Microsoft's long awaited entry in the DAP (that's digital audio player) market is here, and its name is the Zune. It has WiFi, a 30GB hard drive, built-in FM receiver, 3 inch screen, and it plays audio, video, and pictures. The Zune will play back h.264 (that surprised me), MP3, AAC (another surprise, but it won't play protected AAC's from the iTunes Store), and WMA. Sorry über-geeks, no ogg support.
What does the Zune use the built in WiFi for? Why, Zune to Zune sharing of music, of course. You can give your friend a song from your Zune and they can play it 3 times over 3 days, and then they get the option of purchasing the track (if it is available on the Zune Marketplace, which is the iTunes Store for Zunes). The Zune Marketplace will have both per pay tracks and a subscription service, which should make some people happy.
The Zune will be available in brown (pictured above), black, and white. Availability and price have not yet been announced, nor has support for the Mac but I'm thinking that isn't going to be a selling point. This holiday season could be a fight between the Zune and the iPod. I know where I'm putting my money.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
9-14-2006 @ 3:36PM
Navvy said...
Sign me up for the poopy brown color!
The Zune2Zune sharing sounds kinda cool, acutally. How long until that 3day/3listen limit is hacked?
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9-14-2006 @ 3:37PM
PiTT said...
...not a fight between Zune and iPod but a fight between Zune and iPhone ;-)
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9-14-2006 @ 3:38PM
Mark Fleser said...
Why the h*ll would anyone want brown. Looks like sh!t (pun intended)
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9-14-2006 @ 3:39PM
GH Mason said...
May I be the first to say... "Um, ew".
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9-14-2006 @ 3:44PM
Query said...
Don't use the WiFi on it.. you may get a virus.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:48PM
andy said...
microsoft would be wise to release for mac, this is one way they saturated the world with IE, standardization, if they want to replicate that they should offer mac support. thank god the world is gradually recovering from IE.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:51PM
Jason said...
The brown Zune has similarities to the old Mattel "Classic Baseball" handheld game, or like a crappy 70's AM radio. Brown plastic should have been left for dead with the old Atari boxes.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:51PM
Velda said...
Brown? WTF are they thinking?
i agree with #5, met another microsoft product begging to be a vessel for spreading viruses.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:52PM
Rob said...
yay! Finally a DAP that will match my Hush Puppies! I can't wait. I've been waiting for this a long time.
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9-14-2006 @ 3:55PM
Tyler Lemke said...
Yea poop color, sign me up.
"A Sphincter says... what?"
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9-14-2006 @ 3:56PM
Jon said...
I think Zune Marketplace is an awful name.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:00PM
Daniel D said...
Finally I hope this encourages apple to get of its ass and release the widescreen ipod but it looks like they already announced their ipod plans for the time being they deserve to lose every one who buys one of these because they took too long doing their thing.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:03PM
mike said...
this is not a launch, it's an annoucement.
there is no release date, no pricing, no service pricing, no details, no live demo. the only thing microsoft has produced today was more hype and some pictures of a plastic box with screen shots overlaid on the screens in post-production.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:04PM
Jim F said...
Mr. Brown? That sounds too much like Mr. S***.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:16PM
Guillermo said...
If and when Apple enables WiFi sharing on the iPod, I want it to work *exactly* like it does in iTunes. Just share the whole library (or selected playlists, if the other user chooses to) as long as both devices are in range. I don't care if I can't take the songs with me afterwards.
It would also be nice to have iTunes-to-iPod sharing. That way if my entire library doesn't fit on the iPod, I can still listen to all my songs on the iPod as long as they're in range of each other.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:19PM
john said...
i kind of like the brown...sort of an old school look
(of course i'll still be picking up the 80gb ipod in a week anyway)
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9-14-2006 @ 4:30PM
sipsie said...
to continue their record of releasing products easily succeptible to viruses, microsoft drops WiFi into the zune. i'm sure the developers over at norton antivirus are already licking their chops on this one.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:50PM
Joe V said...
About 3/4 of the comments here obsess over the color. How about comparing actual *fratures* against iPod? WiFi and FM are great advantages that iPod come with, standard (assuming Zune were released today). As I understand it, Zune is running some form of Windows Mobile, which provides a lot more opportunity for software-based enhancement. With iPod, you have to hack the firmware to do that (http://ipodlinux.org/).
Slamming the Zune becuase a) it's not an iPod, and b) it's from Microsoft makes you seem really small. Hopefully, Zune is successful: it will force Apple to add more Zune-beating features to the product, and make iPod more price-competitive.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:50PM
Quix said...
Ugly shade of brown with a black clickwheel and a dark gray screen border??? Good grief. My wife would kill me if I wore something like that in public. It looks like something old Uncle Arnie would design.
"Finally I hope this encourages apple to get of its ass and release the widescreen ipod"
What Daniel, you think Apple finished it and is just lazily letting it ferment, like a fine wine? They'll release it when it's ready - because that's what Apple (usually) does.
Zune will be the same as everything else Microsoft does that isn't propped up by its Windows/Office monopoly: a money pit for vanity sake.
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9-14-2006 @ 4:53PM
Quix said...
"Hopefully, Zune is successful: it will force Apple to add more Zune-beating features to the product, and make iPod more price-competitive." - Joe
Huh? $349 for an 80G video-playing device with the iPod's beautiful design and ease of use isn't price-competitive??? Someone needs to go do some DAP shopping...
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