Microsoft Officially Announces Zune

[picaman]

I have only one thing to say:

Brown? That's appropriate.

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From the Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft Corp. unveiled details of its first Zune digital media player, which it hopes to have in stores this holiday season to challenge Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod players.


The Zune will come in white, brown and black versions
The Redmond, Wash., giant said its Zune player will be available in three colors - black, white and brown - but did not disclose pricing or provide a launch date for the device.

"The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning," said J Allard, vice president, design and development, at Microsoft, who is heading its Zune project. "With Zune, we are not simply delivering a portable device, we are introducing a new platform that helps bring artists closer to their audiences and helps people find new music and develop new social connections."

Microsoft said the Zune will feature a 30 gigabyte hard drive, built-in FM tuner and wireless networking capability. The Zune, which will be linked to a new music store run by Microsoft, will be available later this year. Many of the device's technical details were disclosed last month in a regulatory filing by Toshiba Corp., which is manufacturing the device for Microsoft.

The announcement comes two days after Apple unveiled its new lineup of iPod players, including an 80 gigabyte model, and added movie downloads to its iTunes store.

[Doug Eldred]

Pictures galore: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune/default.mspx

Doug

[Fox]

It's not very attractive. One typical difference between Microsoft and Apple products.
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Mini 1: 2.3 ghz Core i5; 8 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2: 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate
Also a Cube, 13" MacBook Air, 20" 2.66 ghz iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu & openSuse

[Bandit Bill]

Anyone tech savvy already has an iPod. The rest of the world will be getting one for Christmas.

I really don't know why companies keep throwing their money down the toilet trying to compete with the iPod. You're better off selling the 3007th "made for iPod" accessory.

[Raid]

There are a lot of people who don't like iPods y'know. I was actually amazed at how the iPod doesn't have a custom equaliser for example, when my 4 year old 256mb Creative flash player, with a screen you can barely even read does. If Creative had made mac drivers (for my 5gb Zen micro), I'd never have even considered getting an iPod.

Don't lump everybody into the "we love the iPod!" crowd, because it simply isn't true.

[microfox]

[Raid]

Unfortunately, whilst I could add music via XNJB, my XBox 360 wouldn't see any additional tracks, and it would still see album folders that I'd deleted, so I imagine it wasn't building the database properly.

To be honest, I did need a higher capacity player anyway, so it's not too big a deal.

[devo]

I'll give Microsoft some credit for the widescreen display, but that's about it. I was a little disappointed that Apple didn't release a new sixth generation widescreen iPod earlier this week. I would've bought one in a second.

[Raid]

I could actually see this doing very well. What they need to do is make sure it's as integrated into media player as an iPod is integrated into iTunes. Fully automatic updating is a huge plus with the iPod for me. The wireless networking is a very nice idea too, particularly if it can be accessed by any PC without software installation; it could be used to take videos to a friend's house, or possibly even with Apple's new iTV (perhaps unlikely, but it'd be a neat feature if it did).

I'm really not sure why they'd bother with a brown version though. High tech mobile gadgets need to look modern, and brown... doesn't.

[devo]

[Bandit Bill]

[Bandit Bill]

[devo]

[microfox]

[Bandit Bill]