Microsoft

After a few hours on Tuesday of playing with the Zune HD that Microsoft sent me, I found a lot of things I like about it--the slim size, the Quickplay user interface feature that gives you immediate access to recently added and favorite songs, the big on-screen volume controls, and the Zune Pass, for example. But the Web browser seems like an afterthought.

CNET's Donald Bell had better luck with the on-screen keyboard than I did.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET)

I know that mobile Web browsing isn't the same as PC browsing, but I've used Safari on the iPhone for more than a year, and it's great--I actually read articles, for work and fun, on my bus commute to work. It's so good, I've been taking it for granted. Not anymore.

Microsoft says the Zune HD's browser is based on the mobile version of Internet Explorer, but it doesn't look like any version of IE I've ever seen. The address bar is hidden--you have to pull up on the gray bar at the bottom of the screen to get to it. The other alternative is to click on a small magnifying glass to conduct a search on the mobile version of Bing, which I found difficult to use. (No slam against the full browser-based version of Microsoft's search engine, which I like.) For instance, when I conduct a search on my employer's name, "Directions on Microsoft," Bing Mobile assumes I want news stories that cite the company, when in fact I just want our home page. There's a link on the Bing Mobile site that says "web," which I assume is supposed bring me general search results from around the Web, but when I clicked it repeatedly, nothing happened. There's also no auto-suggest or auto-complete for search queries--each time you want to search for "Chinese restaurants," you have to type the whole query in.

Regardless of how you're trying to navigate, the on-screen keyboard seems to require more finger accuracy than the fault-tolerant keyboard on the iPhone (probably because of the smaller screen). The back button is hard to hit--I kept selecting the favorites menu by mistake. Sites are also considerably slower to load, and the resolution doesn't seem to be nearly as good as the iPhone or iPod Touch, with a noticeable flicker on pages with white backgrounds.

Maybe it's just me--Donald Bell thought the browser was great--but I can't imagine using this browser for any length of time.

Microsoft is making a selling point of the fact that the new Zune HD and associated software update are optimized for Windows 7, which is due out on October 22. I've got a copy of the final release code of Windows 7 on my work PC, and there is some useful synchronization between the two. For instance, the Quickplay menu in the Zune software--which lets you get immediately to music you've recently added, your Smart DJ stations, and any other favorites you want to "pin" to the list--is propagated into the Windows 7 Start menu. So even if you don't have the Zune software open, you can simply navigate to the Zune icon in the Start menu and all your Quickplay selections will show up.

The Zune software adds Quickplay selections to the Windows 7 Start menu.

Of course, Microsoft's had access to final Windows 7 code for a long time. But what about Apple? The company kindly sent me a new-model iPod Touch and Nano to test out, and I noticed that the boxes say they're compatible with Windows XP and Vista (and Mac OS X 10.4.11). Windows 7 isn't mentioned. I downloaded and installed iTunes 9 on my Windows 7 PC anyway, and I'm now happily syncing my music library. I haven't noticed any bugs or errors. (Your mileage may vary--this isn't a review, just my personal experience.) But this underscores my general impression of Windows 7 as a solid upgrade to Vista--not a fundamentally new OS, like Vista was to XP. As Microsoft has said, if your apps work with Vista, they'll almost surely work with 7.

Reverse-sync, one of my favorite features of the Zune software.

The more interesting question is how did I get my music library onto my work computer in the first place? Simple--the Zune software has, from the very beginning, had a reverse-sync feature. You simply drag all the songs from the Zune icon to the PC icon, and they go happily traversing your USB cable down into your PC. iTunes has no such reverse-sync, and in fact is pretty strict about only allowing you to sync with one library at a time, although there are plenty of third-party apps that can do it for you.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft will take another swipe at the iPod on Wednesday when it launches the latest version of the Zune media player.

After three years and untold millions spent on the line, Microsoft's hopes of cutting into iPod's big lead are now on the Zune HD, with its 3.3-inch multitouch screen, streaming-music feature, and the ability to playback video, with the help of an HDTV, in 720p. A 16GB Zune HD is available at retailers for $219.99 and a 32GB will cost $289.99.

