Zune 2.0 and flash Zune coming this year?
Old-school Zunes
(Credit: Microsoft)Christmas came early today for the folks at Zune Scene--at least, if their story is true. According to the blog, a chance meeting between the undercover blogger and a Microsoft employee yielded some golden nuggets of Zune news:
Zune 2.0 coming this year. The hard drive player will be thinner with more capacity, but still with the double-shot finish (probably in a number of colors). Parts will be made at a new plant in China, implying that Microsoft won't be buying the player from Toshiba this time around.
Flash Zune coming, too. According to the report, the smaller (also double-shot) flash player will measure "3 by 1 1/4 by 1/4 inches," chock-full, top to bottom, with the flash memory. Supposedly, this leaves some room for a Wi-Fi antenna and a long, video-capable screen.
All of this sounds mighty alluring--especially the promise of a Wi-Fi-and-video-ready flash player. But the proof lies in the firmware. Unless Microsoft expands the Zune's Wi-Fi capabilities beyond the weirdly stingy Zune-to-Zune "social" world, no amount of double-shot finish will stand up to Sandisk's Sansa Connect.
Oh yeah, and no word on the Zune phone. Yet.
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Lindsey Turrentine is an executive editor at CNET. 
will be so far behind the curve on their "innovations", mainly due to the fact that
they need to see what Apple comes out with and then try to (poorly) copy that.
By the time MS puts out Zune 2.0, Apple will be ready to release the next big
thing, and Zune will be behind again.
The good news is that Zune 2.0 will still have the ability to share songs
wirelessly with anyone else that has a Zune. Cool. So, for those 84 people out
there that bought a Zune, you just keep looking for someone else with one.
MS has made billions making me too products, but those were all products that
corporate IT departments could force users to standardize on despite (or
because of - IT job security) their failings. These are music players, and IT can't
help MS here. They're going to have to do a lot better than a me too product,
especially going up against a great product like the iPod with 100 million units
out there.
Seems like ***** envy to me.
Or maybe they're just afraid since zune 2.0 will be a great touch screen wonder without a 600$ price tag adn a 2 year contract.
I look forward to the new Zunes, if this is true these models will definately sell, especially the flash zunes, since the flash ipods die out on you within a year =[
THE POINT?!?! As a reminder, the Zune's wireless doesn't let you connect to the
internet either. It let's you connect to the other losers that bought Zunes. Wow.
Nice work trying to spread the FUD Phenomnaruto. My iPod Nano has been
running strong since I bought it. No probs here. I run with it every day and use
my Nike+ on it. Yeah, that won't work on your Zune either.
I think microsoft needs to just stop. there not really selling very much of these there just trying to win over apple fans and they can't come up with any ideas so they have to switch over to apple to get some and then add some ******* things to it like wifi to send clips of songs over....thats retarded. apple is not scared and shouldn't be : )
But Microsoft has no reason to stop, either. What MSFT needs is a better leader for the Zune group, one who can provide focus for the product. They also need to do FAR BETTER programming when it comes to that awful Zune software.
I never thought I would say this, but my Zune [i]player[/i] has been a very nice device to use, once I laughed off the weak squirting implementation that Redmond chose to do. It sounds better than my 80GB 5.5G, even if it can't do as many things. With vids, the screen is easier on the eyes, even if it's a pain to have to convert everything into a format that the Zune will understand. And when listening to tunes, I use the Zune more than I do the HD iPod, simply because it sounds so much better. Only my 2G 8GB nano gets more use, and that's only because I still prefer flash-based over HD-based (and because it's the best-sounding iPod product, and nearly a good as the Zune in SQ).
If MS makes a better product, thats a good thing. Apples past success means nothing. They have always been behind in features. If you want proof the Archos Gmini 200 came out while the Ipods were in black and white. They never offered subscription music. The current zune interface is arguably better than the ipods. Once MS gets rid of the bulk problem the Zune can compete with the Ipod seriously. Oh yeah, for all of you who say Zune is a failure, its a first generation product. No first generation products are close to perfect.
I just appreciate companies out there competing. I mean, lets face it, only seeing iPods in stores might be boring, so there has to be someone else making a product exactly like (or better) than the product that's best seller in stores.
Give them a chance.
That's what it's all about. Giving everyone chances to make at least something that compares to it brings choices and excitement. I may sound cheesy but its the truth. Anyone else agree?
Yet another yet-to-be-released product, but spec for spec, I'd rather this than the iPhone, Zune 2.0 or any effin' other thing I've heard about!
Second, it is good at what it does... play music. Some people have argued that it
is an inferior product because it has fewer features than the Zune or other
similar products. So what? This is like arguing a Ferrari is an inferior car because
you can't take it the same places as a Jeep or a Hummer. More features does not
always equal better, just different. BTW, in the case of MS so called technical
prowess, is it really good products or are they just throwing features at you to
make up for design deficiency, eg out of MS Office's 100's (or is it 1,000's)
of features, how many do you actually use daily? In your whole life?
I totally agree.
The fact of the matter is that if there isn't any competition in the mp3 industry, then Apple would have a monopoly. And monopoly's are bad since the company can do whatever they want with their, good or bad.
But when there's competition, it eliminates the monpoly, and forces the once-dominant company--Apple in this case--to stay on its toes and to improve it product so as to keep its customers.
When there's competition, we, as customers, get better products at cheaper prices.
- Stop competing with apple and start makin your own
- by c3h899 April 14, 2007 8:49 PM PDT
- The zune is to far behind to compete with apple and as such use the same tech to pack more abilitys. 10 things to do:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- #8 will never happen...
- by DarkHawke April 14, 2007 11:10 PM PDT
- ...the last company that tried that, Real Networks, started a software war that Apple won, keeping their ironically entitled "FairPlay" DRM scheme from interfacing with the Real player (as if anyone REALLY wants to use that virus masquerading as an app!). If the Zune team had truly wanted to make a splash and entice converts from the iPod, they'd have followed through with the rumored plan to comp folks for everything they bought from iTunes with Zune-compatible versions.
- Like this
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(23 Comments)!. Ignore Apple
2. Add stereo Bluetooth
3. MAX out hard drive space
4. Make like a smart phone with a mini-media center
5. Keep Wifi and use it like a remote for Vista
6. Text-to-Speech make it a RSS Feed Reader
7. come standerd with a TV Dock of some sort
8. Be compatible with iTunes and its DRM
9. Loose the Zune software use WMP 11
10. When in doubt increse the battery size
As far as most of your other points, have you seen this story?: http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9706582-1.html Sounds like it'll do the job!