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Next Generation Zune Coming for Holiday Season
thefickler writes "Microsoft has confirmed the existence and coming launch of the long rumored Zune 2.0 or 2nd generation Zune, and it appears that Microsoft will expand the Zune family with new styles, sizes, and price points. 'Future Zune products will feature podcasting support and expanded video support. The Zune will also move into other geographic markets when Microsoft feels it has an appealing product to offer those demographics. Perhaps most importantly of all, the representative mentioned that Microsoft will build on the wireless support. Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi. The rep didn't mention anything specific about Microsoft's rumored answer to the iPod Shuffle. But interesting rumors from sources considered "reliable" point to a very innovative product.'"
When in doubt, spend.
(also applies to politics)
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
They should use The Who's "We Won't Get Fooled Again" for their ad campaign in a form of irony.
I mean, is anyone really going to buy Zune 2.0? After all, it didn't work with the DRM scheme standard Microsoft was pushing, is inferior in every way compared to Apple's iPod, and was a flop in the marketplace, especially when compared to its competitors such as the iPod.
tagged "playsforsurenot"
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I think I just heard the zune customer base may jump from 5 users to 6 this holiday season. Confirmed?
I did my own comparison of the Zune with the Ipod last Christmas, when those two items were pretty much what everyone was buying, and I decided the Zune was better. Bigger screen, less cost.... that about sums it up for me, although I have the Ipod video, I never use it. Seems the only advantage it has is styling, although that's a light point IMO.
rumors from sources considered "reliable" point to a very innovative product
GAAA! Don't do that! I just laughed milk through my nose.
Innovation and Microsoft... too funny.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
a very innovative product.
As compared to what...? Vista?
Evolution is a state-sponsored, state-protected religion.
I just purchased the Halo 3 Zune, and have an appointment next week to get my car set up with an AUX input solution (Porsche's stupid MOST bus Becker head units don't have AUX inputs available as standard or an option). So of course they have to announce Zune 2.0 coming "before holiday season", which most likely means "August".
Hopefully the Zune 2.0 firmware will be pushed to current Zunes.
"It's the second generation Zune, taking failure to a whole new level!"
It will probably be incompatible with music from the 1G Zune, and won't work with Vista. In other words, nothing new here.
blah blah blah
to let apple be basically a generation ahead in the OS and portable electronics markets?
Kind of lame that this is the best an admitted member of the "anti-Apple DAP crowd" can come up with for an article of nearly pure speculation. Creative and Archos look like they have better iPod killer offerings than Microsoft.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
I hope they revamp their wireless sharing system so people can play the music as it streams in; it seems silly to not have that feature.
Though I doubt Microsoft would drop their stupid DRM system, which is why I still wouldn't buy one...
will be maintained with all new colors, "Beach Brown" being replaced by "Cranberry Mauve". Hug it! Hug your Zune!
You must be new here. WMF is, if anything, the anti-mac fanboy.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
Now!! With twice the squirt!!!
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
How do you improve upon brown? WIll it be puke green? Or puke orange?
attempting to copy an existing product, can never be considered innovative
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
"Life is working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need" -Tyler Durden I hope you're as enlightened as I am.
The game.
As long as the Zune's marketed by Microsoft and the iPod's marketed by Apple, the Zune is doomed because, let's face it, Apple's good at marketing, and Microsoft's good at forcing stuff down consumer's throats.
I'm still baffled as to why anyone would *want* to sync their mp3 player over wifi, given that you have to plug it in to charge it anyway.
Until they get wireless power into mp3 players, wireless syncing seems like a somewhat pointless feature, to be included for buzzword-compliance only.
And there are so many more interesting things you could do with wifi on an mp3 player too...
A relatively uncrippled pull-based local ad-hoc network (like iTunes sharing as opposed to Zune's heavily crippled push "squirting") would be an obvious win.
And net radio access would be nice as well.
Buying songs online could even work with a good enough interface (I doubt either current Zunes or iPods could make it a really enjoyable experience due to the limits of their controls, but the iPhone would do nicely.)
And that's not even mentioning more general-computing non-music tasks like web browsing and such...
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
Hm. Well, if the _new_ one is coming out, why bother buying the old one, right? New one will be way better.
It's not like Apple could ever compete with a wireless iPod.
I always buy stuff right before the new product lines get announced.
*no, slashdot is not this market. I know.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
...support any of Vorbis, FLAC, or Speex. Is nobody else worried about that?
That's Steve Jobs secret sig. You didn't know? *waves to Steve, nice black polo you got there, bub!*
Horns are really just a broken halo.