But at this point in Zune's evolution there's plenty of skepticism that the Zune can close the gap on Apple. A Zune-iPod comparison has for too long resembled a late-round prize fight, the kind where the challenger is cut, swollen-eyed and wobbly legged but refuses to go to the canvas. Zune sales are falling, a top manager has moved on and what's perhaps most worrisome is that the category is becoming passe.

While Apple also tries to kick-start lackluster iPod sales--upgrading Nanos with such features as a video camera and voice recording--CEO Steve Jobs has steered consumer interest away from straight digital music players and into smartphones. Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones over the past two years and seen more than 1.8 billion iPhone applications downloaded.

Nonetheless, this is still Microsoft, one of the biggest technology companies in the world and well known for its patience.

"You can make the argument this is Microsoft's first real shot to getting it right," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. "Remember, the bar doesn't have to be set all that high for them to be successful. Nobody is supposed to unseat iPod...and Microsoft now has a product that they seem to be more confident in."

That confidence may come in part from an upgrade that some have called the best Zune yet. (For more, see CNET's full review of the Zune HD.)

Zune HD features a new OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen and will send high-def video to a HDTV using a new Zune AV dock, sold separately.

"Consumers can buy or rent HD content from the Zune Marketplace," Microsoft said in a statement, "sync that content to a Zune HD and take it with them to play back on a large screen HD TV in the home or on the road."

The 16GB is available in black and the 32GB is available in "platinum" at retail locations. Customers can purchase Zune in red, green, or blue in both capacities from Zuneoriginals.net.

Zune HD will also play games, HD Radio, and offers music-recommendation software, called Smart DJ.

Chris Stephenson, general manager of marketing for Microsoft's Zune music player, is leaving to join Universal Music Group.

Chris Stephenson

(Credit: Microsoft)

Stephenson was one of the people Microsoft tasked in 2006 with trying to cut into Apple's massive lead in music. Despite some early favorable reviews, Zune has so far failed to mount much of a challenge.

Whatever flaws or limitations the Zune did or didn't have, when comparing the music player to the iPod, Microsoft just didn't present enough compelling reasons for owners to switch.

In January, Microsoft reported that Zune sales plunged 54 percent from $185 million in the last quarter of 2007 to $85 million during the same quarter a year later.

Stephenson, whose departure was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is leaving as the Zune team tries to regroup. The company is in the middle of shifting from a device centered business to one that focuses on the portable player as just one of many places where consumers will be able to access the Zune service. Over time, Microsoft said it will be available on a range of devices, including Windows Mobile phones.

Microsoft is getting behind the launch of the latest version of the device, the touch-screen Zune HD, on September 15.

"I think the latest device and software, which we'll be launching soon, are our best to date," Stephenson told CNET News. "Looking at all the blogs and pre-sales, we've got a great year ahead.

"I think we've established a clear entertainment brand for Microsoft," Stephenson continued. "That's a big win. I'm really proud of our achievements. We've never had a consumer brand in music and video, so coupled with Xbox, we've got a compelling entertainment story and an established internal infrastructure to drive it forward."

Stephenson will become chief marketing officer at Interscope Geffen A&M Records, one of Universal's top labels. His last day at Microsoft is September 4 and he begins working for Interscope three days later.

While confirming that the Zune HD now sports an Apps menu, Microsoft is being circumspect on just how extensive the collection of programs it plans to offer for the media player will be.

An eagle-eye user this weekend spotted an Apps menu on some of the devices being demonstrated at Best Buy outlets as part of a preview weekend. Microsoft suggested on Monday that the Apps menu and Zune Marketplace will be home to the types of games found on past Zunes but hedged on whether and when it might offer a broader selection of software.

Microsoft confirms its Zune HD will have an Apps menu, but is being far less clear on just what kinds of Apps it will have.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET)

"Games came pre-loaded on the current version of the device, but we made a decision to take them out of the firmware update and let people choose what games they want to have for themselves--and it made sense to do this via Marketplace," a representative told CNET News. "As before, games are free; the only difference is that people get to choose. Right now, we don't have anything further to say regarding Apps functionality beyond what we've already shared."

