in Acts, I believe boredom isn’t what God intended for the Church. He wants us to offer an experience that’s both biblical and enjoyable. To evaluate the enjoyment level of your services, consider these questions:
* Does the worship music reflect a style the crowd appreciates?
* Is the message addressing a topic that’s relevant to people’s lives?
* Is there an appropriate amount of humor in the service?
* Does the service flow smoothly from one thing to the next?
* Are you using visual elements to capture people’s attention as they engage in worship and hear the message?
* Do you periodically surprise people with something they weren’t anticipating?
These are basic questions, but it’s important to review them from time to time. Naysayers might argue that by offering services people enjoy, you are ultimately just catering to our culture’s consumer mindset, but remind them that there certainly is a consumer mindset in our culture, and unless we acknowledge that and deal with it, our message—the Gospel message—won’t be heard.
It’s entirely possible to offer biblical teaching and corporate worship in a way that people actually like. If you create an enjoyable service experience, people will not only choose to return, they’ll also invite their friends. When that happens, more people will hear the truth, and God may begin to add to your number daily.
Tony Morgan (TonyMorganLive.com) is a pastor serving on the senior management team at Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind. Tony has co-authored three books with Tim Stevens including their latest project—Simply Strategic Growth (Group Publishing, 2005). Visit WiredChurches.com to learn more about the training and resources Granger provides to equip growing churches.
-Outreach magazine, "Web Exclusives," November/December 2006
Hey Big Nose!
In this photograph, Victo, a male Proboscis monkey, pauses during an afternoon feeding session at Singapore Zoo.
The Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) is a reddish-brown animal which spends most of its time in trees or bushes and feeds on leafs. It can only be found in the costal areas of East-Borneo and the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra. The most distinctive trait of this monkey is of course its large protruding nose.
The reason behind having a large nose is still unclear and it has been suggested that it is simply a result of sexual selection: female Proboscis monkeys prefer big-nosed mates, thus propagating the trait.
This is a highly endangered species, and only 1,000 are known to still exist in the wild.
Microsoft's Zune Challenges iPod
Player Could Lure Converts, But It Makes Compromises
And Is Missing Some Features
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
And Is Missing Some Features
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
Next week, Microsoft Corp. will launch the most serious challenge ever mounted to Apple Computer's iPod and iTunes juggernaut in digital music. The software giant is introducing a portable player called the Zune, an online music store called Zune Marketplace and a new music software program called Zune that links the two. It plans to put plenty of marketing muscle behind Zune, and promises to expand and refine this new product line in coming years.
This isn't Microsoft's first effort to stop the iPod, but it's the first for which the software giant is adopting Apple's own business and design model -- where one company makes and controls the hardware, software and online component, and tightly integrates them. The Zune is produced by Microsoft's Xbox group, which builds game consoles on that same end-to-end principle.
In its first incarnation, the Zune comes in only one version, a big, chunky $249 model that can hold 30 gigabytes of music, videos and photos. I've been testing the Zune for the past couple of weeks and comparing it with the most similar of Apple's six iPod models -- the smaller of the two full-size iPods, which also holds 30 gigabytes and also costs $249.
Zune has several nice features the iPod lacks: a larger screen, the ability to exchange songs with other Zunes wirelessly and a built-in FM radio. It solves the worst problem that plagued earlier Microsoft-based music players -- frequent failures to synchronize properly music and videos between the players and personal computers. Synchronization on the Zune is smooth and sure.
Also, the Zune player and software have a very good user interface, different from, but in some cases easier to use than, the iPod's. While it lacks the famous iPod scroll wheel, instead using a common four-way navigation pad, I found song lists easy to navigate on the Zune. It has only a few buttons and is quite intuitive to use. To my ears, it sounded as good as the iPod.
Walt Mossberg says Zune, the upcoming MP3 player from Microsoft, has some attractive features but overall doesn't outshine Apple's iPod.
But, this first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users. The hardware feels rushed and incomplete. It is 60% larger and 17% heavier than the comparable iPod. It has much worse battery life for music than the iPod or than Microsoft claims -- at least two hours less than the iPod's, in my tests. Despite the larger screen, many album covers look worse than they do on the iPod. And you can't share music libraries between computers like you can with iTunes.
Zune's online store offers far fewer songs, just over two million, compared with 3.5 million for the iTunes store. In fact, as of this writing, songs from one of the big labels, Universal, were missing from Zune Marketplace, though Microsoft says it is confident it will have all the major labels when it launches Zune on Tuesday. Also, despite the player's capability, Zune Marketplace offers none of the TV shows, movies or music videos that iTunes does, and has no audiobooks or podcasts.
Even worse, to buy even a single 99-cent song from the Zune store, you have to purchase blocks of "points" from Microsoft, in increments of at least $5. You can't just click and have the 99 cents deducted from a credit card, as you can with iTunes. You must first add points to your account, then buy songs with these points. So, even if you are buying only one song, you have to allow Microsoft, one of the world's richest companies, to hold on to at least $4.01 of your money until you buy another. And the point system is deceptive. Songs are priced at 79 points, which some people might think means 79 cents. But 79 points actually cost 99 cents.
Unlike iTunes, Zune offers subscription plans, where you can get an unlimited numbers of songs for $15 a month. However, Microsoft is de-emphasizing this option and mostly positioning Zune Marketplace as a source of individually purchased songs and albums.
