“Interesting news on the Zune front: a friendly tipster’s buddy works at a Microsoft call center and handles Zune-related issues. Apparently they’ve received numerous reports of the Zune screen cracking for no apparent reason, after being left charging overnight. Our tipster’s friend conjectures that the lithium ion battery — which resides right behind the top half of the Zune’s screen — is expanding from overheating and putting too much pressure on the screen, causing it to crack. Unfortunately, Microsoft currently regards the issue as outside warranty coverage, leaving the victims with a broken Zune and nowhere to turn,” Paul Miller reports for Engadget.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: We’ve heard nothing about such an issue from any other source as of this time. Regardless of whether it’s a real issue or not, it’s not like anybody needed yet another reason to not waste their money on a Zune.
Related articles:
Last quarter: Microsoft lost $289 million on Zune, CE devices – January 26, 2007
RealMoney’s Comeau predicts: ‘Microsoft will kill the first Zune media player by midyear’ – December 16, 2006
Desperation time? Microsoft Zune already being discounted by retailers – December 13, 2006
Microsoft Zune plummets to 5th place in U.S. digital media player market share with 2.1 percent – December 04, 2006
Analysts: Microsoft needs to ‘rethink’ as interest in Zune fades fast – December 01, 2006
Amazon’s bestselling MP3 players list chronicles Microsoft Zune dud – November 20, 2006
So how many have cracked? 20 or so? Wouldn’t that be like a 50% failure rate then?
Poor zune, poor poor zune. Can’t get any respect and cracks under the pressure.
er uh Zune Tang? Doesn’t it take more than one to make a social? I kinda think it takes at least 3. Have you honestly found 2 other people to squirt at and have them squirt back at you? And vista, good grief the frenzy of people lining up to plop it on their pc’s, it must really be great, dagnabit that vister. I used to have something that looked alot like vister, why it was win98 with windowblinds. Enjoy your zune, vista and your crack pipe
I don’t get it.
Can someone please explain to me why the warranty doesn’t cover this?
MS didn’t manufacture the battery originally, so they’re not liable for any damage it might cause.
(Yah, riiiiiiight… and I have a cold-fusion power plant on a nice bridge near a swamp for sale)
Zune Tang – are you Beeblebrox in disguise?
1. “Apple is once again manipulating the media with false reports.”
Yes, I know, it’s just awful. Lies, lies, lies. Lies pouring out of Apple HO. Apple will stop at nothing it seems.
2. “Vista is awesome.”
I am pleased you like it. You are not the only one you know. In London there was a crowd of 36 million people queued up to buy Zune at midnight.
3. “This is how Apple operates: bully the competition”.
Dear dear. Poor little Microsoft being bullied by nasty mean Apple. How dreadful. Naughty Apple. Naughty Naughty Apple…
4. “because they (Apple) can’t compete on innovation, quality or end user experience.”
Um, well, if not on the terms you mention, what terms does iPod compete on then? Packaging? Prettiness? Colour sense? Or or perhaps you feel Apple just bully people into buying iPods?
…oh and they must be bullying those 50% of new Mac users who are tricked into going inside an Apple store where they are tortured and bullied half to death to make them buy Apple.
5. “WiFi works great.”
That must have been you in the MS carpark in Seattle scanning for something to squirt at… I do hope MS have strong patents on this breakthrough technology. WiFi. Wow. Who would have thought you could send songs without wires?
6. “Vista is awesome.”
Oops, my mistake, it was 36 billion people queued up in London to buy Vista at midnight on launch date.
7. “Points work great.”
You got me there. Such a clever innovative way of buying music. I hope MS have this well protected by strong patents.
8. “FM radio works great.”
Hurrah! Another innovative breakthrough from Microsoft. FM radio, Who would have thought… I hope they have lots of patents on this one too.
9. “I use my Zune a lot.”
Hurrah. You must be an expert squirter now… And how much fun must it be when you discover a fellow Zune enthusiast and you can do a mutual squirt at each other.
…reminds me of the neighbour’s male cat. Always squirting when there are other male cats around…
“Join the social”
10. “Nice try Apple.”
Well, all is fair in love and war. Apple must have used all their marketing muscle and spent squillions of dollars to prevent the obviously superior Zune from catching on.
…Oh it has caught on? Really? Are you still in that carpark in Seattle?
11. “”Vista is awesome.”