Early versions of the device seen by CNET News had a games menu, but the games were similar to the kinds of free games included in the past.

Microsoft suggested that the Apps menu, for the moment, might just be an outlet for such games. However, the company is clearly leaving the door open for much more.

"We have games on the Zune today and those will carry forward to Zune HD, but that's not where we'll necessarily stop," Microsoft said.

The Zune HD is slated to go on sale September 15, though Best Buy and Microsoft are also taking pre-orders for the product. A 16GB version will sell for $219, while a 32GB version is priced at $289.

Microsoft on Thursday confirmed several of the worst kept secrets in the industry, acknowledging the pricing, availability date, and capacities for its upcoming Zune HD.

The black 16GB version of the touch-screen media player will sell for $219.99, while a 32GB version in "platinum" color will cost $289.99. The pricing had already leaked via Best Buy and Amazon, while the September 15 launch date was noted as part of a retailer's display, reported by Gizmodo.

Microsoft will also start taking pre-orders for the device and starting September 15, it will be able to be ordered in five colors from Microsoft's Zuneoriginals.net site, with the option of adding one of 10 engravings by guest artists to the back of the device.

Among the device's features are its OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display, multi-touch Web browser and the ability to send video in 720p to a HDTV (using a dock, sold separately).

Zune HD hands-on photos

Although the prices put the Zune HD well below Apple's current iPod Touch prices for the same capacity, I would expect Apple to revamp its products for the fall, likely offering the iPod Touch at similar prices and capacities, and perhaps borrowing the video camera and other features from the iPhone 3GS.

If you can't wait until September, here's a video I shot during a brief hands-on demo I got in May (or see our slideshow above).

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft has long talked about a vision in which people can buy content like movies just once, and then watch them on a variety of devices. That vision will finally start to become a reality this fall, Microsoft's entertainment unit president told CNET News on Thursday.

The company's Entertainment and Devices unit president Robbie Bach said there won't be one seminal moment when users magically get the ability to take purchased content everywhere. But, starting later this year, some of that notion will start to take hold.

Bach

"I think you are going to see that steadily happen," Bach said in an interview. "It's not going to be a cut-over date...What it is more going to be is a steady pace. You already see us make some things available in multiple places. You will see more of that this fall. You will see more of that next year."

Partly in anticipation of that, Microsoft is rebranding the movie and TV show store on its Xbox 360 to use the same Zune brand as it uses with its PC-based music and movie service. Over time, Microsoft wants Zune content to also show up on mobile phones.

There are two pieces to delivering on that vision: one is the technology, and the other is getting the content owners to offer the needed licensing. In general, it is the latter that is the harder, Bach said.

"All of the things about what you can buy and what you can buy where have less to do with technology and more to do with rights negotiations," Bach said. "We'll steadily make progress on that. It's generally in the best interest of content providers and it's certainly in the best interest of consumers."

On the Windows Mobile business, Bach acknowledged that Microsoft has seen its rivals move at a faster pace.

"If your point is we haven't advanced Windows Mobile as fast as we like, I think the answer is that's true," Bach said. "You are going to see that change."

He noted that Microsoft has shifted a lot of new talent into that part of the business. "We've made a lot of changes on the team in the last 12 months and that is starting to bear fruit."

However, Bach continued to hold off on providing any details on when to expect the version of Windows Mobile beyond the interim version 6.5 update due out on devices later this year.

"My view on these topics is 'talk is cheap'," he said. "The next thing we are going to show people is Windows Mobile 6.5. There's plenty of innovation in the pipeline."

At one point Windows Mobile 7 was expected early this year, but the product has fallen way behind schedule and is now expected some time next year.

Bach, who demonstrated the company's Project Natal motion-sensing technology for a crowd of financial analysts Thursday, said the technology will help the Xbox better appeal to casual gamers and people who don't even think of themselves as gamers. It will also appeal to the hard-core gamer crowd, he said.

