Microsoft enters the personal digital audio/video device wars with the Zune. The Zune is priced comparatively with the iPod but has a bigger screen, an FM tuner (love that!), and built in wireless for sharing songs. It is not a sleek and nice looking but it does have the same memory and battery life as an iPod. The built in wireless only allows you to beam songs to share, you still have to plug into your computer for downloading.

Music and video downloading is odd. First of all the you don't have as many song and video selections as you would through iTunes. Second you buy music and videos using points which you buy in bulk. Basically it costs 79 points to buy a song which is roughly the same as the 99 cents it costs in iTunes. Great, just what I wanted to think about when buying songs. Just like those summer fairs that you attend but require you to buy tickets to buy any food or drinks. A simple bottle of water cost 2 tickets ($4) and at the end of the day you always end up with one ticket left over.

I am not rushing out to buy a Zune, in fact there are waaaay more things on my personal technology Birthday/Christmas wish list that are ahead of a Zune (hint for husband: think laptop). But it is another player on the portable media scene and it is from Microsoft (who rarely does anything half way or small) so it is best to at least be aware of it and keep it in your peripheral vision.

For more information and reviews on the Zune simply go to Google News and type in Zune, you will find enough reviews to read.