Seems it’s been quite the few days for Zune rumours, with both Gizmodo and Neowin leaking us some juicy new information.
First up, Gizmodo reports that their tipster, who leaked them some internal Microsoft documents, claims that Zune HD will be launching stateside 8 September 2009, in both 16 & 32 GB, as well as being handed the marketing image above. Seems to be then that the 16GB will be available in black, whilst the 32GB will be in “Platinum”, though we’ll have to wait for official confirmation first. Still though, it now appears the Black Zune HD will reach retail channels at launch.
Neowin’s source also confirms this information in a short but sweet interview. Upon being asked whether movie downloads will be hitting the Zune Marketplace, he replied
“The Zune team is working hard to get all the licensing agreements in order.”
Of course, with Zune branding succeeding Xbox Live’s Movie Marketplace, it’s really only a matter of time before movies make it to the Zune desktop marketplace. Also noteworthy for those of us worried about the price,
“The prices are not set in stone yet, but the 16GB will be somewhere in the range of $249 -$280”
So, more than the 120GB Zune then, and in the UK you’d be looking at around £200 for the 16GB unit, maybe more. I’m not really sure how I feel about that. No word on the 32GB unit, but rest assured it’s probably going to be pricey.
Other than that, there is an interesting feature to note that isn’t in the leaked documentation, but the leaking image above. Note the artist photos in the now playing screen? It seems the Zune firmware is following suit of the Zune Desktop software’s now playing screen introduced in 3.0, displaying high quality press shots of the artist. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look nice.
Posted by Johnny on 25 Jun 2009 in HD, Rumors, Zune
Engadget got another chance to have a quick play around with the Zune HD, albeit one devoid of nearly any content. Unfortunately they don’t bother checking it out much, like scrolling down the menu to see what’s there, or even clicking on “internet” to see the interface, the type of things that die hard Zune fanboys are dying to see! In case you haven’t guessed then, there’s now an “internet” option in the menu, presumably to launch the built-in web browser. After all, where would you expect the browser to launch from? Anywho check out the rather brief showing below.
Posted by Johnny on 24 Jun 2009 in HD, Media, Zune
In an official statement which should surprise, well no one really, the Zune Team confirmed that the forthcoming Zune HD does infact contain the Nvidia Tegra chip, on the latest Zune Insider podcast, allowing for low power, high performance graphical achievements in portable platforms, enabling both 720p HD playback, and hardware accelerated 3D graphics rendering. Both capabilities of which the Zune HD will be taking advantage of, albeit not to their full extent.
Although given this 3D prowess, it seems so far that Microsoft don’t seem to have chosen to add an overkill of 3D, instead opting for some subtle, yet extremely smooth and polished looking 3D transitions and zooming, unlike say Nvidia’s own technical demos.
^ Click to view in full 1080p… which then scales to fit your screen, so you might wanna open it in a new tab for the full effect ^
Earlier this evening (about 18:30 BST), Microsoft held their annual E3 press briefing, highlighting their newest advances in home entertainment. Amongst these announcements, Microsoft gave us more details about the Zune service on Xbox LIVE. Here’s the lo down:
The existing Xbox LIVE video store is being merged into and replaced by Zune Marketplace, which will offer TV shows, films and music videos to Xbox 360 customers.
Zune will offer instant-on 1080p HD streaming video on your Xbox 360, with full 5.1 surround sound. No discs, no waiting for downloads and no delays. Get the selection of a video megastore, the best video clarity available and the convenience of on-demand, only on Xbox 360. (Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be hitting the PC or any other Zune service for the time being).
Thankfully Microsoft announced it will more than double the number of markets where it offers TV shows and movies through the new Zune branding, by adding Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland to its existing list (which includes the United Kingdom!)
Here’s some additional details for you:
Video startup is as close to instantaneous as possible by seamlessly transitioning between many different bitrates and resolutions of video
Video playback will start at a low bit rate for fast download time and then ramp up to a higher bitrate and quality
This process enables delivery of up to 1080p with 5.1 surround sound
Xbox LIVE party mode let you watch movies with your friends even when you’re sitting in different locations
Enhanced search functions within Zune video on Xbox LIVE let you find your favourite film at the touch of a button
So, all is good now it seems. Of course, video quality will vary depending on your connection speed, and don’t think that a minute that your 1MBp/s connection will be getting the full 1080p connection, you’re going to need a very fast connection to fit all that high-definition goodness down your pipe. In fact, Microsoft say at least an 8 MBp/s connection is required. Also, bar the rebranding to Zune, it doesn’t seem yet that any of these features will be shared with the existing Zune ecosystem.
