The Zune– How a Loophole Might Make it More Appealing

“We think a lot of Zunes are sitting underneath Christmas trees.” --Jason Reindorp, Zune marketing director, Microsoft.

I did not get one this Christmas. I did not want one this Christmas. In fact, I don’t know anyone that received a Zune from Santa. I, like many many many others, prefer to look stylish and flaunt the white ear buds that facilitate the iPod. Moreover, the reviews I read only helped set in stone the fact that I wasn’t about to venture out to pick up a Zune.

A very in depth review by Engadget.com described that the 30 GB Zune is bulky and not quite appealing to the eye; in particular, heavier, wider and taller than an 80GB iPod. I was also turned off by the fact that the button/control interface is a bit misleading. It looks like the Zune makes use of the ever friendly click-wheel–but no, just arrow buttons under the guise of a wheel. I don’t see how I would make a good partner with this here Zune.

From what I have read, my PC would not fare too much better.

What topped off my hasty decision making were the horror stories of compatibility issues with the computer and Zune. Engadget.com had their staff attempt to sync up their Zune media players to their computers. This resulted in computer crashes in the fashion of falling dominoes. Ryan Block of Engadget.com describes:

“For example, syncing video for us crashed the app twice, and then stalled the third time at 38%. Even though the video was transferred in full that third time, it still didn't show up the next time we reconnected. Attempting to change the sync options crashed the app consistently.”

One review out of many yes, but many of the reviews also made note of these same problems quite consistently.

So up until, oh I don’t know, two days ago, I was sold on the idea of never even contemplating asking Santa for a Zune. I would laugh. Bad mouth the Zune a little more. I’d laugh again (hoping this wasn’t my only source of humor for the weekend) and say to myself, “if only Zune’s ability to share songs with other Zunes wasn’t hampered by Digital Rights Management (DRM)" (i.e. the resulting three day/play restriction). I know it wasn’t Santa listening to my wish, but someone did. A way around DRM has been uncovered!!

First, to briefly explain this madness that is DRM. The Zune’s WiFi capabilities allow the Zune to trade songs with other Zunes, but with a catch. Songs that are shared are only available for a maximum of three days or three plays, and then they are erased. Also, one “play” constitutes not only one full listen but also any incomplete listens. Basically, if I switch to another selection in the first five seconds of the shared song, I just used up one of three “plays.”

But back to this loophole…

Gizmodo.com (and probably other sites as well), have unveiled a way to bypass this DRM restriction. In a nutshell, a user must only rename the shared MP3s, movies, or programs, into a “.jpg” extension. Zune does not apply DRM to images! Voilá! That easy! Of course there is a little handy work to be done once the files are on the hard drive of the computer, but nothing too insane.

If I would have known this then maybe there would have been a Zune under my Christmas tree. Just maybe, this loophole would have done the trick. Trading songs in a matter of seconds with anyone with the same device is a pretty nice thought if I do say so myself.

The Zune has potential if it does away with DRM. Microsoft could sell so many more units if this loophole wasn’t a loophole but a genuine feature.

You almost got me Mr. Gates, almost got me.



CNET News- Microsoft: Zune Sales to Top 1 Million by June-by Ina Fried
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6141431.html

Gizmodo- How to Bypass the Zune’s WiFi Sharing DRM -by Jason Chen
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/how-to-bypass-the-zunes-wifi-sharing-drm-217042.php

Zune Review-by Ryan Block
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/15/zune-review/