zoë siskos

I am fortunate enough to be one of 300 Canadians to get the new Microsoft Zune. I found out about this opportunity through a link given to me by a friend. I filled out a survey and then a couple of months someone from a marketing company (matchstick.ca) contacted me and asked me all these questions about how I felt about Microsoft, what kinds of tech/music blogs I read, how much would I spend on an MP3 player, how much have I spent on electronics in the past year….you get the idea. They are looking for a very specific type of person to market research promote their product.

Lucky for me…I fit the bill (so did my hubby).

So, here is my first post about it. I have a lot to say so I’m going to write it in point form. I don’t want to think about paragraphs and making sense and such.

* I got the Zune today and was impressed with overall packaging and presentation. At first the small zune looked like it had too much wasteful packaging but I soon learned that they have accessories tucked away in small crevices. aside from a bit of recyclable Styrofoam popcorn everything was good.

* the FIRST word on the FIRST sentence on the FIRST piece of paperwork I read had a very big grammatical error. “Your are the first of 300 Canadians…” YOUR ARE?  I think they meant YOU ARE…or the very popular YOU’RE.

* Every time I have a conversation about the Zune I’m asked to record it online by filling out a quick questionnaire online. A third party company called Chat Threads takes care of this. By reading this blog post you can participate too, by clicking on the Chat Thread’s button below this paragraph. It’s mildly annoying b/c I’m sure there have been convos I haven’t recorded but I’m happy to fill out the ones I do remember.

* By reading this post you can participate as well! Just click on this button ->

* Worst part about the Chat Threads convo recording is that they ask for the emails addresses of the people I talk to. You would have to be an IDIOT to just hand out someone else’s email address. How rude!

* Good thing is that they give you the option to send that person a link (instead of handing in their email addy). It’s nice that they give you options and don’t force your friends to participate.

* Bad thing is that their survey is long and boring. My friend said it seemed like they didn’t know WHAT they were looking for which is why they asked too many questions.

* Good thing is that give you the option to donate $1 to charity or enter you name in a draw to win money or a gift certificate to Amazon.ca

* Bad thing is that in the fine print it says that only a max of $300 per campaign will be given to charity. So, if there are 300 participants that means only $1 per participant will be given to charity. Uh? Wha? They get all this (relatively) free market research and they set the bar at $300? And in the FINE PRINT? That’s not cool.

* The Zune LOOKS COOL. the interface is cool, there are 3 buttons and a scroll button. I heart the look and it’s super cute!

* I need to sign up online to use it. ugh, that is annoying. but apparently the iPod is like that too. Not that is makes it okay. I like things that I can just plug in and use. If you are like that, this is not for you. It took me 10 min (around) before I could actually start putting stuff on it.

* When signing up I could only use my hotmail account, my gmail account wouldn’t register. WTF?

* the social scene in the background looks VERY cool. I stopped snooping around to write this post but so far I like the interface, the forums and personalizing my interface. This is the one part of the Zune I am really psyched to get into. I hope the people there are cool and not ugly trolls (ugly personalities…i don’t judge based on looks. if you are hot then that is okay. I wont judge you.)

Okay, I think that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to my hubby getting his so that we can share. Oh! I almost forgot that we get to send a Zune to someone else. I’m sending my extra Zune to my Kumbaro, Chris. He’s the one that hooked me up with all this Zune stuff in the first place; I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.

Off to play with my Zune!