^ Click on the images above to zoom in. They’re 720p, but will scale to your screen resolution ^
As you may have noticed, the upcoming Zune HD is set to have a fully fledged multi-touch browser onboard, and word around the grapevine is that it’s based on the Internet Explorer mobile engine.
Now, it doesn’t take much to come to the conclusion that this’ll be based on Internet Explorer 6 mobile, debuting in Windows Mobile 6.5. After all, both the Zune & Windows Mobile Teams are now headed by the same people, and both are built on Windows Embedded technology (commonly know as WinCE around these parts), and to top it off the Windows Mobile team have just completed finishing up moving Internet Explorer 6’s codebase to the mobile platform, but spicing it up with some of I.E 8’s vastly improved javascript engine, and some (not entirely working) transparent PNG support, AND including a rather smooth zooming engine, which coincidently would work rather nicely on Zune.
Still, I sincerely hope that it isn’t. Now it goes without saying, but Internet Explorer 6’s rendering is one of the main banes of the internet to web developers, an engine that just can’t hold it’s own on current web standards. Now, I.E 6 mobile includes a few extra things that I.E 6 desktop didn’t, but for the most part, you’ll get the same experience on both. Just to get a taste of what I mean, lets look at a couple of examples. On the left is what I.E. 6 mobile gives you, and on the right is what you should be seeing, as rendered by actual mobile browsers.
thezoone.com using I.E.6 mobile
thezoone.com using Skyfire Mobile 1.0
Here you can see some problems already. Check out the problems with transparent PNG’s on the border on the news box. Why is the text squashed into that little column? No proper flash 9 support? (Adobes problem mostly, but as you can see others have managed some very workable solutions). Oh, and really odd, two of the images are wrong, using images that aren’t even on my server anymore! Lord knows what’s going on there… lets chalk it up to more problems with I.E. 6. Oh, and it took over 2 minutes to load on a Wi-Fi connection.
mobile facebook site, on I.E. 6 mobile
mobile facebook on Opera Mobile 9.5
Now here is a laugh. This is one of Facebook’s mobile sites, designed primarily for the iPhone (note: so the better, cooler one). As such, it features generous helpings of the latest web standards, enough to test any good browser. Lets not even bother noting what’s wrong here, just look at the difference between the images, and take into account that this is a site made for mobile devices. Nice job, Internet Explorer! Now, compared to other mobile browsers, I.E 6 mobile can be upto 10x slower loading complex pages, and considering that on a good mobile browser it can take upto 30 seconds to fully render such a page… yeah, things can get real bad.
Now imagine for a minute, that you’ve bought a brand new, top of the range, Zune HD, complete with a fantastically designed and silky smooth UI, only to be left with results like this when you hit the web browser. Enticing, no?
Take this with a grain of salt though. Hopefully the Zune & Windows Mobile team together will be able to pull something more amazing out of the bag.
Posted by Johnny on 30 May 2009 in Article, HD, Zune
Shortly after Engadget posted their hands on pictures of the device, Gizmodo has come on ahead and given us a much more thorough tour of the new UI and model, complete with a video showing off the new UI goodness!
Also included is a much better photo gallery showing off the devices design.
So, what do you guys think? Personally I think it’s all looking very swanky, a far better interface than iPod touch to be sure. Also, judging by the extreme smoothness, and especially in respect to how fast the image rotates when the device is rotated (not even iPod touches smooth interface can match that), one can only assume this device is packing some pretty serious hardware underneath. Nvidia Tegra? It’s looking very likely right about now.
Still, there is still something nagging at me… where are the new features guys?! Anyway, leave your impressions and thoughts in our forums!
EDIT: Seems CNET also have a video hands on of the device, so here it is below!
Posted by Johnny on 28 May 2009 in Flash, HD, Media
So, Zune HD just got official yesterday, and today we’re already starting to see some hands-on, real life shots of the device, courtesy of Engadget. First, they got a live demo of the device from none other than Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s current head honcho, complete with badly taken, blurry pictures, and now they’ve been given the chance to go hands on with it themselves, with some decidedly better photography to boot.