But will it have rounded corners and gay colors?? ohh wait !!
Slashdot ya no es que lo era!
no.
The game.
So when can I buy a 2G Hide-a-Pod?
Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi.
If the pigopolists would just leave device makers alone, we'd already have such an obvious feature. Instead they pull stunts like this to limit device features and user choice. If M$ is first to market with a wifi enabled music player it can only be because of market manipulation like the above.
They won't really be first, though. Zaurus and other PDAs have had both free music players and wifi for years.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'm no fanboi. I'll give the Zune a chance when MS offers something that is better than the iPod. I'm not looking for something as good as the iPod or an iPod with BIGGER features. How about some real innovations like: -more HD space is always nice, how about beating Apple with a 100GB or 120GB Zune? :)
-intelligent shuffle that actually uses play counts, last-played, ratings & play-selection-order (and who knows what else) to intuitively determine what songs would fit together? Sort of a moodlogic for people instead of idiots & jerks?
-non-platform specific compatibility
-better firmware customization (that iPod linux thing is a worthy try but come on)
-something that doesn't look like a blatant ripoff of the iPod
-custom codec installation
-API for application construction & integration
I could go on & on...
Anyone else think it's funny that the Zune will support "Podcasting"?
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/7707549@N05/87352336 1/>Dead Zune</a>
Maybe they can just get this "Zune 2.0" out next month so we'll still have time to get something good released by Christmas.
At least that's what Roughly Drafted told me.
Sometimes, spending is just throwing good money after bad. They can't make Zune a winner because rented and dissapearing music just aren't cool. Even less cool is the idea that billboards will be able to "squirt" adverts onto your player or what your player might tell them in return. Minority Report was supposed to be a horror story, not a business model.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Future Zune products will feature podcasting support and expanded video support. ..."
So Zunes will have cameras and microphones in them, so that they can be used to make podcasts? And perhaps even the ability to upload the podcasts via WiFi ...
Everything is subjective.
That little flamebait link of yours from the register (the register!) is interesting. None of that ever made it to production, did it? Looks to me it was a mistake. I wonder if you have a more reputable source? But still, what's the problem again?
"it has a larger screen" But it has the same resolution as the video iPod's screen.
Bigger is always better until you try to put it in your pocket. Is it also thicker and have square corners? A larger battery with less life? Woops, I think that would cover all the bases.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
You realized you used Microsoft and innovative in the same sentence?
What were you thinking?
Is that even possible??
Andy
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Does anyone actually care?
Development notes at http://devscribbles.blogspot.com
Pls forgive me but that is not real I hope... :)
Believe it or not I won it at a charity auction. I was pretty excited to get it, my 2gb mobile player wasn't cutting it for long trips. Here's the truth - they did a good job with it. It's well made. The interface is solid, easy to use and intuitive. I didn't have to read the instructions to use it. The software works pretty well, but is a little confusing. When the Zune came out it'd have been pretty hard to F*** up. With all the money in the world and dozens of business cases to study it'd be pretty difficult to come out with an MP3 player that didn't do a passable job. The Zune did just that, and now true to Microsoft form 2.0 will come out, and then 3.0 and 4.0, and it'll continue to improve. If I were voting with my own money I'd have probably bought Creative's 30gb model, but in truth the Zune is pretty good at what it does. If you can live with people poking fun at you for owning it, go ahead and buy one. It only syncs with Windows, by the way.
The Jesus Zune... time for someone somewhere to get excited about a product that is about to revolutionize the Zune market. I for one am selling my stock in other Zunes.
Maybe we could take out a Government grant to research how innovative it is.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I just RTFA, and it sais NOTHING, and that is truly NOTHING, about what is really in the pipeline. Only lines like "it's going to be better", and "we're expanding it blah blah" with a lot of marketingspeak - but really nothing on the actual product. The only concrete product mentioned, the "Zune Shuffle" or whatever, also falls short of an actual description, let alone giving me the idea that it is reliable.
Sorry folks, nothing to see here, move along. Really, there is absolutely nothing.
The only thing about this article is that it keeps the buzz going, it keeps the people talking about this device. And guessing. Just guessing. Because there is nothing really said there, everything is just a guess.
Editors, please do your job, and don't put this kind of nonsense on the front page. It doesn't belong there. I'm really interested in tech news, and also what Microsoft is doing - even though I don't buy their products, they are one of the major forces in the computer world - but this is the least informative article ever.
Ah well, let the Microsoft bashing continue.
