The Rise and Fall of My Zune 8
written on Thursday, August 4, 2011 by Huy Dang
Remember your first MP3 player? It's like the first time I got high-speed Internet access... but that's another story. Today, I will talk about how the Zune has affected my life... for the better!
The Emergence of MP3 Players When I was wee little lad (ten years old) in 1999, MP3 players were only slowly gaining in popularity. At a time when portable CD players were slowly dying, MP3 players were slowly emerging. We had those cheesy Sony MiniDisc players, but they were lame. But, the emergence of MP3 players seemed fascinating. But like all new MP3 players, they were expensive. In fact, they were so expensive, that I didn't jump on board the MP3 player bandwagon until many years later in early 2006.
My First Portable CD Player/Rise and Demise of Napster In 1998, my dad bought me my first portable CD player and I had it for three years. Eventually, Napster became really, really popular for a period of time (to me anyways) before its demise in 2001. Today, Napster is a paid music service. But back then, it was a service created by Shawn Parker and Shawn Fanning that allowed users to swap music, thus becoming one of the first P2P (peer-to-peer) programs to be popular. Eventually, it was ordered shut down by a judge in some city that I can no longer remember. Eventually, my mom gave my CD player to my cousin Jeannette, who had just graduated from high school and would be moving on to study civil engineering at the University of Calgary. Oh yeah... I also remember being blown away by the fact that you could listen to your portable CD player through the car's stereo system if you had a cassette deck converter.
Windows Media Player Can Finally Do More Than Play Crappy Videos Eventually, as more and more families bought personal computers, I was one of those '90s kids that found themselves spending more and more time at the computer. Eventually, Microsoft released Windows Media Player 7, which allowed for easier organization of the tons of illegal music that you downloaded. Prior to that, people used lame programs such as RealJukebox, which was highly overrated and not all that easy to use... but it did allow you to rip your CDs, and the first program I ever used to rip my albums onto my computer was RealJukebox. Prior to Windows Media Player 7, Windows Media Player could only play a limited selection of videos. And if you wanted to listen to your CDs, there was a separate application/tool called "CD Player." Eventually, Windows Media Player 7 integrated all of that!
In the year 2000, Microsoft released Windows Me, which I'm sure you all remember...
In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP. Now, this has nothing to do with the Zune, yet...
By late 2003, I was in high school (yes, high school), and had bought... another CD player? Yeah, I didn't know what I was thinking back then... but it was cheap. I would go on to use that CD player for another three years, before finally jumping on the MP3 player bandwagon in early 2006.
My First MP3 Player, Period
In early 2006, I bought my very first MP3 player from Future Shop... online, with my mom's credit card. The MP3 player I bought was the Creative Zen MuVo Mix, which featured 512 MB of space and had limited potential for songs. In fact, Future Shop provides access to all of your order history online. And luckily, I was able to access the original order. If you'd like to see it, click here.
Anyway, here is what that first MP3 player looked like:
The blue part was the base, which had a compartment for a AAA battery. The flash drive-like stick was just that: a flash drive, which also contained play/pause/rewind/fast-forward buttons. And yes, I did pay about $120 for this, as well as a two-year warranty for it. It lasted me throughout the rest of my high school career as well as part of my non-schooling life.
Upgrading to the ZEN Micro
Eventually, when I worked at the Real Canadian Superstore, I bought an "old" MP3 player from a gentleman at work who worked in produce, which came with a case. I bought it from him for $100 in "cold hard cash." This device, shown below, was also purchased at Future Shop (originally):
My second MP3 player was a Creative ZEN Micro, and held up to 4 GB of music. Although this device was a major upgrade over the old MuVo Mix, it still couldn't display pictures or watch videos, while most new iPod devices could. The very first iPod Touch became available later that year (fall of 2007). I held onto this ZEN Micro for at least a year, before I sold it on eBay before I bought a Zune.
