Life Without Apple

My 4G iPod finally bit the dust, so I needed a new media player.  I say media
and not MP3 because I am slightly interest in watching videos on a device.  While
I usually spend at least 5 weeks beating the snot out of every nuance of tech specs
on a device before I buy it, this time I found myself needing to get on an airplane
today with no player, so I went and got one last night.  I couldn’t be
happier.

*****************

It is now a couple of days later and I am on the airplane ride home listening to the
Foo Fighters on my new Creative Zen Micro Photo.  I love this thing.  So
far, I like it better than my old iPod. 

• 8G is plenty, even with podcasts galore.
• Small form factor and this is MUCH better than the iPod.  I want a case
  to wear the Zen around my neck.
• Nice controls.  Not as perfect as the wheel, but darn close and perfectly usable. 
  Better than iRiver.
• No iTunes, syncs to my Windows Media Player library.  Nice, but not perfect. 
  I will have to learn how to use Media Player better in organizing my music, but iTunes
  sucked for this.  How hard could it be?
• Customizable color display.  Cheesy, but cool anyway.
• Lights up in a kinda cool way.
• Great battery life so far.  I have gone from Nashville to Boise and no worries!
• Somehow I am supposed to be able to get my calendar and contacts from Outlook on this
  thing, but I haven’t figured that out yet.
• Once again, can I just say that my Shure E2C earphones are the greatest things I have
  ever purchased?