I Made It I (A Zune Mod)

Poor grammar of the title aside, after picking up a refurbished mocha-colored Microsoft-made media player (known as "Zune") from Woot!, I am pretty satisfied with owning a fully functional yet unnecessary piece of commodity: Although my cell phone does pretty much all of what it does, having a dedicated player not draining your cell phone battery is nice.

Since it is colored in mocha, it is now lovingly named "Turdis", a music dork reference to a line in one of Radiohead's songs, and the apparent color of a certain type of organic matter. It plays most of my songs (My library is 60+ GB), it never crashes (hahaha), and it showcases album art proudly.

After the update today, it gained a very nice and graphic (i.e. flat) interface with big fonts, and a formidable section dedicated to podcasts, which means "Portable O-something Device Casts".

I was fine with the mocha color for a while, and it was a delight once in a while to see a subtle green glow around the border, when the device is shone in the bright rays of dawn. That effect is known as "double-shot".

However, that's all the moments when the player actually look good.

Unlike the iPod, this Zune is deeply discounted. And unlike the iPod, it does not have a shiny surface - being flat and matt is a nice aesthetic, too. Since it costs less than a hundred, it does not hurt to experiment and modify. So last weekend I decided to spend a morning modifying it.

I posted the process on Instructables if anyone are interested.

I am pretty satisfied with the result. I now have a player of my own, and it is not even available in Zune Originals. It is nice that we have alternatives that do not look way too pristine to be modified or touched, so that I can ruin it any way I want.