Zune Becomes Available in Canada
In 2008, Microsoft finally made the Zune line of products available in Canada. The first generation it sold in Canada was really the second generation of Zune devices it offered. After months and months of pondering as to whether or not I should get one, I finally spent money like a big spender and bought an 8 GB Zune at Future Shop (yes, again). At the time, I had just received a $250 bonus from work and thought I had deserved to buy something for myself. So, on July 4, 2008, I bought myself an 8 GB Zune.
Here it was, just out of the box. Notice that I had a Motorola RAZR V3C back then? I also bought that phone at... well, it wasn't Future Shop, but that fancy leather case that covers the phone was bought at Future Shop for $1.00. I was still using Windows XP back then too, as Windows Vista had just been released the year before. However, Windows Vista wasn't all that good, and I eventually made the leap from Windows XP to Windows 7, thus skipping Windows Vista.
That Zune lasted me for well over three years. Eventually, at some point this year (2011), the screen's back-light stopped working properly. So, in other words, I had to look really, really hard to see what was playing on my Zune. So, watching video podcasts on the Zune was virtually impossible. And if I were in the dark, I were out of luck.
So, just last month (July), I decided that it would be wise to replace my Zune. The problem was that Microsoft had recently decided to end production of the Zune, as well as its offerings. I knew that I would never want to get an iPod of any sort, and all other MP3 players looked... lame. For a while, I thought it would be a cool idea to purchase a Zune HD. But alas, Microsoft did not offer the Zune HD to the Canadian market.
Eventually, it was time to look to other sources for the Zune HD. And thus came... eBay. I really didn't want to replace my Zune in the first place, as it was still working. But in the end, I felt that it had to be replaced.
My New Zune HD
Just a couple of weeks ago, I bought my Zune HD on eBay, and I'm glad I made the purchase. Now, I can watch movies in HD and do what's important to me: be able to listen to music again while being able to see what's playing on the screen without using much effort.
And here we are... my new Zune HD...
What I really like about my Zune HD is that there are usually pictures of the musician/band in the background as you listen to the music.
And that my friends, is a story of heartbreak that includes the rise and eventual demise of what was my second-generation 8 GB Zune.
Actually, I haven't decided whether this story is supposed to be sad or happy... but as for that Zune, I already miss it, even though it has already been replaced. It will take a while for me to get used to the Zune HD.
When I was wee little lad (ten years old) in 1999, MP3 players were only slowly gaining in popularity. At a time when portable CD players were slowly dying, MP3 players were slowly emerging. We had those cheesy Sony MiniDisc players, but they were lame. But, the emergence of MP3 players seemed fascinating. But like all new MP3 players, they were expensive. In fact, they were so expensive, that I didn't jump on board the MP3 player bandwagon until many years later in early 2006.
In 1998, my dad bought me my first portable CD player and I had it for three years. Eventually, Napster became really, really popular for a period of time (to me anyways) before its demise in 2001. Today, Napster is a paid music service. But back then, it was a service created by Shawn Parker and Shawn Fanning that allowed users to swap music, thus becoming one of the first P2P (peer-to-peer) programs to be popular. Eventually, it was ordered shut down by a judge in some city that I can no longer remember. Eventually, my mom gave my CD player to my cousin Jeannette, who had just graduated from high school and would be moving on to study civil engineering at the 
Eventually, as more and more families bought personal computers, I was one of those '90s kids that found themselves spending more and more time at the computer. Eventually, Microsoft released Windows Media Player 7, which allowed for easier organization of the tons of illegal music that you downloaded. Prior to that, people used lame programs such as RealJukebox, which was highly overrated and not all that easy to use... but it did allow you to rip your CDs, and the first program I ever used to rip my albums onto my computer was RealJukebox. Prior to Windows Media Player 7, Windows Media Player could only play a limited selection of videos. And if you wanted to listen to your CDs, there was a separate application/tool called "CD Player." Eventually, Windows Media Player 7 integrated all of that!