Oops, apparently it wasn’t London! That was a mistake. The queue was outside a shop in Seattle, near a big carpark. Bill says he could hardly breathe in the crush to be first. Steve Ballmer says Bill pushed in. The other 34 people wouldn’t comment.
12. “This is how Apple operates: bully the competition”
Apparently Bill is complaining that Steve Jobs tried to push in but Ballmer headbutted him.
…How sweet. Nice to know who your friends are eh Bill?
ps: Hey ZT I have a toilet brush which works great too. Want to swap?
No ZT, sorry, its not the same colour…
Zunes cracked, Vista hacked, Microsoft users jacked.
Come on Microsoft. Have some compassion for the few people who actually bought a Zune. You should have plenty of unsold Zunes, so just send them a new one if their screen cracked. You must have spent close to a million bucks on each Zune user you actually have still active, so each one is very valuable.
I guess this means that Zune’s no longer “crackalackin”..
Nope, not lackin’ crackin…
When Vista developers say its more secure version then previous versions. What do they mean. If it was Secure like Unix OS. Then it would make it harder to write viruses for it right. But the virus writers already made viruses for Vista the Final Gold versions of viruses. So i dont think its more secure. Just because it has Dialog Warning of Allow or Cancel prompts everytime you run a program in Vista now. But you can turn the dialog warning off in control panel. A windows user will still click Allow to execute the program. Its still prone to Malware Crap. Bye
Guys Made a forum for Mac conversation if cool
easier for large chats. http://www.MacSnacs.com
Will not be advertised on Macnn etc or mac sites.
MSN hope this is OK can link to this if wish I can put Ads for
MDN banners.
Ta
AB
Microsoft should have stuck to designing software.
Ah, but they’re not too good at that either!
Zune Tang is right. I’ve seen Vista and it is aw-some. As in, “Aw, that’s some rip off of OS X ya got there, mate.”
oh dear…
I think everyone who has bought a Zune should sue Microsoft.
Apple got sued because of the Nano breaking so it’ sonly fair justice for Microsoft to be publicly humiliated in court over this.
ALL ZUNE OWNERS SUE MICROSOFT!
THEY HAVE BILLIONS OF $ – YOU DESERVE A SHARE OF THEIR ILL-GOTTEN MONEY.
Where is Irish Guy when you need him: “Sher it’s only a bit a crack”
I think this is the secret code to summon Zung Tang :
“Zune Tang?? Zune Tang?? Where are you, Zune Tang??”
he appeard 8 minutes later …. spooooky !
Have a care, Zunie. C.S. Lewis had to stop writing the Screwtape Letters because his fictional darkness began to leak into his reality; he grew more depressed the more he wrote the stories, and had to quit.
Just so you know what to expect.
Somebody find a way to sue microsoft, please. My zune lasted no more than a month, before it cracked and broke. Now it is a worthless peice of ****! I just got done talking with a guy from microsoft about it, he said there is nothing they can do about it. His personal business number is 613-287-5201. go ahead and call him for fun. Make prank calls, I don’t care, I hate that guy. (“Oh, we do not provide for a limited warranty on the LCD screen”-go f*** yourself microsoft man.) My zune went from a $250.00 peice of equipment to a worthless horish electronic.
PS: The day I talk to Bill Gates on the phone and he saids that he will replace my Zune, may be the day I’m satisfied, but until then, they can be sued for everything they got$.
-StetsD
I have to sheepishly admit, I bought my son one for Christmas because being the computer illiterate person I am, I was unable to make the iPod I’d bought him the year before, work. Sooo…his screen cracked and I will make it a mission to get some satisfaction. I already sent it back at the request of Haji at customer service. Of course, they sent it back saying it was his fault and we were SOL. I should have listened to my computer tech when he said that Microsoft sucks and I should steer clear. $250 for four months use, plus $14.99/mo. for the Zune pass…what a waste.
I am an attorney with a consumer protection / class action law firm in North Brunswick, NJ.
My firm is currently investigating consumer complaints concerning the cracking or breaking of the internal LCD screen of the Microsoft Zune during normal use.
If you or someone you know has experienced this problem, or have information you believe could be helpful, you may be eligible to join our investigation. Please call Jon of Galex Wolf, LLC at (732) 257-0550 or e-mail your name, contact information, and circumstances to info@galexwolf.com. For more information, you can also visit http://www.galexwolf.com/sub/microsoft-zune-galex-wolf.jsp
Thank you.