Microsoft unviels ZUNE - Official

[morganpugh84]

I'll consider buying this over an iPod or Meizu if it works with Mac and PC, plays back DivX and allows shared listening of songs I've ripped from my own CD collection with other Zune users. I have way too many DivX files to bother converting them for plane rides...

And, personally, it doesn't look like an iPod. I don't like the shockingly strong black/silver contrast on the White Zune, but I'll survive it if is a 1) thin player 2) has reasonable battery life (replaceable batteries, please?).

It won't do native MPEG4 playback you can almost guarantee that :( Same as with the Xbox 360, which a total waste to limit it to WMV only. What stops me buying a portable media player is that they screw up MPEG4 support and only allow *their* formats and I, like you, cba to transcode everything to WMV.

I doubt it will work with Mac, at least not officially. I am sure a third party tool will enable access though if MS don't.

Sharing unprotected files should be included, I read that it limits bought music to 3 plays in 3 days or something like that. Annoying but obvious this would happen. I hope they don't enforce this limit on all wireless transfers though :-/

From the pictures it doesn't look to thin :(

No word on battery life but I wouldn't hold your breath on user replaceable.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I'm definately an iPod boy i'm afraid - I hate the design of the Zune but I have to hand it Microsoft with regards the UI / display in general - looks lovely, sharp, bright and very stylish.. would certainly love to have a play with one of these but I don't think its for me.

[1WayJonny]

that brown is not what it seems

it looks like brown metallic chamelion paint

its has green and blue as well

same thing for the navy blue

they look like color shifters to me

[+Peewee210 Subscriber¹]

From reading the .doc this does sound impressive. But i don't like the look on the Zune, the UI is very nice.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Thanks, but couldn't you have posted this in one of the many zune threads?

I think the first glmps of the User Interface for Zune, deserves a thread by itself.

[crimsonhead]

wheres aero :D

[Slimy]

It already has one: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=495929

edit: Thanks for merging!

Edited September 14, 2006 by slimy

[Qoogirl]

It won't do native MPEG4 playback you can almost guarantee that :( Same as with the Xbox 360, which a total waste to limit it to WMV only. What stops me buying a portable media player is that they screw up MPEG4 support and only allow *their* formats and I, like you, cba to transcode everything to WMV.

I doubt it will work with Mac, at least not officially. I am sure a third party tool will enable access though if MS don't.

I guess they don't want to discourage people from Windows Media Center/Windows Vista Media Center PCs now?? I just want something that is high quality and a low file size that I can share with different OSm-havin' computers + playback on a handheld device, dangit!

[DomZ]

wow, I never thought I'd say this. But I want one. I want a brown one.

[hagjohn]

looks pretty sweet to me. Then again, I like my Zen Touch.

[.Ark]

My sig says it all. This thing will bomb.

Crappiest Post of the Day™

umm dude... you need to for gods sake stay away from the computer for just a little bit of time and stop making useless posts like this and coming up with crappy signatures like that. You seem to be a big ass Anti-Microsoft guy.. so just stay away from these Microsoft threads and keep your crap to yourself. Thank you ;)

[Digitalx]

I will have to seee them in reality before i judge to get one over an ipod coz its looks thick i already got a cell fone i dont want another brick in my pocket...

[Toxicfume Veteran]

and wher did they or anyone say it was fooling peaple in to thinking it was just like the scroll wheel you can see from the video the guy prsses down and up and stuff to navigate

Uhh. Not the whole world will be watching that video to find out that the round scroll wheel-like thing is actually a prehistorical D-Pad. :rolleyes:

[Fonze]

It won't do native MPEG4 playback you can almost guarantee that :( Same as with the Xbox 360, which a total waste to limit it to WMV only. What stops me buying a portable media player is that they screw up MPEG4 support and only allow *their* formats and I, like you, cba to transcode everything to WMV.

I doubt it will work with Mac, at least not officially. I am sure a third party tool will enable access though if MS don't.

