How I got My Zune 2

So, my friend Joey at Site Mafia gave my name to this guy called Jesse who works at Matchstick, a really cool Canadian company which practices the fine art of 'word-of-mouth-marketing'. They find people to check out interesting products and let their friends know about them. There's no pay involved, but one often gets to keep whatever it is they are reviewing.

Jesse asked me a long series of careful questions to determine my viewpoints and my eligibility, and I qualified for their Zune review program! Now, how cool is that? Do note that not everyone who applies or who is recommended is able to pass the screening, and in this case, only 300 Canadians were admitted to this particular program, so I am honoured to be in very select company.

I have a third generation iPod that's about 4 years old. It's been pretty good overall, but it not that small as these things now go, and it doesn't have a colour screen, and it doesn't display pictures, let alone play videos. Being that I was in the market for a new multimedia player, and had had my eye on a second-generation Zune (only just now being available in Canada), this timing on this opportunity was perfect.

Online, there's a lot of talk about the neutrality of reviewers and the impartiality of their reviews, but I don't believe there's really a big problem. People interested in gadgets and cutting edge technology have high standards. Generally speaking, if they don't like something, they say so, sometimes stridently (as many companies have found out). Trust me, no one sells their soul for an MP3 player.

While waiting for my Zune 2 to arrive - there were a few hiccups, due to FedEX oddly not being able to find my delivery address - I signed up for ChatThreads, and started spreading the word. I also spent quite a bit of time checking out the official sites, including Zune.ca and ZuneNews.ca to really familiarize myself with the product and the community.

I also spent some times trying to decide how else to let people know my thoughts about the Zune beyond just writing a few blog posts, and showing it to them in person. Following the suggestion of my friend, Mitch, I decided to go ahead and do an unboxing video using my new Sanyo Xacti camera. So there I was a short while ago shooting it, and lo and behold, I hear this little beep and realize that I just ran out of battery power. That never happens to me, but there's a first time for everything. And since I had been cutting and ripping the packaging, I couldn't really start over, so I decided to do part one and part two. The next two posts will be unboxing videos.