According to Engadget, the new interface is just like a pimped up extension of the current interface, with more emphasis on non-essential visual flourishes to make the interface seem more appealing, like lots of flipping images and smooth scaling fonts zooming in and out. Unfortunately their hands on look doesn’t really get past the home menu, though you can check out the device in all its’ slim, sleek glory over at their photo gallery.
After weeks of rumours and leaked promotional materials, Microsoft has finally unveiled the Zune HD (and the Zune XBOX LIVE video service) ahead of their next weeks E3 press conference. Lets roll on the official specs:
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 favourite stations multicasting in HD.
Super bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease
16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution)
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.
Full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.
So far there is no word on the capacity of the device (though there are mumblings going around that this is the “flash model”, suggesting a different hard-drive model also due to come out), and also unfortunately no word on an international release of Zune either. Bugger.
Now lets take a look to see a few niggles with announcement:
Yes, you heard it right! Finally the News has been slipped around Twitter (From Brian Seitz, member of the Zune team) and although Info Is slim, there is a certain chance for a 3rd Gen Zune to be out this Summer/Fall.
Now of course there are now leaks on what this Zune will be like (IE – Firmware, Size (Physical and Hard Drive) Touch) or anything like that, but looking at the new WinMo 7 design maybe this could be the new Zune firmware, or child of. Also, it might glimpse the idea of a touch screen Zune, but lets not dwell on that.
Start saving! More info on this when its released/leaked.
Normally I wouldn’t I post about free content on Zune Marketplace, especially Video content (due to region restrictions which prohibits us UK’ers from getting all content from the video Marketplace), but this happens to be a very special case…
Catch the new third season FREE premiere episode as video podcast from the acclaimed Showtime series "The Tudors" in the Zune Marketplace. THE TUDORS focus is on the rarely dramatized, tumultuous early years of King Henry 8’s nearly 40-year, omnipotent reign of England played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Now, I know what your thinking… “Well isn’t this a video download, what use is it to us international zuners?”. Well, thankfully it’s being distributed as a Video Podcast, meaning Zune users from all around the world are free to download and enjoy the entire hour long episode!
The episode is available in near DVD quality 640 x 390, 29FPS, coming in at 660MB/s. If your looking for some good drama to watch, catch the free show available now on the Zune Marketplace as part of the Showtime Podcast.
Here in London we’ve just had one of those brilliant weekends: The Sun is shining, the air is warm, everyone’s relaxed and taking a break, and the radio’s are up full blast listening to some well chosen Summer beats, and you just sit back and think to yourself; “Hell yes, Summer is nearly here!” It’s been a perfect day for relaxing and socialising and enjoying yourself.
But for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying such a beautiful day (especially any unlucky people up in Scotland), why not take the jump and join in and socialise in our community forums? We’re all here ready to talk about anything and everything, and hey, maybe we can light up our days with something funny, insightful, thoughtful or utterly charming. Here’s just a couple of things you can jump straight into to get you started and familiarise yourselves with our community!
Simple as, just post a picture of your Zune for us too see! Dress it up, lay it somewhere cool or just take a picture of it being normal, just add it to the collection, and admire everyone else’s!
Post a pictured tour of your home music set-up, your bread and butter, your pride and joy on which you enjoy your favourite music, loud and proud. Everyone’s different, whether its your 2 metre high Electrostatic speakers or your run-off-the mill compact audio player, share it with us!
Forum member Rouge Planetoid, has recently released a new version of his ZuneCardr application which allows you to create a Zune Card as an image. If you have .NET 3.5 SP1 on your machine then give it a go – and let him know what you think in our forum thread!
ZuneCardr comes with lots of customisation options to let you build your own Zune Card from your PC, with a selection of built in themes, and support for custom ones, along with choosing which albums you want to display and of course, even some simple colour switching! And when your done, you can export it into a couple of different formats which you can then share with the world however you want! Download it now!
And, as an added bonus, he’s even created an exclusive theme just for our zoone community!
Click on the link below to download the theme (with instructions inside the folder, be sure to read them!)
Again, please stop by our forums to give a big thanks to RougePlanetoid for all his work!
Site Design Copyright 2008 Johnny M.D. Westlake.
Certain design elements based on those used in the official Zune software, no
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Yes, you heard it right! Finally the News has been slipped around 
