I watched the new videos of the Zune HD on Engadget today and I have to say MS have done a fantastic job. The interface is *very* slick indeed, and the OLED screen is beautiful. Looking at my iPhone with it's many screens of black text on a plain white background does feel rather dated by comparison.
Competition is good, and I think MS may well have produced a better product than the iPod Touch, and at a much fairer price too. The ball is now in Apple's court.
Agreed on all counts.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
Wow. This is the only site I've been on that is criticizing the Zune HD so heavily. The commenters on every other site (including generally Apple-biased engadget) are praising it almost universally. In fairness, let's look a few things that it has going for it:
New features:
* Slick and responsive 3D user interface
* Innovative new features like:
* pinning favorites
* artist bio / related artists / photos
* screen saver
* OLED 16:9 screen (LCD next to OLED looks hideous)
* Playback of high definition video
* Output of high definition video via HDMI
* High performance CPU
* HD radio
* Integration of video store with Xbox 360
A few things carried over from previous models:
* "Twist" user interface (it's great if you haven't used it) makes it easy to get around
* High quality audio output (beats any iPod, hands down)
* User interface is output via video/dock cable so it can be used on a television
* FM radio
* (Likely) free firmware updates with new features for existing and prior models
A few corrections to comments made:
* Microsoft has stated that games and other applications are coming
* The device does play back HD video on the OLED screen
And a few personal criticisms of the device:
* Generally I think touch screen devices make terrible music players. The lack of track navigation and play/pause button makes them difficult (and dangerous) to use while walking/driving. And very difficult to use one-handed.
* With HD video capability, we need a 64GB or larger capacity model.
It still isn't a direct competitor to the iPod Touch, but it's going to be an amazing device in its own right. For those that are not interested in the App Store, the ZHD is going to be a compelling device.
The release of the Zune HD will mean good things for Apple users, though. The competition will force Apple to step up their game with future products, and the price point is going to mean cheaper prices on the iPod Touch in the future as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eksodos
Agreed on all counts.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
And, again, every feature that is being touted makes the Zune HD an amazing competitor for the Nano. All of the UI "innovations" are variants on navigating the original iPod paradigm-- hierarchical lists of media with a couple of extras. Then, of course, there's the big OLED touch screen.
But I still haven't seen anyone explain how the Zune works as a full on palm top computer, which the Touch undeniably is. As I keep saying, if all you need is a PMP, then the Zune looks like a great choice-- but Apple isn't competing with PMPs with the Touch, they're competing with netbooks.
It's almost like the people who are certain that the Zune HD is going to put a fire under Apple's ass have never used a Touch, or never used it for anything other than listening to music and looking a video.
It's possible that MS will release an SDK, offer some native apps, and generally set the HD up for further expansion, but there is absolutely nothing out there that suggests this is the case, and nothing about the UI stuff we've been shown that indicates how that would even work.
Personally, all of this strikes me as being cut from the Vista mold-- a lot of demo video ready UI razzle dazzle that has people getting all light headed from the zoominess, without a lot of actual concern about actual usability. I'm willing to bet the constant zooming in zooming out metaphor that the Zune HD UI appears to make such heavy use of will start to get pretty old pretty fast. UIs aren't action movies; just because people get bored easily doesn't mean that each iteration needs to have even more animation and effects and motion to keep it "fresh."
the Zune does not have enough pixels in its display to playback video in true HD on its own screen. it has to downscale the video to it's screen maximum (lesser) resolution. you're wasting a lot of storage space if you load a true HD file on it unless you will actually play it back on a connected HDTV. otherwise load a file already scaled correctly for its actual display resolution, like iTunes does automatically for the iPhone/Touch.
sorry Zune fans, but dumb PMP's like the Zune (and the iPod Classic) are now obsolete. sure, there will always be some buyers who just want to play stuff back. but the rest of the world now wants apps. apps is where the future is.
as i posted below, because of this, do expect MS to come up with a real PMP + apps product next year in conjunction with WinMobile 7. wait for that if your are a Zune fan.
why the good press? MS hype is always popular in the mainstream. and the ever-elusive "iPod killer" fantasy.
the Pre got great press too. the "iPhone killer" fantasy. but reportedly it has not even sold 1 million yet. an epic flop.
