You are hereUmm.... yippee?
Umm.... yippee?
I'm thrilled. Honest.
Microsoft announces (confirms) new Zune HD.
- Introducing Zune HD
- Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
- The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
- The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*
- Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
- Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.
- Zune HD is the next iteration of the Zune device family and brings a new level of listening and viewing experiences to the portable media player category.
There is also some kind of Xbox Live Marketplace interface as well:
- Zune will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform. Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time.
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Zune HD = iPod touch? Uh, no....
by Christopher Breen, Macworld.com
Blame it on the rain, the resulting muck and mire, or the redwood curtain that separates Cupertino from Redmond, but it appears that news travels very slowly between Apple and Microsoft. How else can you explain this statement from Chris Stephenson—general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune regarding the just-announced Zune HD (as quoted by CNET’s Ina Fried)?
Okay, maybe it is. With that in mind let’s look at what the two have in common:
Touchscreen display.
Ability to play music and movies.
Web browser and media acquisition via Wi-Fi.
Photo viewing.
And now, what the Zune HD offers that the iPod touch doesn’t:
HD Radio.
HD Video Out (via optional Dock).
The Social.
And, what the iPod touch has that—as far as we know—is foreign to the Zune HD:
The App Store.
In a strict bullet-point comparison, the Zune HD is clearly the champion—3 points to 1. Might as well pack it up, Apple. It’s a Zune world after all.
Of course if you were to subdivide that single App Store bullet point into its component 35,000 + applications you might understand why I suggest that Microsoft is a little slow on the uptake.
Because while the touch may have the iPod name attached to it, it’s far more than just a media player. Touchscreen, media playback, slideshows, and web browsing do not an iPod touch make. And Apple’s made this pretty clear.
Recall the last several iPod touch commercials you’ve seen. Do they emphasize playing movies, as you can with every other iPod save the shuffle? Does Safari play a major role in these 30-second dramas? Of course not, Apple routinely lumps in the iPod touch with the iPhone, not other iPods. And it does so because it’s about the apps—games, utilities, social networking, news, media streaming.
Yet Microsoft, from all appearances, is jamming its fingers in its ears and sing-songing “iPod! iPod! iPod! We have radio, iPod doesn’t!” as if radio, of all things, is the killer app (which, if you really want it on your iPod touch, can be had via one of a handful of apps).
The Zune HD isn’t slated to arrive until this Fall and the details we currently have are sparse, so perhaps there’s a Zapp store in the works. (Just as there's likely an update to the iPod touch in the works.)
Until then, welcome to the denial.
Actually I really like it, and it's damn sure better than an ipod.
Next thing you'll be singing the praises of Betamax.
But how would he know, without actually owning an iPod to compare it to?
n/t
Good ol' Apple can't even make a 64 bit version of iTunes that works well. For that reason alone I am thinking about getting a Zune. That and the fact that I could then say I do not own any garbage from a Apple.
It has to run on a crappy IBM PC clone. I don't know how that platform got as far as it has.