The guys at 2old2play seem to have a few tricks up their old-man sleeves, scoring a few minutes with the Zune. The most important detail?
The 'skin' of the Zune was a 'rubberized' material that had a smooth seductive feel to it. I found myself unable to stop stroking the device, so much that the demo assistant asked me to put it down.
Video and slideshow were both fluid and skip-free on the player and the file transfers were fairly speedy. You'll also need to register a Zunetag in order to use the Microsoft Zune Marketplace, which will be able to use the same Xbox Live Marketplace points you've already paid for to purchase songs. If you have a gamertag on Xbox Live, that same name will be reserved for your Zunetag.
The Zune Marketplace software on your PC can interface with the Xbox 360 music UI, and you can play back songs you downloaded or imported into Zune Marketplace. Pretty cool, but we're looking forward to doing a direct comparison of how the Zune music management software stacks up to iTunes—which in our opinion is the best part of the iPod experience.
Hands On The Zune [2old2play]