I've had an iPod Nano sense last Christmas. It was way better than my crusty old CreativeLabs Nomand, but in general for the past three months or so it has been pissing me off to an increasing degree. Actually, the Nano wasn't so bad other than it crashes more often than Vista, iTunes is the real annoyance. How about actually working right. One of the main podcasts I listen to only comes as a WMA so if I want to listen to it on my Nano iTunes has to convert it. It takes forever and a day (about twenty minutes for 6-7 files). Why not play WMA directly? Windows Media player will play mp4 files w/o conversion.
Next iTunes will forget how to minimize itself after it has been running awhile. And overall the iTunes UI really isn't that great. MediaPlayer is just as good if not better. OH, and it will always minimize.
The result - we got a Zune to test out. I've been thinking about getting one for a bit and my wife's birthday provided a perfect excuse (technically it is hers - her iPod was mistaken for a chew toy by our boxer). So far I'm really please. My entire library was automatically imported (iTunes stuff too), it found all of my videos and pictures. It even pulled over all of the iTunes playlists which pleased me greatly.
Not everything is perfect though. First you have to be an admin to install the software. I run with limited privileges on my workstation for a number of reasons (protection, software testing, etc). Normally I can install software by running "MakeMeAdmin", but in this case that did not work. I had to log out and log back in as an Administrator.
Another small complaint is the total absence of an RSS reader. I tried the iTunes RSS tool, but it never seemed to work the way I expected. Probably user error, but I thought this was Apple....I always ended up going back to FeedBurner for my RSS feeds. Had the Zune software had a built in RSS reader I would have given it a swing. Guess this saves me some time sense I wont waste any time playing around with a feature I really don't need (podcasts just waste my time really).
My favorite feature with the Zune though is the ZunePass. I'm pretty sure a few other sites offer the same all you can eat subscription model, but iTunes doesnt. So this is nice.
I'm still in the process of getting things setup. I'm interested in learning how to use the WiFi stuff and to see if it can be used for anything beyond talking to other Zune's. Ideally, I'd like to be able to have it sync w/ my workstation without having to tether.
I also plan to look in to developing software for the Zune. How open is it? I've seen other application written to talk to the Zune, but can I get my own programs to run on the Zune? To me that is where the cool stuff would happen.
Anyway, I'm a bit harsh on the iPod, I just don't think it really lives up to the hype. but most hipster crap doesnt. Vista, and iPhone are both great examples.