The Microsoft Zune is the company’s attempt to a holistic approach to music and entertainment. The Zune features 802.11 WiFi, 30GB of HDD, a built-in integrated FM tuner, a 3-inch screen and most of the basic music, pictures (JPEG formats) and video playback of other players on the market. The Zune of course supports music recorded in the Windows Media Audio Standard, better known as WMA, as well as in MP3 and AAC formats. Reviewers were surprised by the AAC support (can anyone say Apple iTunes?).On the video side, no surprise here the Zune supports Windows Media Video or WMV formats. On the down side, the unit offers no support for MPEG-4, DivX, or AVI.

The wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing option is the promotional highlight for this unit. Find another person with a Zune and you can share your recoded tracks with that friend over the WiFi. However, the proprietary aspects kick in here after three plays on your friend’s Zune, or after three days, at which time he or she can flag the song for purchase at the Zune marketplace. That is unless they are an unlimited "Zune Pass" subscriber. Unprotected sharing of other personal videos can also be done. All all in, the Microsoft Zune offers good playback performance of audio, video, and photos. It is reasonably intuitive and comes with a good FM radio. The unit works well with the proprietary Zune Marketplace software. Most importantly, the unit offers wireless sharing of songs and photos with other Zune users. In addition, the Microsoft Zune has many other accessories available. However, the unit only supports audio and video currently being offered in the Zune Marketplace (other than non-DRM protected media you might already have on your personal computer) and you cannot use Wi-Fi feature to stream or purchase content. If you have prior downloaded music from Napster or AOL Music or MTV’s Urge, it will not play on the Zune.