Microsoft Announces New Zune Wi-Fi Media Player

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/MicrosoftZuneWiFimediaplayer.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 58px; HEIGHT: 100px" alt=[Zune1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/Zune1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Weeks of speculation are over! Microsoft made it official last Friday when it announced the project "Zune" aimed at competing head to head with Apple. General Manager of Marketing at Microsoft, Chris Stephenson said. "Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year." The first Zune branded device will be the hard drive based Wi-Fi media player. The device will most likely have connectivity and sharing capabilities with other Zune players for certain sharing and community features. Stephenson said in an interview to Billboard Magazine that more Zune media devices will be forthcoming after the initial Wi-Fi MP3 player and that they would include a video player.

[Read More]

 

[Sheep]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/MicrosoftZuneWiFimediaplayer.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 58px; HEIGHT: 100px" alt=[Zune1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/Zune1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Weeks of speculation are over! Microsoft made it official last Friday when it announced the project "Zune" aimed at competing head to head with Apple. General Manager of Marketing at Microsoft, Chris Stephenson said. "Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year." The first Zune branded device will be the hard drive based Wi-Fi media player. The device will most likely have connectivity and sharing capabilities with other Zune players for certain sharing and community features. Stephenson said in an interview to Billboard Magazine that more Zune media devices will be forthcoming after the initial Wi-Fi MP3 player and that they would include a video player.

[Read More]

Rofl. The Creative Zen, and the Apple Ipod had a baby.

SheepStar

 

[GlocksRock]

has any pricing info been released yet?

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

The first Zune branded device will be the hard drive based Wi-Fi media player. The device will most likely have connectivity and sharing capabilities with other Zune players for certain sharing and community features.

Does that mean I can use Zune to watch Zpice? and even better....

Trojan ZandWorms!

Ah Frank Herbert humor, it never gets old ......

 

[dublinmark]

Picture is hoax

According to www.zune-player.net this picture is a hoax

 

[Audioholics]

Figures. We'll change it out once they publish actual photos. Until then, even the anti-conjecture is conjecture.

 

[Wafflesomd]

Zune runs on a 300mhz ARM9 I believe.

According to www.zune-player.net this picture is a hoax

WTF are you talking about?

 

[WorldLeader]

They both look the same and have similar specs, except the iPod is thinner, holds more songs, and has been around for a while now. Even with its cool features, the Zune doesn't bring much new to the plate. Wireless syncing? Meh, maybe if everyone had one it would be neat, but that probably won't happen.

The iPod 6G is the real winner here:

 

[Bigsilvs]

We want longer battery life!!! Yeah my Creative Zen touch is bulky, black and white, and doesn't play videos, but the battery lasts 24 hours which means I only have to bring it home from work once every 3 days to charge...

 

[Wafflesomd]

We want longer battery life!!! Yeah my Creative Zen touch is bulky, black and white, and doesn't play videos, but the battery lasts 24 hours which means I only have to bring it home from work once every 3 days to charge...

Damn straight, honestly, why are companies releasing all these new products with crappy gimmicks, when almost no one can get the basic equation for a DAP right?! Cept for Iriver of course

Ipods have crap amps, crap batteries (750mah, seriously!, thats such a bs weak battery), and are way, way overpriced.

You say the ipod is thinner? Ok, cool, I guess. Some of us want our players to be able to possibly, take a fall, or at least not completely die when we make mistakes...

I personally like girth with my players, I have no need for it to be thin, being thin just says "hey, if I fall from 1 foot up, I will die!"

I wish companies would stick to the plan and make a DAP, a DAP. I dont need any of these stupid so called "features".

I want a player that puts out great sound, has great battery life, and doesnt have to sync with anything. BTW, syncing players is by far the dumbest thing ever.

My iriver h120, it didnt have a color screen, it didnt have a scroll wheel/pad, just a basic joystick. And by god it still stands as the best player I have ever owned, and so for many others.

