Rest in Peace Zune

           

      Zune has become Xbox Music. Yes Zune is dead and it will be missed by the few that actually gave it a chance. Zune failed for one reason and one reason only. In a world where music services are cross platform Zune simply stayed on Windows and Windows Phone 7. Zune didn't even leave the country until very recently and that was only because of Windows Phone. So what has changed...? Well in short nothing. Xbox Music has the same exact problems Zune had and actually they took away features. Basically Zune was a Facebook for music. In theory you were supposed to share songs with friends and comment on what they were listening to. The Zune team even went to as far to implement something like Achievements which gave you a badge for listening to artists or songs a certain amount of times. It was a great concept failed execution. Basically Spotify is what Zune should of been, a complete social music experience. Xbox Music is going to suffer the same fate as Zune unless these problems are addressed and supposedly they are working on fixing it. Sometime soon a iOS and Android app are supposed to be released and when that day come Spotify will be dropped for good. Zunes  Xbox Music's song selection is far superior to Spotify's. Plus I'm still holding on to my $14.99 music subscription with 10 free songs a month. Xbox Music has promise, much like the Zune did but with the Xbox app a mess and no other phone support besides Windows Phone they don't have time to lose. It will be very interesting watch for sure. Stay tuned....

Bought a Vita

Ok I didn't just buy a Vita. I got it on launch day and I've had some time to mess with it and here are my impressions.

The Vita is a beautiful system. Huge crisp display, its just a portable powerhouse! The analog sticks are great as are the buttons. Its really how the OG PSP should of been. With Uncharted, Resistance and, Gravity Rush finally out the Vita has some heavy hitter games. But there are problems. The home screen is quite possibly the worst thing ever conceived. The bubbles are ugly and the whole thing looks terribly organized. The XMB was a much better interface thats a lot simpler and actually makes sense. Now when you think of any other system ever made and you put a game into the system the game pops up and you click it and you can play it. Not on the Vita. You put the game in and it installs. Ok well what does it install? Quite frankly I'm not sure it puts a bubble on your home screen and before you can play it has a live screen. A live screen is like a Facebook page for a game. It shows friends and people around that have played it and it shows informations on downloadable content and patches. Well thats one of the nicer things its cool to see everything about that game. Now so you play the game and you quit then pop the game out but wait! the bubble doesn't disappear. Thats right the stupid bubble stays there regardless of if the game is in or not. It looks just like a full downloaded game. It makes for great conversation when I show friends the Vita and they go to click on Uncharted but oh that game card isn't inserted please insert game card to play this game. Ok but how about when you have two games and there both installed but one of them is in the system. How do you know which is in there with out popping the game? Well the bubble glows right? No. It Spins? No. It literally does nothing! You have no clue which game is actually in there unless you remember or pop the game out. Now you may be thinking whats the big deal on just popping the game out? Well its a pain in the ass, the little flap is held on by some kind of rubber bands and you have to have some kind of nails to get the flap open. You take the game out look and see and pop it back in but wait the game has to apparently install something. So its quite a mess, the web browser is pretty much garbage and the keyboard is the UGLIEST THING IVE EVER SEEN! ITS LIKE PURPLE! What in the hell were they thinking!? The Netflix app is nice and the HD shows look really nice and run smooth. Haven't really messed with Skype but its a nice looking app. But where the Vita really shines is the games. Uncharted is really good. It looks like Uncharted 1 on the PS3 and plays much like it. You can tell the Vita isn't as powerful as the PS3 because of the animations in most of the games. They seem very PS2ish where there smooth but not lifelike. Most games I have do not have multiplayer which puzzles me as the PSP had quite a few when it launched. I think Sony has some work to do but the Vita looks promising the horse power is there to have great games, they just need to get out there. I think this is going to be a very important E3 for the Vita and with the rumors of PS Plus coming it should be very exciting!