Microsoft has finally refreshed it new Zune music players, with a new flash based players (think iPod Nano) and plenty of stylish most welcome new features and additions, and a great support for the first gen Zunes (now known as Zune 30), as all of the features is available via software update, Plus they added Wifi syncing, that one thing the all mighty iPod still can't do. at least for now.
Hard drive Zunes
- It's called the Zune 80 and, shockingly enough, it has 80GB of storage.
- Uses the new Zune Pad -- four way touch-sensitive d-pad (with up, down, left, and right buttons).
- It will sell for $250 (with "premium" headphones).
- Available only in black (to start).
- Screen size has increased to 3.2-inches (from 3-inches). As far as we know the resolution is still QVGA.
- Dimensions are 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9mm (2.4 x 4.25 x 0.5-inches), some 1/3rd smaller than the classic Zune.
- The classic Zune will now be known as the Zune 30 -- it's not going anywhere. More on that in a sec.
- Zune 8 and Zune 4 are the names for the 8 and 4GB flash based models.
- Also uses the Zune Pad.
- These will sell for $200 and $150 respectively.
- Both will be available in pink, green, black, and red.
- It will feature a 1.8-inch screen (compare to the nano's 2-inch screen).
- Dimensions are 41.4 x 91.5 x 8.5mm (1.6 x 3.6 x 0.33-inches) -- compare to the new iPod nano, at 69.8 x 52.3 x 6.5mm (2.75 x 2.0 x 0.26-inches).
- New Zunes ship in November, date not yet announced.
- All Zunes (including the Zune 30) will have a new, redesigned interface and feature parity. In other words, early Zune 30 adopters will have all the same software features as new Zune 80, 8, and 4 users.
- Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 -- users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.
- Zune can FINALLY sync video from your Media Center PC! Jeez, took you friggin long enough, guys!
- WiFi sync to host computer! Includes moving over music, movies, photos, podcasts, etc.
- Podcast support! (Sorry, no over the air downloads -- sync only.) Podcasts can also be shared via WiFi.
- The 3x3 song sharing DRM has had its three day restriction removed, but users can still only play files three times.
- There is still NO wireless music store.
- The Zune software is all new and rewritten, and is supposed to actually be more than a rebadge of WMP10 now. Friggin finally.
- The Zune music store is going DRM-free, with over 1m MP3 tracks being made available for download. Other details (like which labels, whether there is a DRM-free upgrade path is for users who've bought music with DRM, price differences, etc.) are not yet revealed.
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