And, again, every feature that is being touted makes the Zune HD an amazing competitor for the Nano. All of the UI "innovations" are variants on navigating the original iPod paradigm-- hierarchical lists of media with a couple of extras. Then, of course, there's the big OLED touch screen.
But I still haven't seen anyone explain how the Zune works as a full on palm top computer, which the Touch undeniably is. As I keep saying, if all you need is a PMP, then the Zune looks like a great choice-- but Apple isn't competing with PMPs with the Touch, they're competing with netbooks.
It's almost like the people who are certain that the Zune HD is going to put a fire under Apple's ass have never used a Touch, or never used it for anything other than listening to music and looking a video.
It's possible that MS will release an SDK, offer some native apps, and generally set the HD up for further expansion, but there is absolutely nothing out there that suggests this is the case, and nothing about the UI stuff we've been shown that indicates how that would even work.
Personally, all of this strikes me as being cut from the Vista mold-- a lot of demo video ready UI razzle dazzle that has people getting all light headed from the zoominess, without a lot of actual concern about actual usability. I'm willing to bet the constant zooming in zooming out metaphor that the Zune HD UI appears to make such heavy use of will start to get pretty old pretty fast. UIs aren't action movies; just because people get bored easily doesn't mean that each iteration needs to have even more animation and effects and motion to keep it "fresh."
I own two 16GB iPod Touches (1G & 2G), and they are NOT a substitute for a netbook or other small computer. Not even close. No multi-tasking, no keyboard, small screen, small amount of storage, no connectivity for external devices... shall I go on? Just try to connect your digital camera to an iPod Touch to transfer pictures... As much as you might like them to be, the iPod Touch and iPhones are not general purpose computers.
The only way the Zune HD might be a competitor to the Nano is the fact that they are small flash memory devices. Oh, and there is only a $30 difference between 16GB players. Without a touch screen or wireless connectivity, and its tiny screen and relatively limited file format support, the Nano is an entirely different class of device targeted at a different market. Comparing with the iPod Touch, however, the only real difference is the App Store. The Zune does support third party software, there is just no "Zune app store," at least for now.
There is already an SDK for the Zune. It has been available for coming up on two years. The entire development environment is FREE, and available for download by anyone. It will have to be updated for new features of the Zune HD, but to say that there is no SDK is just wrong.
the current Zune apps, like the current "thousands" of WinMobile 6.x apps, are just too primitive to be compared with iPhone/Touch apps. they are designed for the current WinMo/CE OS generation that is several years old now, and plainly out of date. the app industry is waiting for WinMo 7.
no matter how one tries to spin it, the 2009 Zune HD is obsolete before it even goes on sale. old tech inside a new OLED shell. or, if you want to be nice, a half step, now with touch screen UI, to the much more serious 2010 product to come. but to buy one, that is sucker bait.
the Zune does not have enough pixels in its display to playback video in true HD on its own screen. it has to downscale the video to it's screen maximum (lesser) resolution. you're wasting a lot of storage space if you load a true HD file on it unless you will actually play it back on a connected HDTV.
You didn't know that playback on an HD screen was the entire point of the HD moniker? It seems like you're repeating what is already well known.
I own two 16GB iPod Touches (1G & 2G), and they are NOT a substitute for a netbook or other small computer. Not even close. No multi-tasking, no keyboard, small screen, small amount of storage, no connectivity for external devices... shall I go on? Just try to connect your digital camera to an iPod Touch to transfer pictures... As much as you might like them to be, the iPod Touch and iPhones are not general purpose computers.
