Microsoft Zune out for Christmas

[Nick F]

Microsoft has announced that its Zune digital music player will be released in the US in time for Christmas.

Unveiling more details of the player, which it hopes will rival Apple's iPod, Microsoft said the Zune will come in three colours - black, white and brown.

To be manufactured for the US giant by Japan's Toshiba, it will come with a three-inch (7.6cm) colour screen.

The Zune will also have wireless connectivity, allowing nearby users to exchange songs and photos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5347112.stm

Yes, get in...... I can't wait for this

[Parm]

Some details on Engadget too: http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/m...nches-the-zune

A few more pictures on there too, looks pretty neat!

[BenW]

No mention on battery life, something thats important to me when choosing an MP3 player. Thats why i still use my Sony HD1 (Claimed 30 hours IIRC

[Parm]

Yet more info: http://www.zuneinsider.com/

Still no news on battery life though Ben.

[ctid]

No mention on battery life, something thats important to me when choosing an MP3 player. Thats why i still use my Sony HD1 (Claimed 30 hours IIRC

Same here . I can use my HD1 every day for 2/3 weeks before it needs a charge. I just wish there was some other software to transfer songs to it. I hate Sonicstage with a passion.

The Zune could persuade me to change from my HD1 if the battery life is decent, and the price isnt ridiculously high.

[nvening]

On my nwa-300 i use winamp - there is a hack for it - i think it works with the HD1 too.

Zune looks pretty sweet but i cant see the battery stanging up too well.

I recon pricing will be about 300 but mabe they will make £250 to help it compete. - infact they will need to make it remembering that the iod video can do what it does anyway lol

[Parm]

Here's a video of Zune in action, playing music, video and pictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmD6a8N8Q4&NR

Here's a video of Zunes sharing files between one another via wi-fi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpHzQYKDlWU

The screen looks very impressive.

[dangel]

I like the user interface a lot.. .screen looks sweet too. Didn't really expect it to look that good

[HyeongSeong]

Why it doesn't play divix or xvid ? It can't be diffcult for them to support more video codec. Lots of my film is already backed up in divix format and stored in my pc.

[Bluecube]

Why it doesn't play divix or xvid ? It can't be diffcult for them to support more video codec. Lots of my film is already backed up in divix format and stored in my pc.

Because it's used extensively for pirated films as well as for law abiding reasons. Microsoft really don't like divx/ xvid at all seeing as the 360 doesn't support it either.

[dangel]

Not to mention MS have a rival format in WMV

[Funkstar]

Why it doesn't play divix or xvid ? It can't be diffcult for them to support more video codec. Lots of my film is already backed up in divix format and stored in my pc.

Why would they? it isn't their own format so I can't see why they ould bother. I bet Microsoft (and apple for that matter) would like to not have to incluse MP3 support, but know full well they have to or they wouldn't sell any players (look at Sony's earlier efforts, i think they sold a total of 3 units or something before they started playing back MP3s natively )

[charleski]

It turns out the WiFi sharing 'feature' is virtually worthless. All songs, even mp3s with no DRM on them, will get tagged with restrictions that only allow the recipient to play them 3 times over 3 days. Basically all it is is a method of sending out promo tracks in the hopes of getting a sale from the Zune store.

The specs say 'MPEG4' playback (which is meaningless as Mpeg4 is a huge spec), which may mean part 4 SP only rather the ASP required for divx/xvid.

So it looks like the two main advantages (wifi and the big screen) are nuked from birth by policy decisions. Hard to see what this has over an iPod without those.

[5lab]

does anyone actually want to watch a movie on a 3" screen? seriously??

[BenW]

No! I dont understand why they put this technology on a MUSIC player, personally i would rather have a smaller, lighter unit which plays music with a B&W (Or similar) screen that results in decent battery life.

I heard on another forum that the price is $299 which is apparently about £160 (Think its a bit more than that?) but as you know that price is more realisticly going to be £250 for the UK and $299 for America

[Funkstar]

If it is $299 in the US that is without sales tax, which varies from state to state (i know it is 8% in Texas). Right now that works out at £158.95 ( from http://www.xe.com/ucc/). Add VAT to that bring it to £186.77. So at the *very* minimum you are looking at £199. but yeah £249 is more likely.