FCC approves Microsoft’s unreleased 120GB Zune

Subscription TV and Movies would be amazing for iTunes or Zune. It'd make canceling cable that much closer to reality.

"It'd make canceling cable that much closer to reality." Don't get too giddy at the prospect. TimeWarner is already testing metered access; when you start pushing that much data through the Intertubes, you'll probably wind up paying more than you were for cable in the first place. These guys aren't going to give up their cash cow any time soon. Trust me.

"lotsa" and the cabal: Ocean did post something O/T about Silverlight. You have your excuse for posting some irrelevant news article/blog about Microsoft.

@bettieblu - tell me some of the limitations...Its a media player and that is all it is trying to be. With a Zune Pass, I can download unlimited music...and for the same $15/month my wife and daughter can do the same for those. I can sync the TV shows that I record on my Media Center PC, I can rip any CDs that I have to WMV or mp3 format in order to sync to the device. To me, the iTouch, even with the App Store is limited when it comes to a media player...sure, you can download a lot of applications...and they are cool...but I don't want to do that...I want music and video, and in my opinion, the Zune just plain out performs the entire iPod line in that arena. -tayme

Realistically, the Zune models compare with the iPod models thusly: Flash Music Players Zune 4 ($130) - iPod nano 4GB ($150) Zune 8 ($180) - iPod nano 8GB ($200) Hard Drive Music Players Zune 80 ($250) - iPod Classic 80GB ($250) Zune 120 ($???) - no equivalent iPod No equivalent Zune - iPod Classic 160GB ($350) That people want to compare the Zune 80 with the iPod Touch is amusing but pretty silly.

DRWAM There is a music subscription service for Zune called Zune Pass that's $14.99/month.

"That people want to compare the Zune 80 with the iPod Touch is amusing but pretty silly." I agree. iPod Touch is more like a PDA. I've seen this among some of the tech journalists like Pogue et al, who did the same. I think Zune is a pretty good mp3 player that had a reasonable amount of success in the market. The flash models that Microsoft expected to sell well ended up doing badly, though, which is the reason for the low marketshare.

Zune limitations as I see them. Zune store has limited content compared to iTunes. I have not been on there in a while but does it have TV, Movies, books yet? Desktop software prior to 2.5 was horrible, now its just bad. The raiting system still sucks, pod cast options are horrible. 2.5 brought smart play lists but even that option lacks in comparison. 3rd party support is dominated by the iPod. My wife and I both have iTouch's and we have an iHome in our bedroom, and bose sound stations in two different rooms, each of us have connections in our cars, CD dont exist in my world and have not for a while now. Trying to the do that same thing with the Zune is just not possible or you options are way to limited or just not as elegant, as in some items like the bose docking station can use a Zune if you lay it on the counter, and use a chord to the back of it. The ease of which I move my iTouch from a PC to a device in a room or to a car is made possible by massive third party support for the iPod brand. The applications on a iTouch make the device almost not even comparable to the Zune. The only thing the Zune has over a iTouch is a radio, an FM radio. I would bet every Zune user or 99% of them would trade that radio for applications like the iTouch has in a second. Unless you have really used an iTouch its hard to understand how cool the thing is. Example, I work from home for a large company that uses Exchange. I recently updated my iTouch to 2.0 firmware when it came out. Now I have full Exchange 2007 support on my iTouch using the wireless connection in my house. So now instead of taking my notebook with me around the house to check my email or going to my office, its in my pocket. The Exchange\email interface is 10x better than my blackJack II my work gave me, so much so I dont use the blackJack as a mobile email device unless I leave the house. That is just on of the many features it has above and beyond the core features of a great audio/video playing device. Like I said the Zune is not a bad device, it just greatly pails in comparison to the iTouch/iTunes echo system, especially for the masses.

I am always for having options. While I like what iTunes brings, I also like what Microsoft is doing with the Zune. Lets be fair, if you're going to make comparisons,use products that lineup. No sense of comparing an iPod touch to something that doesn't have an equivalent yet. Who knows if MIcrosoft is working on something like it? At least, I don't know if they are. For what I'm looking for, the video iPod works for me. My only complaint is iTunes. Apple can do better here. I'm still up in the air about the subscripton service. Perhaps as an add on to the existing pricing model it would be nice.

Shark, here's the scam that I used. Ameritrade offered a Tungsten T3 when you open an account and keep it open for a year. I opened one for me and another for the wife, and got two T3's. After a year, I consolidated and sent half the money back to my savings. Another promo for the Treo 650 started, so I opened another account with the money that I had transferred 2 months before. Then a promo for the iPod nano started a year later. I opened 3 accounts. Since the accompanying letter that arrived with the nano stated "accept this gift from Ameritrade...", I kept one and returned two to the Apple store, stating that I got them as gifts. I asked for a gift certificate and got around $360 or so, even the tax. My wife knew I wanted to use the gift cards, but there was nothing that I needed at the Apple store. On our 10th anniversary, she swapped our phones, asking me to use hers to figure out an alleged problem, grap the gift card and bought an iPhone and warranty. [The T3's and Treo still work, although the first Treo died under warranty and ATT replaced it with 2 weeks of warranty remaining, although i did not even buy it from them. ATT gave me another 90 days warranty as well. That was May of 2007.] That's how I sliced the Apple. As a follow up, Ameritrade now gives a Garmin Nuvi 660 if you deposit [a lot] of money], so I did, and will buy shares from the same fund where the money original came from, so I will only pay a transfer fee for the stock purchase.

Sup, if you have the Touch model, there is are several apps that use WiFi FTP [Filezilla in Windows] to send movies, music and other files to it. I use Mobilefinder for the iPhone, and these may work for the Touch. The vendors of these apps seem to respond to emails well, so if you ask, maybe they can help.