Remember when I wrote about Winamp 5.5 and how it was awesome? No?  REALLY? Don’t worry.  I forgive you.  Anyways, I change my mind a lot.  Remember that post where I said I was sick of Vista and switched back to XP?  Well… I’m back on Vista. But all of this, it isn’t why I’m posting! 

Winamp 5.5, it’s still great.  But, do you know what’s even greater?  The new Zune software!  Now, feature-wise Winamp destroys it.  But, it is by far the best looking Windows application I have ever used.  Designed by the same guys at Microsoft who worked on the Media Center interface in Vista (also great) the new Zune software is beautiful.  It’s clean, it’s simple and it does what I need it to do (minus syncing with my iPod… sigh).  I’m going to post some screenshots, which while nice looking don’t convey the richness of this interface.

Here’s the main screen.  You can see Artists, Albums and Songs.  Simple! You can also choose a List view to go back to the way iTunes organizes music, but then I would have to punch you because you make me angry.

Another simple change that I love:  song ratings.  Seems like everyone is all about the 5-star rating system.  Zune, like ClickScore, eschews that scene for the simpler Like It / Don’t Like It system.  I like that.  I can go through an album, choose the songs I love, choose the songs I hate and not rate the songs that don’t strike me either way.

Back when I posted about Winamp, there was a comment from Dave:

"I want to do the “room of album covers” view – where is that? huh? where?"

Winamp liked the album covers, but Zune, my friends… Zune LOVES Album Art, which makes me, in return, love Zune.  Start playing a song, click on the Now Playing icon, and…

Boom! Wall of Album Art!  Best thing is, the Zune software doesn’t use standard windows title bars and borders, so you can full-screen that fellow and it fills your entire monitor.  I have it running on my 2nd monitor here at work.  Looks FANTASTIC.  If your mouse leaves the window, all of the extra stuff fades away and you’re left with this:

Gold!  Now, Zune hasn’t been released in Canada yet, so a) you can’t sign in with your Canadian Passport account and b) you can’t even buy a damned Zune to sync with this.  This software, it has made me want a Zune.  I’d sell my 30GB iPod to buy the 8GB Zune.  But I can’t.  The situation is pretty ridiculous.  Mr. Microsoft & Co: how about you let me buy a damned Zune.  Also, the feature set of the Zune software is pretty limited, so if you’re an iTunes or a Winamp ‘poweruser’ you’ll probably cry with how little you can do when it comes to managing your library.  Me, I’m a simple man and can tolerate the lack of features. 

In the end, this software makes me want a Zune and if that was Microsoft’s intention, job well done, sirs and missesssess. 

UPDATE: Yeah, forgot to link to the software:
http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunesoftware/download.htm

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