Microsoft Launches the Zune

Doug-W writes to mention an Engadget post about Microsoft's launch of the Zune. From the article: "Not a lot of surprises in the specs department, but they've confirmed the basics we've known for a while, like WiFi, 30GB of HDD, built-in FM, a 3-inch screen and the basic music, pictures and video playback. They also finally let slip the screen res -- an unsurprising QVGA -- and some better news on the codec front: the Zune supports h.264, MP3, AAC and WMA. As for ballyhoo, wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing is where the real action is at, and it works pretty much like we've been hearing: you can share a full-length track with a friend, and they've got three times to listen to it over a three day period, after which they can flag the song for purchase on the Zune Marketplace -- unless they're an unlimited 'Zune Pass' subscriber, of course."

Comments

Re:The imporant question at M$

[flooey]

That, and the iPod is grossly overpriced. MS doesn't have a history of overpricing their consumer products, although Apple does. As long as it's reasonably priced, I'm getting one.

The rumored price is $300 for the 30 GB version. The 30 GB iPod is $250. So, pretty much, same pricing strategy.

Re:Box art?

[davron05]

This video also came to my mind and I was very suprised when I have seen how Zune's box will look like. I thought "man, Microsoft finally learned something". The box looks very stylish to me.

Re:is it enough?

[Josh Coalson]

Somebody should mod that "interesting". I've been wondering for years why there aren't any hardware players that support Flac or OGG.

Who told you that? There are plenty:

FLAC players

Vorbis players