"Even the folks who are hard core Halo or Splinter Cell players, they are also going to want to play Natal games," he said.

The company, which first announced that Natal effort at this year's E3 gaming event, has said Natal will be available as an add-on to the Xbox 360 console. However, it hasn't said when it will be available.

"I'm not planning on being any more specific today," he said.

One thing that will be available this fall is the Zune HD, Microsoft's would-be rival to the iPod Touch. Although I had gotten a brief peek at the product in May, I didn't really get to check out the browser. I played with an updated build of the product on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised to see the browser has the kind of pinch zooming that one finds on the iPhone or in Windows 7. On the down side, I didn't see anything to indicate it will have serious gaming abilities.

As part of my chat with Bach, I did a video interview, which I have embedded below.

Microsoft has confirmed that the Nvidia "Tegra" chip is inside the upcoming Zune HD, a big win for Nvidia.

Microsoft Zune HD

This was reported earlier at Engadget and follows reports earlier this week.

"There's been a lot of chatter about us possibly putting the Nvidia Tegra chip in the Zune HD," Matt Akers, software development engineer in test at Microsoft, said in a June 19 podcast. "Well, we're going to go ahead and confirm that. Yes, the Zune HD does have the Tegra chip in it."

He added: "So much better battery life, graphics acceleration. This thing's like a mini laptop in your hand."

Tegra is the first processor Nvidia has built for power-frugal handheld devices, a major departure from the large, power-hungry graphics processors that it sells to the gaming rig and workstation markets.

The system-on-a-chip (SOC) uses less than 0.5 watts of power, an attribute the main Tegra processor inherits from its power-stingy ARM parentage. (And a tiny fraction of the 50-watt-plus ratings of the chipmaker's desktop graphics silicon.) The defining feature of the Tegra SOC, however, is the Nvidia GeForce graphics chip.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said at the company's analyst day on Tuesday that the Tegra processor is expected to account for half of Nvidia's business in a few years.

The rumors about Microsoft and Tegra go back to November. The first round of rumors put Nvidia's Tegra in a Microsoft phone (which some analysts still believe is a possibility).

To date, Tegra has 42 design wins, ranging from media players to smartphones to Netbooks, according to Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit, who spoke during Analyst Day. Out of those 42, about 18 are smartphones, he said. "You'll start to see those show up toward the end of this year."

The Zune HD--due later this year--comes with a 3.3-inch, 16:9 OLED (480x272 resolution) screen. And also includes an HD (high-definition) radio, HD (720p) video out, Wi-Fi, a Web browser (with tap-to-zoom technology), built-in accelerometer, and a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard.

Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed its plans to take on the iPod Touch with a new, touch-screen Zune that will be able to surf the Web, play high-definition movies, and tune in to digital radio.

The Zune HD, which will be available in the U.S. only starting this fall, features an HD Radio tuner as well as an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Microsoft said. It is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen, Microsoft said.

The software maker did not announce pricing or capacity, though it said the device will use flash memory and attempt to take on Apple's high-end iPod models.

"This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch," Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Zune buyers will also be able to play HD content on their TVs via a dock, Microsoft said.

The software maker also said that at next week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles it will announce details on a new Zune-branded video service for the Xbox that will replace the current Xbox Live marketplace for TV and movies. The company didn't announce details or specifically say that content will be playable on both Zunes and the Xbox.

Currently videos purchased via the Xbox can't be played on a Zune, although both stores use a similar back-end infrastructure to serve up content. Over time, Stephenson said the goal is to move toward a world in which content purchased once can be played on a variety of devices.

Microsoft plans to offer the new Zune video service in a number of European markets, in addition to North America.

Microsoft's Zune HD will be released this fall in the U.S. The software maker has not announced pricing or capacity.

(Credit: Microsoft )

As for the Zune HD, Microsoft is doubling down on its bet on a radio tuner as a distinguishing feature. Stephenson noted that the current Zune's FM radio is its second most popular selling point. Adding support for HD Radio, a free over-the-air digital radio technology, represents both a risk and opportunity.