The only way the Zune HD might be a competitor to the Nano is the fact that they are small flash memory devices. Oh, and there is only a $30 difference between 16GB players. Without a touch screen or wireless connectivity, and its tiny screen and relatively limited file format support, the Nano is an entirely different class of device targeted at a different market. Comparing with the iPod Touch, however, the only real difference is the App Store. The Zune does support third party software, there is just no "Zune app store," at least for now.
There is already an SDK for the Zune. It has been available for coming up on two years. The entire development environment is FREE, and available for download by anyone. It will have to be updated for new features of the Zune HD, but to say that there is no SDK is just wrong.
Of course there are form factor limitations that make the Touch, for some tasks, a poor substitute for a full fledged computer.
But it most certainly is a general purpose computing device, in that it runs a full on OS within which run a vast array of general purpose applications. Niceties of IO or convenience aside, the Touch is the equal of desktop computer from just a few years ago, in terms of hardware grunt and software sophistication.
While the Nano, of course, is a much smaller device than the Zune HD will be (and lacks a web browser), I make the comparison because, like the Nano, the HD appears to be primarily a media playback device. Just because the Nano lacks a touch screen or wireless connectivity doesn't change that-- the Zune, as has been so far revealed, pretty much does what the Nano does-- just with a bigger screen, a touch UI and wireless. So I can listen to music, look at photos, watch a video: on the Zune those things are perhaps more convenient or prettier, but they are still the same tasks.
The Touch is an entirely different order of device. Saying the Zune simply lacks an App Store "for now", as if that were something MS can just order up when they get around to it, sort of misses the point.
And blithely asserting that the existing Zune SDK just has to be updated for "new features", as if the basic, scroll through lists and select things with a pad UI were somehow just a more basic version of a Touch level OS suggests you're not really thinking this through. You might as well claim that Apple just had to update the iPod classic OS to create the iPhone.
The screen is not HD, but it does play HD videos on the built-in screen. That's the point.
No, it doesn't. It does the same thing that Apple's video iPods do, it plays a rezzed down version on it's own screen.
While that may seem to be a semantic difference, it's still correct.
By the way, there is a way to bypass Apple's built-in block to recording and playing 720p video on the 3GS. I've seen some results on the net, and it looks pretty good.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
the current Zune apps, like the current "thousands" of WinMobile 6.x apps, are just too primitive to be compared with iPhone/Touch apps. they are designed for the current WinMo/CE OS generation that is several years old now, and plainly out of date. the app industry is waiting for WinMo 7.
no matter how one tries to spin it, the 2009 Zune HD is obsolete before it even goes on sale. old tech inside a new OLED shell. or, if you want to be nice, a half step, now with touch screen UI, to the much more serious 2010 product to come. but to buy one, that is sucker bait.
I personally think that the Zune's OS is clunky and looks outdated. I'll never get a Zune since I made the switch to Apple 3 years ago.. The first iPhone made me attracted to Apple..
No, it doesn't. It does the same thing that Apple's video iPods do, it plays a rezzed down version on it's own screen.
While that may seem to be a semantic difference, it's still correct.
By the way, there is a way to bypass Apple's built-in block to recording and playing 720p video on the 3GS. I've seen some results on the net, and it looks pretty good.
I wonder if they will enable 720p video for the next iPhone..
I think this is very much a "hey look over here everybody" product...
Sure, it looks slick, but nothing that really defines innovation from Microsoft. It's a response, which right now, is really all they seem to be stuck doing, and never firing the first salvo.
The reason this is a "look over here" product is that they really are at an impasse when it comes to Windows Mobile. It can't keep running on CE forever, and I think they know it. How can they take this very graphical interface and actually make it work for an application, for example..
When Apple developed the iPhone, every user interface control was developed with clear purpose and logical thought, and it's clear to see how this has been used in the SDK / Interface Builder / HIGs etc, when developers are designing apps...
I just can't see how MS can give the same user experience while stuck in this rut...
