CrunchGear

I know that this is a neat trick - if you’re a Zuner. Seems to me MS needs to worry about convincing people to buy their product. As a person who would like to have a better mp3 player, this just gives me the shudders. I have a technology job (I’m a DBA) so I’m not dumb about things like this. But what I want is a product that doesn’t require me to know secret stuff to make it work efficiently. My day is full, over-full actually. I just want my gadgets to work, and work well. That’s all. Justified or not, this sort of thing only makes me worry that, if ever I had a Zune, I’d have to spend time learning to use it instead of spending my time listening to music I like.

I don’t have a zune. I personally dislike the design of it, but thats another story in itself. How is this secondary method any different than actually powering down the device? Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like this is the equivalent of letting your ipod screen turn off by itself vs. holding down the appropriate button to turn it off.

Zune while presing only the play/pause button, goes to stand by mode. If you don’t use Zune for 24 hours it shutsdown completely.

The full boot sequence takes 13 seconds on my Zune to complete.
To return from the sleep mode it takes 1-2 seconds.

So you have the best of 2 worlds:
If you are going to use it again in 1-2 hours, you don’t wait for Zune to boot from the beginning.
But if you are going to use Zune again in 5 days Zune saves the battery, shutting down after 24 hours.

Carolyn: The back/down combination is for high end users. The rest of them don’t have to use it. The philosophy here is “keep it simple for the simple users, add functionality for end users”.

Josh: by calling the Zune’s interface non-efficient you convince me you have not used Zune for more than 5 minutes (or not at all) :)

Good lord, another example of MS retardation. Of course, I think MS has the ultimate plan of preserving batteries…not selling any units works preserves lithium like nothing else.

I have only seen one commercial and my wife and I were dumbfounded. It showed the product for about 5 seconds and then some half-baked concert/party scene that said “Welcome to the Social.” I think my wife summed it up best, “That was a stupid commercial.”

That’s pretty ignorant considering the ipod has a similar “turn off” key combination.

The iPod commercial isn’t much better. Some random person dancing, I cannot describe to you how cheap that commercial actually is, I can photoshop an image like that in about 15 seconds. That aside, MS is a very well known company, the ammount of advertising they needs is minimal to none, their idea is “why spend money to get our name out there when everybody and their brother already knows it?” You can always tell how well a company is doing by how much it advertises, the more it shouts its name, the more it’s hurting or behind the competition. My proof: Mac commercials are on all the time, but mac only owns about 9% of the market share last I checked. MS, not a word. They don’t need to advertise at all is my point.

I actually have a Zune and an iPod Shuffle. I had an iPod Nano before but it died after 18 months (R.I.P.).

@Carolyn - The Zune’s interface is amazingly easy and intuitive to use. A fourth grader could master it in less than hour. And unlike the iPod line-up, the interface is very visually aesthetic and customizable.

@Josh - Everyone likes easter eggs. Not knowing this “secret” still does not impede a user’s ability to fully utilize the product.

@Amit - Holding down the play/pause button causes the Zune to go into “hibernate” mode which remembers when awoken which media you were using and at what points. Holding down the “down & back” combo causes the Zune to shutdown fully and the memory cache is emptied, which accounts for some of the battery life increase.

Most of my Apple fanatic friends that have seen and used my Zune have been very impressed. I work on Macs all day so I’m not a fanboy for either side. The device rocks and sounds much better than my iPod(s). The software needs some tweeks for firmware updates and the marketplace needs to add video but its a good launching point.

I love iPod, and regulars to my site will know that I am no Apple-basher.

That said, I’m really impressed with Zune, and the little key-combo shutdown in our tip shouldn’t scare anybody off of Zune. Believe me, in terms of ease of use, the player is right up in design elegance with iPod.

Microsoft has a long way to go if they think the Zune is going to be able to unseat the iPod. I’ve checked it out myself and while the brown doesn’t excite me nearly as much as it probably excites Big Willy Gates, I must admit it is a pretty intuitive interface to use.

Unfortunately, the iPod is more than just an MP3 player. It’s a system of entertain. From iTunes all the way down to the iPod, the system is fine tuned for simplicity. Right now, Microsoft is missing an iTunes killer… and that’s more than half the equation for unseating the iPod.

I had to use the good ole’ iPod Nano reset the other day because for some reason the entire thing locked up (power was on but none of the buttons were functional). There’s a good reason they build these little tricks and if the battery life saved from a Zune shutdown extends your experience, power to ‘em for putting it in.

However, you wouldn’t think this to be an “easter egg.” I would have thought it common knowledge.

There is also a key combination on Zune to entirely delete the contents of the player. But I will not be the one posting this. No way!

In any case I announce it here just to know, if you try to find new combinations be ready to find this one :)

Although a neat feature, better wait till Vista is released before getting a Zune… by then they will probably at least half price and with an updated operating system for even more efficient battery usage.

Jon

well i just got my zune, i thought by holding the play button it was completely off till i saw that it was losing battery power, and then i researched how to completly turn it off, and it works 4 me, as a HS on the go

I use this method all of the time. I recon it saves a bit of battery life, but if you charge it fairly often, you probably wont see the difference. BUT if you dont charge it for a while, there is a pretty noticeable difference.

