Zune HD Unveiled, Set For Fall Release 410
Several readers have written to mention that Microsoft has confirmed and unveiled the Zune HD. It has a "3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output," and it makes use of multi-touch input. More details will be forthcoming at E3, including how the device interacts with Xbox Live. Reader johnjaydk notes a PCWorld article that asks whether the Zune HD will be capable of competing with the iPod Touch. Quoting: "... the real competition between the Zune HD and the iPod Touch will come down to software. The new Zune will be based on a custom version of Windows CE, while the iPod Touch runs on the already popular iPhone platform, for which thousands of applications are available."
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:3, Interesting)
Until that Linux company I keep hearing about comes out with MP3 players, then this is the way to go for me.
Looks Like a Duck (Score:4, Interesting)
It must suck to be an engineer at Microsoft. Ignoring the phat paycheck, it must really suck to work for a company that has largely given up on any semblance of innovation and is simply following the lead of other companies. I would imagine that many of their best and brightest are begging to explore some very cool ideas but are being held back by Microsoft's corporate culture... I feel for them...
Actually, they get paid magnitudes more than I do so I don't feel too bad for them...
Re:OLED screen? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:It's coming to Europe (Score:3, Interesting)
Huh... if missing the boat is making something that works really well, and has more features, I guess they did. My zune works flawlessly, has a better screen, wireless sync, and the ability to tune radio stations. Contrast with my wifes 2g ipod nano, which locks up randomly, repeats the same song endlessly, skips the the next song randomly, and lets not forget that abomination of software call iTunes, and the recommended fix from the apple store? "Buy a new 3G ipod!!" Which was the same answer they gave to EVERYONE that came in with a problem with apple hardware. Bleack.
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd have to say that their target demographic is probably everyone who bought an Xbox 360. The one piece of MS's gaming strategy that's been noticably lacking is the handheld. Now, it appears they're getting serious about it. I had high hopes for Zune integration when the 360 came out, and it just never happened. Then, XNA came out and it looked like things were going to happen in that space again, and then nothing. Maybe the old axiom about MS getting it right on the third shot is going to hold true, yet again?
Re:People said the same thing about Xbox failing.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I think Microsoft does not get it... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Release should be fine (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:3, Interesting)
You _can_ however, run the application in an emulator.
Re:It's coming to Europe (Score:4, Interesting)
Will they replace the HD Radio with DAB radio for Britain and the other parts of Europe that use DAB?
Apps (Score:4, Interesting)
The Zune always had really good hardware. It had some silly restrictions (like on WiFi), and terrible marketing. Compare that to the iPod/iPhone, which is good hardware, silly restrictions, and great marketing...
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, you can use the unofficial (jailbroken) iphone sdk on non mac systems, infact you can even install gcc on the iphone itself and compile apps natively.
Can you develop zune software without having windows? I would say the iphone is one step up in this regard.
Re:It's coming to Europe (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll agree with you. I never really understood why the iPod became the gold-standard for music devices.
My iRiver ihp-120 is still going strong. It has FM radio support as well, and this is going back to late 2003. The screen is really the only complaint one could have compared to a "modern" device.
I've since installed rockbox and upgraded the hard disk. I don't see very many devices these days that are competitive with this one.
AC put it more simply, but Yes (Score:3, Interesting)
So the whole reason that Windows Mobile has problems is because application developers are porting their desktop applications?
Exactly right. They suck to use on mobile platforms and so fewer people buy and use them, except for a handful of productivity stuff like Goodmail. But you just don't see the kind of casual exploration of apps on the scale iPhone users engage in.
Some people do tailor the experience more to a mobile user but there's only so much you can do with the frameworks that are there... and the frameworks, they are old.
Why does MS have to compete in EVERY market? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never understood this business strategy. I don't see any intrinsic reason why Microsoft should seek to enter every possible technology market and leverage its enormous financial power and resources to do so.
They know Zune is a failed business venture. As a product, the Zune is unable to compete with the iPod on any meaningful level. And Microsoft management knows this. Yet they persist, not out of some altruistic desire to encourage competition, but because the executives (read: Ballmer) have too much hubris to concede that Apple has done something remarkable. They have succeeded in revolutionizing the portable media device. And with the iPhone, Apple has created nothing less than an integrated portable computing/communications/multimedia solution that is as stylish as it is easy to use. Is it perfect? Hardly. Was it the first to use each of its component technologies? No. But it is indisputable that it broke new ground by combining all these features into a single, easy-to-use device. And the only ones who still refuse to admit this are those who are aligned with Ballmer's distorted view of reality.