While the Nano, of course, is a much smaller device than the Zune HD will be (and lacks a web browser), I make the comparison because, like the Nano, the HD appears to be primarily a media playback device. Just because the Nano lacks a touch screen or wireless connectivity doesn't change that-- the Zune, as has been so far revealed, pretty much does what the Nano does-- just with a bigger screen, a touch UI and wireless. So I can listen to music, look at photos, watch a video: on the Zune those things are perhaps more convenient or prettier, but they are still the same tasks.
Don't forgot one massive difference between the Zune and the Nano - you can browse the web on the Zune. That firmly puts it in the same league as the iPod Touch.
Don't forgot one massive difference between the Zune and the Nano - you can browse the web on the Zune. That firmly puts it in the same league as the iPod Touch.
I disagree that a single additional app puts the Zune in the same league.
For instance, Apple could add browser to the Nano without doing much of anything else to the UI-- just another item on the media list. Obviously they would have to beef up the processor, etc., but that's a difference of degree not kind.
A device like the Touch is more than hardware specs and features. It's the integration of the OS, UI, SDK, apps, and the specific interaction between all of those things, as well as the more general hardware/software ecosystem.
Until the Zune HD demonstrates some sophistication regarding those things, beyond its current presentation as a media player/browser, I will continue to insist that it doesn't really compete with the Touch.
I disagree that a single additional app puts the Zune in the same league.
For instance, Apple could add browser to the Nano without doing much of anything else to the UI-- just another item on the media list. Obviously they would have to beef up the processor, etc., but that's a difference of degree not kind.
A device like the Touch is more than hardware specs and features. It's the integration of the OS, UI, SDK, apps, and the specific interaction between all of those things, as well as the more general hardware/software ecosystem.
Until the Zune HD demonstrates some sophistication regarding those things, beyond its current presentation as a media player/browser, I will continue to insist that it doesn't really compete with the Touch.
How would you control and type in said Nano browser? And what about Touches without OS 2.0 and newer? Are they no different to the Nano?
Comments
I watched the new videos of the Zune HD on Engadget today and I have to say MS have done a fantastic job. The interface is *very* slick indeed, and the OLED screen is beautiful. Looking at my iPhone with it's many screens of black text on a plain white background does feel rather dated by comparison.
Competition is good, and I think MS may well have produced a better product than the iPod Touch, and at a much fairer price too. The ball is now in Apple's court.
Agreed on all counts.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
Wow. This is the only site I've been on that is criticizing the Zune HD so heavily. The commenters on every other site (including generally Apple-biased engadget) are praising it almost universally. In fairness, let's look a few things that it has going for it:
New features:
* Slick and responsive 3D user interface
* Innovative new features like:
* pinning favorites
* artist bio / related artists / photos
* screen saver
* OLED 16:9 screen (LCD next to OLED looks hideous)
* Playback of high definition video
* Output of high definition video via HDMI
* High performance CPU
* HD radio
* Integration of video store with Xbox 360
A few things carried over from previous models:
* "Twist" user interface (it's great if you haven't used it) makes it easy to get around
* High quality audio output (beats any iPod, hands down)
* User interface is output via video/dock cable so it can be used on a television
* FM radio
* (Likely) free firmware updates with new features for existing and prior models
A few corrections to comments made:
* Microsoft has stated that games and other applications are coming
* The device does play back HD video on the OLED screen
And a few personal criticisms of the device:
* Generally I think touch screen devices make terrible music players. The lack of track navigation and play/pause button makes them difficult (and dangerous) to use while walking/driving. And very difficult to use one-handed.
* With HD video capability, we need a 64GB or larger capacity model.
It still isn't a direct competitor to the iPod Touch, but it's going to be an amazing device in its own right. For those that are not interested in the App Store, the ZHD is going to be a compelling device.
The release of the Zune HD will mean good things for Apple users, though. The competition will force Apple to step up their game with future products, and the price point is going to mean cheaper prices on the iPod Touch in the future as well.
