So where was I tonight you might ask? Well folks, I was lucky enough to be at the preview party for the Zune over at the Element in Los Angeles CA.

Honestly - Microsoft knows how to throw a party folks. When you walk into the Element, you can’t help but say “Wow”. Once we walked into the Element, we quickly saw Zune banners and various Zune related materials littered about the lounge. Here’s a shot of the inside of the club once you enter it inside.

Towards the right side of the lounge was the bar.. and yes.. we spent a little bit of time there folks. Come on. free drinks (and free food too!) what do you expect? (Can you tell that I’m still a little buzzed at this point?)

So where’s the Zune you might ask? It was located towards the back left of the lounge. Microsoft set up four stands - each with four Zunes - for people to play with. Here are the pictures we snapped up.

Did you notice the chalk and blackboards between the Zune stations? It’s an interesting marketing idea - let people tag up the stands with messages - whatever they want. Great way to also kill some time!

heh. Thx to my wife for that one!

Here’s some video footage (yes.. you can kinda hear me in the background talking.. just ignore me please. I was getting more and more buzzed through the night). I must apologize for taking the video from the side - I totally goofed!

Aside from showing you these pictures, I thought I’d spend some time talking about my experiences with the Zune. This was the first time that I actually held the Zune in my hand and played with it. Yes, I saw it over the weekend over at La Brea but this time, I actually got a chance to hold it in my hands and work with it. So I’ll give you some bullet points of my impressions.

  • Yes it’s a tad bit larger and heavier than the iPod but honestly - it’s not that noticeable
  • I love the feel of the matte finish. As much as I like glossy finishes, I hate having to deal with fingerprints and scratches. The matte finish has a good feel to it. The entire Zune has a good feel in your hands. The weight is just right in my opinion
  • The screen is utterly beautiful if you ask me. Rich colors, sharp pictures.. great stuff
  • I have to admit - the Zune is much more responsive than I thought it would be. It’s got a very snappy feel to it.
  • Having a personalized background image is cooler than I thought once I saw it in person. It’s a wonderful way to say to someone - yes that is MY Zune
  • Another admission - I wished I had a click wheel to work with. It looks like a click wheel so I naturally wanted to operate it like a click wheel!
  • Having said that - the controls felt very natural and responsive. The controls made sense actually
  • The menu selections are as follows:
    • Music
    • Videos
    • Pictures
    • Radio
    • Community
    • Settings
  • For those curious - the About section of the Zune shows the following version info - Version 1.1 (322) - Hardware 2.0
  • The Community menu item is pretty interesting - you can see the Zunes near you AND you can see what people are doing on their Zunes - such as what songs are they listening to or what radio station they’re tuned into.
  • Yes - you can easily select a song, album, or picture to send to people around you. Conversely, you can also block/unblock Zune devices around you in case you want to be left alone
  • Sound quality is pretty darn good… can’t deny that at ALL!
  • No external volume controls - you simply press up or down to control the sound when a track is playing
  • Playing videos automatially puts content in landscape mode on the Zune

One of the more interesting sites we saw tonight was the accessories section towards the back right of the lounge. Here’s a bunch of shots.

We panned through the entire club with this video - providing you an idea of what the night was like.

Here are shots of the bar area (need I remind you that there were FREE drinks and food tonight?) You gotta love the boxes of Zune’s lined up against the wall behind the bar. 

Littered through the Element were some signs that I just had to take some pictures of.

  

 

The preview party had two music groups tonight but we apparently missed the first group which was Jason Bentley. However, my wife and I did manage to catch the group Bitter:Sweet towards the latter half of the night. I honestly never heard of them before but you know what? I like em! Here are some pictures..

And here are some videos we took of Bitter:Sweet. Enjoy! 

Here are some other random pics of the Element.

We’ll end things tonight with pictures of the bartenders and waitresses at the Element.

 

Again - I’d like to thank Cesar for getting my wife and I on the list tonight. The party was a blast, the music was awesome, and the Zune was great folks. I need some sleep now.

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