 this morning, and had a great time celebrating the Seattle launch of Microsoft’s Zune media player. Hit the jump and see a photo recap of the day including photos of Bill Gates decked out in official Zune gear.<br />
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 and schmooze it up like only we can, and had a good time to boot.
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Then, after breakfast, we were whisked away via Monorail to the Westlake Center where our contest winners received their Belkin Kickstand leather cases. We can personally report that these cases kick much ass, as they act as an easel for watching video in landscape mode on the Zune.
After their first song, John Richard of KEXP fame talked about how much he likes the device, which we’re sure was a completely uncompensated endorsement. Richards then introduced us to a surprise guest, a gentleman named Bill Gates, who proclaimed that the iPod era is “dead,” and that Zune users would soon be able to “bathe in the blood of iPod hipsters as if it were water!”
The media seemed to be as interested in our contest winners as they were in the performers on stage — something we didn’t anticipate and must now apologize for. We had no idea you’d be media darlings, we’re sorry. If you need an agent, however, we can hook you up.
The day was fun, but we’re not over yet. Look for some more from CrunchGear tomorrow morning, as we’re covering the evening launch event tonight. We’ll have even more photos and stuff then, so holla!
Fabulous pics, nice work Matt. Great to meet you at the Seattle “social”..!
- Harvey
Zunerama
Just wanted to say “Thanks” to the guys at CrunchGear for a great day and treating us so well. Breakfast at Minnies, the “Zune” only Monorail trip, a great concert, a Belkin case and an awesome Zune. CrunchGear definitely does know how to treat a contest winner!
yeah, thanks for everything! today was a blast, everything that alka said was on point so no need to reiterate. crunchgear gets an A++!
I hate to break it to Bill, but sharing is what the MP3 world has been all about, and it is the genie that Gates and Jobs and the big 4 media companies have been trying to put back in the bottle by encumbering the music and devised they sell with Digital Restrictions Management technology (DRM).
The Zune has 0% marketshare right now which means that anyone who buys one will be pretty hard pressed to find someone to “share” (3 plays/3days) with. If Gates is so into sharing, why not embrace open formats and ditch DRM?
there’s a great caption contest spinoff from this event here. super sweet pics from yesterday hickey! congrats to the lucky zune winners!
hey gregory, stop whining. I’m sure zune will be hacked by the end of the week, for christsakes it’s a microsoft product. reverse engineering is fun and benefits us all.
my zune says im gay on the back and i think microsoft put it there