My only problem is the startup time

I just got my Zune yesterday, and its awesome. I’ve been an iPod user for around 5 years, but this kicks its ass. If you’re so lazy that learning a two button combo is too hard/time consuming, then you have problems. The layout and twist-scrolling is sexy, and being able to customize the background is neat too. It also has built in FM radio, which ipod lacks. The sound quality is much better, and the battery lasts longer than ipods. Plus the screen is bigger when watching movies. I will admit that in order to reap full benefits from the Zune, you do need more than just basic knowledge of file types and computer skills. (i.e. putting videos on it, you will need to know how to convert the format of video files.) But if you take the 5 minutes of googling for this knowledge, its worth it.

Well this is definitely good to know. I was wondering why i kept losing battery life all the time.. It sucks when I go to the gym one night, wake up the next and the battery is already half dead.

Why they don’t list this in the product guide is beyond me. Also why is it a 24 hour shut down period? Thats kinda silly, battery is dead by then, lol

Other than that I’ve been really happy with my zune, even more happy now that i can actually turn the damn thing off =)

Thanks for the tip! Ive had my Zune for about a week and only saw the start up screen when i originally turned it on, I was wondering how to shut it down rather than put it into hibernate mode.

cheers

Hi,

Could you please tell me for the first time how many hours should i charge my Zune. I bought it yesterday and charged approx for 1-2hrs . Battery was shpwing 75% but when i try to hear music or FM the Zune gets shut down automatically and starts again in few seconds. Can you please help.

Thanks
Siva

the first time you should charge if for 4 hours… Anything less for the first couple charges will cause you to have a pretty weak batter life. Don’t fear though, you can drain your battery life (play a long movie till it dies completely) and then charge it for those 4 hours. It must be completely discharged. I’d do this 2 times to be sure that the lithium “memory” has been lost.

Hi, I’m a active duty soldier stationed in korea, and I just got a halo 3 edition zune like five days ago.

I used to have a 30GB Ipod, but that somehow got stolen and I’ve gotten word APPLE doesn’t make that size anymore so I switched to the Zune. I must say, though this device is in many ways complicated, it is also at the same time nifty. I for one appreciate the secret to the restart because I listen to my Zune all the time for long periods of time. As far as the advertisement of this product goes, Microsoft is a company that doesn’t have to advertise products like others would. How many times have you seen a Ferrari commercial or ad in the magazine? anyone who have done research on that car goes and get one, tell and show their friends about it and in return their friends go get one. Not only does that method increase sells but it saves them money on budget costs from advertisement of loyal costumers. My friend got a Zune and showed it to me and my friends and within a week eight of us had went out and got our own. Welcome to the social my friend… lol =)

and another thing..

If you LEGALLY download music through another website other than the Itunes store, chances are you are going to download that file in a .wma format, which means you’re going to have to spend money on another program to CONVERT it to a format that itunes can read, like .mp3. With Zune, it just goes right into the library without a problem.

I might want to mention that although I hate iTunes with every fiber in my body, it can convert .wma on it’s own.

You don’t have to spend money to find a good video converter. There are a lot of free ones out there. I have to convert a lot of .avi to .wma, and found one and didn’t spend a pretty penny for it. You just have to look for them.

I just purchased a zune 80. got the software downloaded plugged in the zune and it came on.. started to sync my music and it keeps stopping! get an error message zune error code C00D124D and then unplug it and plug back in and its starts to sync again.. then stops again!! it keeps hangin up! it keeps asking to update the firmware!!! 3 times already. I had a zune 30 and never had this much trouble.

@ Steven, it’s more than likely an issue with a file that is causing your issue. Try only syncing one album at a time.

I’ve had a Zune 30 gig for quite some time and I like it much better than my iPod. Despite it’s screen being the same resolution, the extra size of the screen, better market place (as for design, not the ammount of content), and a better program than iTunes, it’s won my heart three times over.

omg, thank you it actually worked. i have been smahing my zune arund for the past 2 days trying to get it to turn off. i even cracked my screen cause i was so mad. (oops) =].

I’ve had my Zune for about 2 months, I love it. Having friends who are avid iPod users, I’ve had my fair share of experience with them, however, after several months of research found the Zune to be more user friendly for “newbies”. The 2 button combo is a great feature. So what if it takes a little longer to start up, who in this world is in that big of a rush that they can’t spare a few seconds. I find that the video and audio on my Zune (which is only 8 gigs) is better than my friends 30 gig iPod. The 2 button combo really helped me today, for some reson, my Zune locked up, after taking a whole 30 seconds to google a fix, I tried the 2 button combo to shut it down, and it totally unlocked. More snaps for MS. After dealing with several other types of MP3 players, I like the Zune because you don’t have to worry about a software disk, it’s a great size, easy to use, and a good price. I suggest before “bashing” the Zune, try it out first with an open mind. I have my avid iPod friend, considering on trading hers in for a Zune.

Thank you so much!!! My zune froze while I was testing a XNA game for it and I thought I broke it but it shut off just fine using this!!! thanks again!

Thank you so much!!! My zune froze while I was testing a XNA game for it and I thought I broke it but it shut off just fine using this!!! thanks again!