Sharing unprotected files should be included, I read that it limits bought music to 3 plays in 3 days or something like that. Annoying but obvious this would happen. I hope they don't enforce this limit on all wireless transfers though :-/

From the pictures it doesn't look to thin :(

No word on battery life but I wouldn't hold your breath on user replaceable.

as quoted from engadget.com, "the Zune supports h.264, MP3, AAC and WMA".

I'm guessing it will also support WMV, but then again most videos you put on the thing have to be transcoded to fit the lower resolution of a portable player. so the actual file format may not matter at all in the end as long as the encoder that converts the videos is high quality and works with the different types of source video, Divx, Xvid, etd.

[Pajter]

I really hate to admit it, but that looks really, really good! It seems Microsoft is going to deliver a quality product here. Althought they've copied so much things from Apple - especially style regarding - I'll still go with the saying: "It's better to have a good rip, than a bad self-designed product".

[Kane]

I really hate to admit it, but that looks really, really good! It seems Microsoft is going to deliver a quality product here. Althought they've copied so much things from Apple - especially style regarding - I'll still go with the saying: "It's better to have a good rip, than a bad self-designed product".

Post quoted because i've got the same opinion :)

[nhut]

It won't do native MPEG4 playback you can almost guarantee that :( Same as with the Xbox 360, which a total waste to limit it to WMV only. What stops me buying a portable media player is that they screw up MPEG4 support and only allow *their* formats and I, like you, cba to transcode everything to WMV.

"Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264."

From the fact sheet at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presski...ne/default.mspx.

The zune looks good. I like FM radio playback... I just hope it fits in my pocket.

[PyX]

***If you hate Apple/Mac/iPod zealots, don't read the following post.***

The physical thing is butt-ugly. The firmware looks nice, but VERY copied on Apple. I know there aren't 25 ways to do that, but if at least it looked like WMP... but no, it totally looks like an iPod, which looks like that green rectangle on the top of the iTunes windows. One sure thing is that it will be better than my 4G iPod.

[Toology]

***If you hate Apple/Mac/iPod zealots, don't read the following post.***

The physical thing is butt-ugly. The firmware looks nice, but VERY copied on Apple. I know there aren't 25 ways to do that, but if at least it looked like WMP... but no, it totally looks like an iPod, which looks like that green rectangle on the top of the iTunes windows. One sure thing is that it will be better than my 4G iPod.

Why would/should the interface look like WMP? The iPod's interface resembles nothing of iTunes grey interface except for a few Aqua elements. The GUI is very minimalist with the overall scheme being white and transparent. If you browse by album you can see mini album cover art as you scroll, the battery indicator and other information is displayed at the bottom, when playing the album art looks astounding because it uses the screen's size to it's advantage, and you can set a personal wallpaper. How is that anything like an iPod?

[bsommer]

meh...

the ipod still looks more appealing to me :/

if it brought something MAJOR and NEW to the mp3 player picture i may get one but there is nothing breakthrough. I know ipods , i like ipods, therefor i buy ipods... for now :)

[yukycg]

So the Wifi is useless unless I found another Zune user

[superhuman]

I understand Zune wont be PlaysForSure compliant... I wonder if that implies that it wont sync up with Windows Media Player...? If so, it is a sure no-go for me. I surely wont be maintaining two identical media libraries on my PC using two different applications (WMP and "Zune Software").

It is a disaster, if it is true that a MS device will not sync with the media software central to Windows! It will surely make a lot of people go for the simple choice: iPod + iTunes...

no way in hell m$ let this happen. it will work with wmp. are u dreaming?

[AlphaPrime]

I'm very curious to see how many of these actually sell. BTW, is the screen bigger than an iPod's?

Can a mod move this to BPN?

The screen is 0.5" bigger (2.5" VS 3.0").

The GUI looks nice. But brown looks terrible as a colour.

Edited September 14, 2006 by Mojo

[Lee]

Anyone have any ideas of whether the Zune will have a better resolution than iPod?

[.KICK]

I have an iPod but so tempted to buy a Zune