I have a healthy appreciation for the competition--Google (Android), RIM (Blackberry), Palm (Pre), Nokia (N9x), and yes, even Microsoft (Zune/Windows Mobile). It's important that these guys are around to keep Apple on its toes. But let's not fool ourselves into believing that these are the good guys for fostering that competition. If they were truly good, they would have recognized the importance of innovating beyond what they see in Apple's offerings, rather than simply trying to make a comparable product. Where was their vision before Apple dominated the field? No, they were too busy being complacent. We saw tiny, incremental changes in the mobile device market for years until the iPhone blew everyone away. The same was true of the pre-iPod MP3 market. Apple lit a fire under their collective asses and now hardware manufacturers are going nuts trying to make the next "iPod/iPhone/iWhatever" killer.
The Zune will never be successful as long as it is deprived of a true vision. It isn't enough to mimic another device or its success. That's what Microsoft does not understand. They never have understood what makes a product work. The ubiquity of their bread-and-butter Windows has brought them enormous financial success and market share, but with that it has brought laziness and sloppy management. They can afford to push out half-assed products. Windows will still be there to keep the money coming in. They don't have to be hungry, visionary, or risk-taking, like Apple has had to be for decades. They've made some real blunders (G4 cube, 20th Anniversary Mac, the Lisa, Mac OS licensing, Centris/Quadra/Performa bloated product line,... I could go on but I think you get the point). But they have had enormous successes as well. Microsoft could make Zune amazing. Any company could, given that much money and talent. But that's not what they really want. They don't want to make something better than an iPhone or an iPod. They want to make something just good enough superficially, with as little attention to detail as possible, just so they can say they have some market penetration.
Microsoft has not wanted to make a better 'something' for DECADES. When a company stops caring about providing the best possible user experience, I stop caring about that company's products.
Re:It's coming to Europe (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, then apparently everyone else making MP3 players long before Apple produced anything "missed the boat" too.
Ironically, this makes the iPod like Windows and the Zune like Linux in the handheld music player market.
Hmm... I don't think so. Apple is popular because they are the fad thing to have. Eventually (hopefully) the fad will die out. Any other product with as many failures are iPods would have been abandoned long ago, but my wife knows many people who are on their 3rd or 4th iPod, not because they wanted a new one, but because the previous one broke.
Re:Release should be fine (Score:2, Interesting)
Problem was, I had to use their god-awful sync software to get the thing working. That meant going through WGA, all the
Once I had the device out in the wild it worked fine but I was always reluctant to put more music on it because it was such a chore. When I realized that I was maintaining a Windows box just to use the Zune and a few programs (like uTorrent), I switched to Mint and haven't looked back.
Now the thing just languishes along with all the other stuff that isn't 'essential' in my daily routine.
I use a current gen iPod nano (8GB) now and it works like a charm, so-so audio quality and all. I use gPodder to sync podcasts and GTKPod to sync my music. MP3 players are so ubiquitous nowadays I don't see why people are willing to be locked into one company's store or software.
Of course, it'd be great if Apple explained how to unencrypt their firmware so we could get Rockbox running on it but that's not gonna happen. At least my iPod supports FLAC.
Re:Lousy screen, Low Storage (Score:5, Interesting)
Once you get it ($99 developer fee - much cheaper than Visual Studio)
Visual Studio Express, which is able to create full applications without limitations, is free. Yes, I can choose to pay for a better IDE. I'd rather that than have to pay a whacking $99 fee just for the privilege of development.
I'm always amazed how ignorant non-Microsoft users are about Microsoft's products and how much disinformation they spew. If you really want to know what you can or cannot do with an Microsoft device or software, you should ask the people who know - experienced Microsoft users. (For the mods who will no doubt interpret this as trolling, but the same statement about Apple as Informative. [slashdot.org])
Re:It's coming to Europe (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know the technicals regarding DAB, but I do know that the current generation of HD receiver/decoders get really hot and pull a lot of current. Even if Microsoft has significantly improved the technology it's probably still going to be awfully hard on a little battery. I don't believe a 20x improvement in efficiency is likely in any case.
I suspect they've made compromises to reduce power usage (and antenna size), which when paired with a technology that is problematic to begin with is probably going to mean that it has a much more limited range than typical HD radios, or they'll play games with the availability of the feature (only when plugged in or some such).
In any case it's a very nice device. It's a real shame HD radio sounds like 90's era Napster downloads. It's an interesting solution to an ongoing problem, but there's only so much you can do with 48kpbs regardless of how good your codec is.
Re:Release should be fine (Score:3, Interesting)
I currently use a Zune, after getting hooked on the Zune pass subscription. Sorry... but as far as I'm concerned I don't really care what casing surrounds my hard drive/flash storage media. At the end of the day I just want to listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The Zune does all three of these things just fine. The whole "it's cool to have an Apple" thing is lost on me.
That said, the only thing Zune has going for it is the Zune Pass. I can buy tunes off of iTunes, if I couldn't find the tracks on Zune or Amazon. However, I CAN'T use my Zune pass on my iPod.
If the Zune pass goes away, I'm not sure how MS can hope to even keep up the pitiful competition that they currently have. (If you can even call it competition)
HD Zune might be okay, but like I said before, I just want it for Audio. I could care less about all the other stuff.