Agreed on all counts.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
And, again, every feature that is being touted makes the Zune HD an amazing competitor for the Nano. All of the UI "innovations" are variants on navigating the original iPod paradigm-- hierarchical lists of media with a couple of extras. Then, of course, there's the big OLED touch screen.
But I still haven't seen anyone explain how the Zune works as a full on palm top computer, which the Touch undeniably is. As I keep saying, if all you need is a PMP, then the Zune looks like a great choice-- but Apple isn't competing with PMPs with the Touch, they're competing with netbooks.
It's almost like the people who are certain that the Zune HD is going to put a fire under Apple's ass have never used a Touch, or never used it for anything other than listening to music and looking a video.
It's possible that MS will release an SDK, offer some native apps, and generally set the HD up for further expansion, but there is absolutely nothing out there that suggests this is the case, and nothing about the UI stuff we've been shown that indicates how that would even work.
Personally, all of this strikes me as being cut from the Vista mold-- a lot of demo video ready UI razzle dazzle that has people getting all light headed from the zoominess, without a lot of actual concern about actual usability. I'm willing to bet the constant zooming in zooming out metaphor that the Zune HD UI appears to make such heavy use of will start to get pretty old pretty fast. UIs aren't action movies; just because people get bored easily doesn't mean that each iteration needs to have even more animation and effects and motion to keep it "fresh."
as i posted below, because of this, do expect MS to come up with a real PMP + apps product next year in conjunction with WinMobile 7. wait for that if your are a Zune fan.
why the good press? MS hype is always popular in the mainstream. and the ever-elusive "iPod killer" fantasy.
the Pre got great press too. the "iPhone killer" fantasy. but reportedly it has not even sold 1 million yet. an epic flop.
And, again, every feature that is being touted makes the Zune HD an amazing competitor for the Nano. All of the UI "innovations" are variants on navigating the original iPod paradigm-- hierarchical lists of media with a couple of extras. Then, of course, there's the big OLED touch screen.
But I still haven't seen anyone explain how the Zune works as a full on palm top computer, which the Touch undeniably is. As I keep saying, if all you need is a PMP, then the Zune looks like a great choice-- but Apple isn't competing with PMPs with the Touch, they're competing with netbooks.
It's almost like the people who are certain that the Zune HD is going to put a fire under Apple's ass have never used a Touch, or never used it for anything other than listening to music and looking a video.
It's possible that MS will release an SDK, offer some native apps, and generally set the HD up for further expansion, but there is absolutely nothing out there that suggests this is the case, and nothing about the UI stuff we've been shown that indicates how that would even work.
Personally, all of this strikes me as being cut from the Vista mold-- a lot of demo video ready UI razzle dazzle that has people getting all light headed from the zoominess, without a lot of actual concern about actual usability. I'm willing to bet the constant zooming in zooming out metaphor that the Zune HD UI appears to make such heavy use of will start to get pretty old pretty fast. UIs aren't action movies; just because people get bored easily doesn't mean that each iteration needs to have even more animation and effects and motion to keep it "fresh."
I own two 16GB iPod Touches (1G & 2G), and they are NOT a substitute for a netbook or other small computer. Not even close. No multi-tasking, no keyboard, small screen, small amount of storage, no connectivity for external devices... shall I go on? Just try to connect your digital camera to an iPod Touch to transfer pictures... As much as you might like them to be, the iPod Touch and iPhones are not general purpose computers.
The only way the Zune HD might be a competitor to the Nano is the fact that they are small flash memory devices. Oh, and there is only a $30 difference between 16GB players. Without a touch screen or wireless connectivity, and its tiny screen and relatively limited file format support, the Nano is an entirely different class of device targeted at a different market. Comparing with the iPod Touch, however, the only real difference is the App Store. The Zune does support third party software, there is just no "Zune app store," at least for now.
