Ardent Meridian

What an absolute cluster-fuck.

Re-subscribing to ZunePass has been a epic mistake.  Well, okay, a $15 mistake.  Not really epic considering I drive an Aston Martin, which drinks gas to the tune of $0.50/mile at full chat, but still, $15 simply pissed away.

I really enjoyed my 1.0 Zune device on the original Zune software.  It was only my desire not to carry more than one device on a daily basis, combined with no 64-bit support, that stopped me using it.  Well … that and the fact that every other piece of music I wanted was either simply absent from the Zune marketplace entirely, or was for purchase only (and excluded from access via the subscription plan).

Sorry, but hardware wise the Zune is a poor alternative to any incarnation of the iPod, and especially when stacked against the iPhone.

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After missing having access to a subscription music service, I decided to re-subscribe to the Zune service with a ZunePass and start using my original 30GB Zune device.  I actually quite liked the service (though I have never been a fan of the hardware), but I was driven away by the lack of support for 64-bit Vista.

The x64 build of Zune 3.0 installed seemingly without incident.  Initial configuration and re-activation of my ZunePass subscription was smooth and simple, even if it flipping you over to Internet Explorer for any account management operation is rather silly and disjointed.

The Zune 3.0 software is generally slick and fast in local operation.  At least as long as it is not talking to the Zune servers.  Getting it to display a simple list of the top 100 rock tracks took over a minute.  Other, similar, operations were also unfathomably slow.  iTunes on Windows gets a, deservedly, bad rap for being slow, but it moves like a whippet with a bum full of dynamite compared to browsing the Zune marketplace.

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