Looks like the Ellen DeGeneres show gave away a bunch of Microsoft Zunes (The #1 daytime show, Oprah, already did it with Apple’s iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition).
Note the lack of information about the draconian limits to Zune sharing (three times, then self-destruct – regardless of media source, ie. from a store or even a song you made yourself; all shared Zune content gets Microsoft’s 3-time-only-then-go-boom DRM), that the round thing there is a fake click wheel designed to fool people that it works like an iPod (it’s really just a four-way button), or the fact that the Zune Marketplace doesn’t even offer video content.
Note also that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American housefrau (or overestimating their size). Ellen’s studio full of carbo-loaded soccer moms go absolutely berserk; it’s like a Saturday Night Live skit. We can only pray that those studio bleachers are severely reinforced. Man, there’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on over at Ellen! Seriously, they really ought to call it The Ellen DeGeneres Farm Hour: two normal-sized humans in front of the camera and 300 cows behind it. No wonder our health insurance rates are astro-freakin-nomical.
One word: diet. Here’s another: exercise.
Anyway, after seeing that bizarre reaction to a piece of re-branded Toshiba crap, we hope they had medics on hand for the fainters or at least passed out cigarettes after the orgasmic excitement subsided. We didn’t see any squirting, but something was certainly going on:
So, whaddya think, can Microsoft fool the ignorant masses again (in which case, Steve Jobs would nip the whole thing in the bud PDQ) or will people not be so excited once they find out Zune’s many weaknesses?
Related articles:
More Microsoft Zune myths explored – October 20, 2006
Five more Microsoft Zune myths – October 18, 2006
Microsoft Zune intensifies chaos in Apple iPod+iTunes also-ran market – October 16, 2006
Newsweek Q&A: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discusses iPod’s impact, Microsoft’s Zune, and more – October 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Ballmer: Zune device not money loser, wishes Apple’s 30GB iPod was $299 instead of $249 – October 11, 2006
Microsoft’s consumer electronics track record: long string of failures – October 11, 2006
MP3.com founder: ‘Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren’t stupid’ – October 06, 2006
Microsoft fails to secure key Zune domains – October 04, 2006
Microsoft rigs Zune with tricky pricing and proprietary money schemes – October 03, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune won’t kill Apple’s iPod – October 03, 2006
10 Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune myths – October 02, 2006
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
Thurrott on Microsoft’s Zune: ‘The makings of a disaster, what the heck are these people thinking?’ – September 29, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune’s as good as dead on arrival – September 28, 2006
Microsoft sets 30GB Zune price at $249.99 – September 28, 2006
How Microsoft’s Zune can kill Apple’s iPod – September 21, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune insanity – September 21, 2006
The Microsoft Zune 1.0 dud – September 20, 2006
Microsoft’s underwhelming Zune a ‘viral DRM’ device – September 18, 2006
SanDisk teams with RealNetworks against new common foe: Microsoft Zune – September 18, 2006
Creative does Apple’s dirty work by immediately attacking Microsoft’s Zune – September 17, 2006
Motley Fool’s Jayson: Microsoft’s ‘just plain ugly’ Zune a meager offering, not an iPod killer – September 15, 2006
What’s in a name? ‘Zune’ a French-Canadian euphemism for penis or vagina – September 15, 2006
Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft Zune ‘a design mistake’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft hypocrisy exposed with Zune: What ever happened to ‘choice?’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune with fake scroll wheel ‘hardly an Apple iPod killer’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune won’t spoil Apple’s biggest iPod Christmas ever – September 14, 2006
Microsoft unveils Zune 30GB player, Zune Marketplace; declines to disclose prices – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s Zune an ‘underwhelming’ repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat; no threat to Apple iPod – August 30, 2006
Microsoft confirms brick-like Zune to be made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft Zune is chunky brick made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions, several years on Zune trying to catch Apple iPod+iTunes – July 27, 2006
Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. – July 26, 2006
Oh my god. Apple has lost the talk show audience niche.
Check this out:
“Weirdest iPod Accessories Ever” article in PC mag:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2033965,00.asp
When the list for Zune’s comes out, #7 will be an anal probe.
I just watched that wretched video again and noticed that the audience members are overwhelmingly fat and ugly. When they jump up and down you see all of this blubber bouncing up and down. These chicks probably don’t need much to excite them in their dull lives.