There is already an SDK for the Zune. It has been available for coming up on two years. The entire development environment is FREE, and available for download by anyone. It will have to be updated for new features of the Zune HD, but to say that there is no SDK is just wrong.
no matter how one tries to spin it, the 2009 Zune HD is obsolete before it even goes on sale. old tech inside a new OLED shell. or, if you want to be nice, a half step, now with touch screen UI, to the much more serious 2010 product to come. but to buy one, that is sucker bait.
the Zune does not have enough pixels in its display to playback video in true HD on its own screen. it has to downscale the video to it's screen maximum (lesser) resolution. you're wasting a lot of storage space if you load a true HD file on it unless you will actually play it back on a connected HDTV.
You didn't know that playback on an HD screen was the entire point of the HD moniker? It seems like you're repeating what is already well known.
I own two 16GB iPod Touches (1G & 2G), and they are NOT a substitute for a netbook or other small computer. Not even close. No multi-tasking, no keyboard, small screen, small amount of storage, no connectivity for external devices... shall I go on? Just try to connect your digital camera to an iPod Touch to transfer pictures... As much as you might like them to be, the iPod Touch and iPhones are not general purpose computers.
The only way the Zune HD might be a competitor to the Nano is the fact that they are small flash memory devices. Oh, and there is only a $30 difference between 16GB players. Without a touch screen or wireless connectivity, and its tiny screen and relatively limited file format support, the Nano is an entirely different class of device targeted at a different market. Comparing with the iPod Touch, however, the only real difference is the App Store. The Zune does support third party software, there is just no "Zune app store," at least for now.
There is already an SDK for the Zune. It has been available for coming up on two years. The entire development environment is FREE, and available for download by anyone. It will have to be updated for new features of the Zune HD, but to say that there is no SDK is just wrong.
Of course there are form factor limitations that make the Touch, for some tasks, a poor substitute for a full fledged computer.
But it most certainly is a general purpose computing device, in that it runs a full on OS within which run a vast array of general purpose applications. Niceties of IO or convenience aside, the Touch is the equal of desktop computer from just a few years ago, in terms of hardware grunt and software sophistication.
While the Nano, of course, is a much smaller device than the Zune HD will be (and lacks a web browser), I make the comparison because, like the Nano, the HD appears to be primarily a media playback device. Just because the Nano lacks a touch screen or wireless connectivity doesn't change that-- the Zune, as has been so far revealed, pretty much does what the Nano does-- just with a bigger screen, a touch UI and wireless. So I can listen to music, look at photos, watch a video: on the Zune those things are perhaps more convenient or prettier, but they are still the same tasks.
The Touch is an entirely different order of device. Saying the Zune simply lacks an App Store "for now", as if that were something MS can just order up when they get around to it, sort of misses the point.
And blithely asserting that the existing Zune SDK just has to be updated for "new features", as if the basic, scroll through lists and select things with a pad UI were somehow just a more basic version of a Touch level OS suggests you're not really thinking this through. You might as well claim that Apple just had to update the iPod classic OS to create the iPhone.
You didn't know that playback on an HD screen was the entire point of the HD moniker? It seems like you're repeating what is already well known.
tell djdj who wrote just below: "The device does play back HD video on the OLED screen". which it does not.
tell djdj who wrote just below: "The device does play back HD video on the OLED screen". which it does not.
The screen is not HD, but it does play HD videos on the built-in screen. That's the point.
The screen is not HD, but it does play HD videos on the built-in screen. That's the point.
No, it doesn't. It does the same thing that Apple's video iPods do, it plays a rezzed down version on it's own screen.
While that may seem to be a semantic difference, it's still correct.
By the way, there is a way to bypass Apple's built-in block to recording and playing 720p video on the 3GS. I've seen some results on the net, and it looks pretty good.
Agreed on all counts.
I'm an Apple fan boy, but I'm definitely going to buy me a 32gb Zune HD. Microsoft has done a great job with this device and, coupled with their excellent music subscription service, this is a very appealing product for music lovers. The UI looks slick and totally gorgeous. The Zune software has improved by a magnitude of 100 too, which was necessary after the initial revisions bundled with early gen models.