Go to anyone who owns an h120 or h320 and ask them if they would sell it, not for a million dollars I bet they would say.

Unfortuneatly, I killed my h120 by using the wrong AC power cable. So I opted for an h10 (20gig), and so far, I dont like it. I'm actually very anxious to sell it and get an h120 again.

I plea to all manufactuers, just make a simple player, with at least 20 gigs of storage (make is mass storage as well, none of that bs MTP syncing crap). And give it a good battery, 2200mah sounds great to me, almost overkill really.

/rant.

/edit

That Ipod 6g looks like a really bad idea. Imagine what happens after a month of use with that screen. It looks like a rehash of every ipod ever....Does a touch screen really matter? is it going to give you better sound quality? better battery life? (worse I would assume).

 

[Wayde Robson]

Good insights Wafflesomd, I think I agree with you for the most part. The newer iPods aren't as good as some of the competitors these days. I personally just want long battery and as good sound as possible. That means support for a lossless codec. Removable user replacable battery is also a good thing.

 

[Audioholics]

I personally like girth with my players, I have no need for it to be thin, being thin just says "hey, if I fall from 1 foot up, I will die!"

Well, to be fair, Force = mass x acceleration... so, thin and light, if done correctly, is a good thing.

 

[Wafflesomd]

Well, to be fair, Force = mass x acceleration... so, thin and light, if done correctly, is a good thing.

Make em too lite and thin, and I might accidentally eat it, thinking it as chocolate wafer!

 

[Audioholics]

Now that would make for a funny x-ray. Where would you connect the headphones then?

 

[MDS]

Well, to be fair, Force = mass x acceleration... so, thin and light, if done correctly, is a good thing.

Hey, let's not bring physics and netwon's second law into play. Oh wait, this is a technical site...carry on.

FWIW, I think the Zune looks pretty cool. I can do without the wireless connectivity between Zune devices and I would bet anything that the FM radio won't work worth a crap indoors, but the rest of it looks good. The user replaceable battery alone might be enough to sway people away from the iPod and towards the Zune, but only time will tell....

 

[Wafflesomd]

Hey, let's not bring physics and netwon's second law into play. Oh wait, this is a technical site...carry on.

FWIW, I think the Zune looks pretty cool. I can do without the wireless connectivity between Zune devices and I would bet anything that the FM radio won't work worth a crap indoors, but the rest of it looks good. The user replaceable battery alone might be enough to sway people away from the iPod and towards the Zune, but only time will tell....

Oh, dont get me wrong, I think the Zune is easily one of the best, and esaily the most powerful (hardware wise) of DAP's so far. Although it does resemble the Gigbeat S30 all too much.

On your FM tuner, it will work fine, my h120 and h10 get great reception where ever I am.

 

[rtcp]

Stupid three day trial crap + lack of support for FLAC(of course) and WMA Lossless(as far as I can tell) + ridiculously short warranty = me not buying it.

 

[WorldLeader]

good point, rtcp.

The Zune may be a nice piece of hardware, but if it doesn't have support or seamless music jukebox (like iTunes) to back it up it might as well be a pretty paperweight (or FM radio )

 

[Wafflesomd]

good point, rtcp.

The Zune may be a nice piece of hardware, but if it doesn't have support or seamless music jukebox (like iTunes) to back it up it might as well be a pretty paperweight (or FM radio )

That's wrong in so many ways.

Syncing up with media players such as itunes, or WMP, its one of the worst idea's ever. It's extremely tedious on most players.

I'm sure if you owned a UMS device, you would cherish it.

Players do not need any support from propraitary software, ever.

 

[WorldLeader]

Really? All I have to do with my iPod is plug it in and my iMac does the rest, automatically loading up my iPod with all the new music present in my music library. To me that is worth something...

I'm just wondering why syncing is such a bad idea Isn't that what gets the media on your device in the first place?

Just my 2 cents.