Looks like Ellen has created a social network of fat and ugly bordeline-lesbian buffoons.
And of course they all go berserk as if she had just announced the Second Coming. They’re all drooling to acquire the latest thing regardless of its merits. Consumerism is the opiate of the masses.
Ellen Degenerate: “The movies is so clear!”
That statement is priceless on several different levels.
Just wait until they try to put iTunes content on it!
Oops,
She’s a sales rep. I bet she quite intelligent, graduated from Berkeley with top honours.
She is just talking down to the cows in the pen, in a language they can understand.
I wonder if they’ll be able to sue Ellen for pain and suffering once they find out they’re not iPods….
Can anyone say paid response? I could understand that kind of response if they were giving away free iPods, but damn. They were straight dancing in the isle. I guess they replaced their little “applaud” light with a “jump up and down and give praise” light.
The Audience is just like Zune; fat, ugly, useless pieces of crap.
People go nuts over free anything. She could have been handing out frozen dog turds and people would have gone about as crazy… which is ironic since frozen dog turds and Zunes are pretty similar anyway.
Take it easy Oops.
This was just a lame marketing event. Of course the zune rep is not going to tell anyone about the severe limitations of the thing. They are just trying to sell the product. No need to resort to name calling. I mean, we’re talking about consumer electronics here… do we really need to call anyone a whore for not being entirely forthcoming about the Zune’s resolution vs the iPod? What ever happened to manners? My mom would have knocked me into next week if she ever caught me disrespecting a woman like that.
Never underestmate the power of the APPLAUSE sign. Anyway, I would take a Zune if someone gave it to me for free. Free gear is fun.. YEA!
Ellen likes to put her Zune in the vibrate mode, then put it, heh heh heh, between her heh heh heh legs and heh heh up her BUM, then have a friend squirt a song on over, heh heh heh and……
Geez. MDN doesn’t sound at all smug. I wonder where anyone gets that idea about Apple fans…. *sigh*
Did anyone see the one dude in the clip? One pair of testes surrounded by a seeting mass of female manatees…a brave soul…or a very confused one.
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy,
The Zune can share file. I though that way a big no no. So this way is right but going to Peer 2 Peer is wrong to share files.
MAN, is that calling the kettle black.
WOW
I was in a diagnostic center last week setting up a CT scan appointment and this Ellen DeGeneres show was on the tube pumped into the waiting room. The intelligence level pegged my IQ meter at zero.
These people could have gotten jobs as stock analysts with Gartner.
Ellen DeGen—– “Yes–Let me zune you, I HAVE to give them away.”
I
Ooops, you got me laughing so hard over here. Your comments were hilarious, but so true. You said what many are probably thinking.
Those voluptuous women were probably just happy to get something for free.
Slow news day, eh MDN? This happened weeks ago. Time to play catch up?
Um, these people didn’t “go” nuts for the Zune… This is no different than reality television (and how the producers give people direction) – and the fact that there are large blinking signs that say “APPLAUSE” for the studio audience. These people were merely told to “go” nuts by the producers of the show thus why they look like they’re freaking out.. It’s TV plain and simple…
That was surreal. The crowd was *obviously* coached big time, the way they’re jumping around like idiots for piece of consumer electronics. What a load!
holdon wrote:
“Take it easy Oops.
This was just a lame marketing event. Of course the zune rep is not going to tell anyone about the severe limitations of the thing. They are just trying to sell the product. No need to resort to name calling. I mean, we’re talking about consumer electronics here… do we really need to call anyone a whore for not being entirely forthcoming about the Zune’s resolution vs the iPod? What ever happened to manners? My mom would have knocked me into next week if she ever caught me disrespecting a woman like that.”
My reply: She’s a lying marketing whore. If she spreads ignorance, then she spreads ignorance. It’s not somehow acceptable that she did it because it’s a “lame marketing event”. That oriental chick has only one good use, and that’s to be flat on all fours taking what she’s got coming to her with her mouth taped shut.
And BTW, I couldn’t care less about your useless momma that obviously turned you into a milquetoast wimp that licks women’s boots. I bet you’re gay.
Ellen squirt me The Divinyl’s song “I touch myself”.
OK now you squirt me Melissa Etheridge
who’s got Indigo Girls
puh lease