Microsoft keeps hitting them out of the park atm.... Is it any coincidence that this is all happening after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day role at the company?
Good luck then..
the current Zune apps, like the current "thousands" of WinMobile 6.x apps, are just too primitive to be compared with iPhone/Touch apps. they are designed for the current WinMo/CE OS generation that is several years old now, and plainly out of date. the app industry is waiting for WinMo 7.
no matter how one tries to spin it, the 2009 Zune HD is obsolete before it even goes on sale. old tech inside a new OLED shell. or, if you want to be nice, a half step, now with touch screen UI, to the much more serious 2010 product to come. but to buy one, that is sucker bait.
I personally think that the Zune's OS is clunky and looks outdated. I'll never get a Zune since I made the switch to Apple 3 years ago.. The first iPhone made me attracted to Apple..
The screen is not HD, but it does play HD videos on the built-in screen. That's the point.
No it does not..
No, it doesn't. It does the same thing that Apple's video iPods do, it plays a rezzed down version on it's own screen.
While that may seem to be a semantic difference, it's still correct.
By the way, there is a way to bypass Apple's built-in block to recording and playing 720p video on the 3GS. I've seen some results on the net, and it looks pretty good.
I wonder if they will enable 720p video for the next iPhone..
Sure, it looks slick, but nothing that really defines innovation from Microsoft. It's a response, which right now, is really all they seem to be stuck doing, and never firing the first salvo.
The reason this is a "look over here" product is that they really are at an impasse when it comes to Windows Mobile. It can't keep running on CE forever, and I think they know it. How can they take this very graphical interface and actually make it work for an application, for example..
When Apple developed the iPhone, every user interface control was developed with clear purpose and logical thought, and it's clear to see how this has been used in the SDK / Interface Builder / HIGs etc, when developers are designing apps...
I just can't see how MS can give the same user experience while stuck in this rut...
I wonder if they will enable 720p video for the next iPhone..
I don't know why they didn't do it this time.
While the Nano, of course, is a much smaller device than the Zune HD will be (and lacks a web browser), I make the comparison because, like the Nano, the HD appears to be primarily a media playback device. Just because the Nano lacks a touch screen or wireless connectivity doesn't change that-- the Zune, as has been so far revealed, pretty much does what the Nano does-- just with a bigger screen, a touch UI and wireless. So I can listen to music, look at photos, watch a video: on the Zune those things are perhaps more convenient or prettier, but they are still the same tasks.
Don't forgot one massive difference between the Zune and the Nano - you can browse the web on the Zune. That firmly puts it in the same league as the iPod Touch.
Don't forgot one massive difference between the Zune and the Nano - you can browse the web on the Zune. That firmly puts it in the same league as the iPod Touch.
I disagree that a single additional app puts the Zune in the same league.
For instance, Apple could add browser to the Nano without doing much of anything else to the UI-- just another item on the media list. Obviously they would have to beef up the processor, etc., but that's a difference of degree not kind.
A device like the Touch is more than hardware specs and features. It's the integration of the OS, UI, SDK, apps, and the specific interaction between all of those things, as well as the more general hardware/software ecosystem.
Until the Zune HD demonstrates some sophistication regarding those things, beyond its current presentation as a media player/browser, I will continue to insist that it doesn't really compete with the Touch.
I disagree that a single additional app puts the Zune in the same league.
For instance, Apple could add browser to the Nano without doing much of anything else to the UI-- just another item on the media list. Obviously they would have to beef up the processor, etc., but that's a difference of degree not kind.
A device like the Touch is more than hardware specs and features. It's the integration of the OS, UI, SDK, apps, and the specific interaction between all of those things, as well as the more general hardware/software ecosystem.
Until the Zune HD demonstrates some sophistication regarding those things, beyond its current presentation as a media player/browser, I will continue to insist that it doesn't really compete with the Touch.
How would you control and type in said Nano browser? And what about Touches without OS 2.0 and newer? Are they no different to the Nano?