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I pretty much ignored everything with the word Zune in it the past few months. After all, I dropped a few hundred bucks this year on 2 new iPods. What did I care?

Well of course I care, I love gadgets. It was impossible to ignore the Zune hype this week. My office buddy Zeek was proudly sporting his Zune 80 which he drove like 30 miles to get the day of launch. Of course, he keeps it on his desk right next to his iPhone.

Anyway, I played with this device for a bit and let me say, I was impressed. First thoughts:

• Light. Very Light
• Nice Feel
• Love the squircle navigation thing
• UX is a huge improvement. I always loved the Zune UX, but that was before the iPod touch.
• Your finger prints are not left all over it (I hate this about the iPod)

Later in the day I downloaded and installed the Zune player. Wow... that thing kicks the pants of iTunes. It makes iTunes look like Excel. Anyway, I'm happy that it shares no resemblance at all to Windows Media Player which the first Zune program was. Some one should just take WMP out back and put it out of its misery. It has no place in my life any more.

Anyway, they did a great job on the software and I love it.

To bad I'll never use any of it cause Apple has me locked in with accessories, car kits, and other stuff not to mention family with iPods to support.

I have to say, the killer iPod feature is my car kit. When I shut the engine off, the car pauses the iPod and charges it for 15 minutes. Not to mention the digital interface right into the stereo.

Anyway, congrats to the Zune team. If there is one thing though that you are going to read about the Zune, read the Ars Technical Review. I also discovered from a friend that the Zune does not support High Def Recorded TV from Media Center... that just plain sucks.

I recorded a batch of digital broadcasts in both SD and HD off my over-the-air antenna. None showed up in Zune. The only one that did appear was an analog recording of Family Guy that looked like an analog recording. Did digital recordings, the kind that won't be obsolete in a couple of years, not work?

I found my answer on the last line of the last page of the Zune manual in gray text on a white background that could only be seen after opening a fold. "DVR-MS support for unprotected standard definition TV recordings from Windows Media Center. HDTV and protected recordings not supported."

Let me make sure I understand this: at this point, a consumer has purchased a PC, Vista, a tuner card, and a Zune, but still can't be trusted with high-def content? Nice.

In classic Microsoft fashion, an end to end scenario doesn't totally work. There is a good reason for this, but it's lost on me... just like how lame it was that Media Center 2005 didn't come with the ability to play DVDs or record TV out of the box (fixed in Vista).

I will say this. If there was ONE thing that I wish Microsoft could do... pay Apple whatever amount of money it takes, and license the iPod Dock Connector and Interface... I can dream can't I?

I worry that there is too much inertia behind the iPod... a lot of cars and hotels now come prewired for iPods.