#FF00AA

@music@

Zune and Marketplace hands-on gallery, long walkthrough video, review. I decidedly think they’re sexy. Actually, apart from the lack of a click-wheel, I really find them sexier than current iPods. Apple ought not to wait too long to introduce a full-screen iPod (and an all-you-can-eat iTunes Store subscription, too, pretty please).

Another not-published or seldom-talked-about feature is guesting. A friend can take his Zune over to your computer, set up a “guest” relationship with your Zune Marketplace software (as opposed to a regular owner relationship), and you’re free to drag songs and pictures from your library onto her device. These songs do not have the 3 play 3 day limit on them. Depending on whether you purchased or you’re leasing these songs, you can do this with either 5 or 2 Zunes, respectively.

Interesting concept. Is there a limit to the number of computers a Zune device can be guesting — i.e., to the number of friends you can freely borrow music from?

A cool feature that iTunes doesn’t have is pre-rated, or community rankings. When you buy songs from the store, you’ll notice that they already come pre-ranked on a scale of 5 blue stars. When you rank a song, it’ll rank it in orange stars.

 

@music@

iVue transparent iPod. Interesting, but ugly.

 

@apple@

OS X proof-of-concept virus.