All posts tagged: Zune

Microsoft’s ugly sweaters return with Clippy, Xbox, and Zune brown options

Microsoft’s ugly sweaters return with Clippy, Xbox, and Zune brown options

Published by Webster

Microsoft is bringing back its ugly sweaters for the holiday season. After taking a break for 2024, the company has an “Artifact” holiday sweater with lots of retro iconography, an even uglier Zune brown option, and even a green Xbox version. Clippy was the star of Microsoft’s ugly sweater in 2022, and the Artifact option this year puts the paperclip at the center, surrounded by MSN, Minesweeper, Internet Explorer, MS-DOS, and plenty of Windows logos. The Zune brown holiday sweater has a play button that I really hope lights something up. Both the Artifact and Zune sweaters are available for $79.95, and the Xbox sweater can be pre-ordered for $59.95. Microsoft first started sending out ugly sweaters to Windows fans in 2018, and then sold them to customers from 2020 onwards. For some reason the software maker didn’t ship an ugly sweater in 2024, but this year’s sweaters can be purchased through Microsoft’s online company store or its brick and mortar version in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft will also have its holiday sweaters available at its …

The story of the Microsoft Zune, the would-be iPod killer

The story of the Microsoft Zune, the would-be iPod killer

Published by Webster

The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years — and vast sums of money — trying to create a true competitor to Apple’s iPod, without ever coming close to actually pulling it off. The Zune was simply too little, too late. You know what’s surprising about the Zune, though? Microsoft made a lot of the right bets with the Zune. The company saw — well ahead of most of the rest of the tech industry — that adding social features could make its product stickier. It understood that these pocketable devices might eventually be useful for much more than just music. And it had a bunch of interface design ideas that are still very present in our lives today. The universe in which the Zune was a smash isn’t so far away (And there are plenty of fans in this one, too.) Maybe if it hadn’t been brown, you know? For this episode of Version History, we tell the whole story of the original Zune. (There’s a Zune HD …