Some consumers may well choose Zune for its big screen, which looks great with photos and videos, for its wireless song swapping, or for its FM-radio capability, which requires a $50 accessory on the iPod. Others may favor Zune because they are as tired of Apple's dominance in music as some folks are of Microsoft's dominance in computers.
But Zune has only around 100 accessories at launch, versus 3,000 or more for the iPod. If you have any iPod-specific accessories, they won't work on the Zune. Also, none of the songs you may have purchased from Apple will play on the Zune, unless you undertake a laborious conversion process. Apple is rumored to be working on an all-new iPod with a screen as large or larger than the Zune's.
Zune marks an unusual turn for Microsoft. The company is abandoning its favored business model, where it builds software platforms and then lets other companies make a wide variety of products that use that platform. Instead, Microsoft is building and totally controlling the whole chain associated with the product: the hardware, the software and the online music store. Songs sold on Zune Marketplace are intended to play only on the Zune, and Zune players won't be able to play copy-protected songs bought elsewhere, even at other online stores that use Microsoft music formats.
Microsoft was driven to this approach because its platform model, so successful with personal computers, has failed miserably in the music category. Apple has simply rolled over all the hardware companies and online stores that were built around Microsoft's previous music system, called "PlaysForSure."
Zune comes in three colors: black and white, like the comparable iPod, and brown, a daring color for a consumer-electronics device, but one that has become popular in the fashion world. Each model also has a second color on a translucent band around its edge; the brown one is trimmed in green.
Placing the Zune next to the 30-gigabyte iPod provides a strong contrast. The iPod is thin, sleek and elegant looking. The Zune looks big and blocky, sort of like a prototype for a gadget, rather than a finished product. It is longer, thicker and heavier than even the 80-gigabyte iPod, which has more than twice its capacity.
Zune was adapted from a much-praised but slight-selling music player, the Toshiba Gigabeat, in order to get it to market more quickly.
The word "Microsoft" never appears anywhere on the Zune, only the new Zune logo and a cheeky, "Hello from Seattle" in tiny type at the bottom of the back of the device. The Zune's tag line, evident immediately when you open the box, is "Welcome to the Social," a phrase meant to stress the device's wireless song-sharing feature, and to reach out to the Zune's target market, young music lovers who build social relationships around favorite songs and artists.
But the wireless music-sharing feature on the Zune is heavily compromised, in a way that is bound to annoy the very audience it is targeting. Each song sent to your Zune from another Zune can be played only three times and is available for playing for only three days. After that, it dies and can't be played again unless you buy it. Even if you play the song only halfway through, or for one minute, that counts as one of your three allowed plays. In fact, in my tests, a song I sent to my assistant's Zune expired after only two plays, one of which lasted just a few seconds. Microsoft attributed that to a bug that it said would be fixed.
The Zune's other big plus, the big screen, is similarly compromised. While it is three inches versus 2.5 inches for the iPod's screen, it uses the same resolution. That combination can make images coarser and grainier. In my tests, on photos and videos, this didn't matter much, and the Zune did a good job, even automatically switching into horizontal screen mode. But images of album covers often looked fuzzy, grainy and even distorted on the Zune when compared with how they looked on the iPod.
And for a product that's all about "the Social," Zune is curiously lacking a very popular iTunes feature -- the ability to view and to listen to another user's music library over a local network. This iTunes feature works in homes, office, college dorms, hotels, and other places, and it functions in mixed groups of Windows and Macintosh computers. But with the new Zune software, you can share your library only with Xbox game consoles, not other computers.
On the plus side, I really liked the interface on the Zune. In some modes, it allows you to do things with fewer clicks than the iPod does. For instance, if you are browsing through music, you don't have to go back a step to switch from, say, a list of artists to a list of albums. Those choices are arrayed at the top of the screen and can be selected with a sideways push of the navigation pad.
Also, the entire interface is more colorful and visually satisfying than the iPod's. Lists of albums are accompanied by thumbnails of their covers. Menus zoom in and out, and some are translucent. You can also select your own photo as the wallpaper or background for the device. But, unlike on the iPod, you can't customize the main menu or go to "Now Playing," or shuffle all songs with one click.
The Zune software also has a handsome look and feel. And it allows you to "guest synchronize" a Zune on another computer, something iTunes doesn't allow. You can load songs from someone else's library onto your Zune without wiping out your own library, though you can't then transfer those songs back to your own PC.
But battery life on the Zune was very disappointing. Microsoft claims 14 hours of music playback on a single charge with the wireless feature turned off -- the same as the comparable iPod -- and 13 hours with wireless turned on. But Microsoft bases these claims on strict and unnatural usage conditions, such as never increasing the default volume, playing only one album over and over, and keeping the backlight on for just one second.
I tested the Zune in more normal conditions, shuffling through hundreds of songs, adjusting the volume where needed, skipping or repeating songs occasionally and using a 30-second backlight. In my test, I got just 12 hours and 18 minutes of music playback, versus 14 hours and 44 minutes from an iPod under the same usage pattern. With the wireless turned on, battery life on the Zune was worse -- just 10 hours and 12 minutes, even though I didn't send or receive any songs.
Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs. Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time. And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run.
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