"When in doubt, spend.
(also applies to politics)"
When in doubt, give up.
(Also applies to cynical slashdotters)
And the same folks who didn't line up to buy Zune 1.0 will run right out and not line up for the next one.
And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
Event Management Solutions : http://www.stonekeep.com/
You're talking about buying music and about net radio - but you're forgetting that the Zune has a subscription music plan.
The best use of the WiFi is going to be to pay $15 a month (which is competitive with the Rhapsody and Yahoo music subscription plans) - and to allow you to stream whatever you want to the device, on demand.
That sounds like a killer app for a portable music player, if you ask me.
It was shit brown. And boxy. At best it was like a weird experiment or something MS marketing let escape. I'm assuming 2.0 will come in more flattering colors and we can actually play the features game. But honestly, 1.0 looks like it feel straight off the shelf at your local second-hand shop. Maybe underneath the mismatched leather shoes and broken football trophy.
Quack, quack.
Ali-Baba, the monitor is missing!
I'm convinced the brown thing was specifically to market to blacks and hispanic markets.
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
"Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi."
"Freedom"? From MICROSOFT? You're kidding, right? Microsoft doesn't know the meaning of the word.
Spend enough money and you'll eventually get some idiots liking your products.
Probably won't if it goes GPLv3...
If you get past the blind Microsoft hating and Apple fanboy-ism, the Zune is a pretty descent MP3 player. Not the best, not earth-shattering, but not bad either. It's certainly not worth the torrential smear campaign and avalanche of negativity. Last holiday season I went through and critiqued over a dozen MP3 players. I compared everything from features, battery life, cost, and size. After I crunched the numbers it was surprising to see that the Zune stood up on its own.
One embarrassing footnote to the "million Zunes sold" meme is that few of those sales have been to individuals. The majority of Zunes are still sitting on store shelves. We know this because Microsoft managed to shovel an excess inventory of at least 4 million Xbox 360s on retailers. That fact that Microsoft hasn't been able to fake similar levels of sales for the Zune indicates that sales of the Zune are REALLY low.
More Articles on Zune.
Meanwhile, Apple shipped several times as many iPhones in its first weekend, selling it only in its own retail stores and AT&T shops. That says something about Apple and Microsoft's ability to retail.
Apple has also been selling iPods at a profit; Microsoft's Zune + Xbox division has lost BILLIONS every year. Think about that for a moment.
-
Ten Fake Apple Scandals: 1 - Phony Rage About iPhone Price and Profits
Reality: The iPhone costs less than any smartphone, and will have a higher resale value after two years than any phone. Here's why.
whogivesashit
Bot Assisted Blogging
Personaly, (I hated the zune, I ridiculed people who got them) But when someone was going to sell me their brand new one for 70 bucks I couldnt say no. (my ipod was broken at the time)
And relucantly I am starting to admit it isnt that bad.
A quick breakdown of what I am impressed with.
-The audio quality is actualy quite good, much crisper and clearer than my 4th gen ipod.
-Clicky buttons are excellent! I keep it in a little felt sock, and I can turn the volume up, and change tracks all through a layer of clothing, without taking it out of the container.
-Being able to easily set shuffle between artists, albums, genras, etc works really well.
-If you are on the album view, pressing left or right will take you to that artist's other albums, its more convenient than I expected.
-And the locked down interface you have to sync it with... Errors and crashes aside, is very close to drag and drop, (disable auto sync) find your music folder, it finds album art, drag the albums or artists you want onto the zune, click sync, and watch it upload.
-Being able to turn off random with 3 clicks, instead of having to go back to the root menu and go to shuffle, and turn it off, then go back into songs.
The bad is the battery life is... not very good, and it doesnt seem to turn on when I want it, and there is no audible confirmation you turned the beast off. And the sync software, while not as bad as itunes, I wish it were open (or cracked) so I could use whatever I want... Oh and the obvious wifi doesnt really exist. Its worthless in every way.
Personaly I would take a creative any day of the week, but since those are never sold for good prices used, I would sadly and reluctantly take a zune over an ipod, Ipods just do so many annoying things.
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
n/t
Zune 2.0 is like Services for Unix 2.0. Why do they bother?
Sometimes Microsoft just competes because they don't have anything better to do with a couple of billion dollars.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Poor microsoft, they succeeded in their xbox ventures with xbox and then xbox 360. Their plan was to get their foot in the door with the original Xbox and then really grow with the xbox360. Now I won't say they succeeded 100% but they're doing pretty well at least compared to Sony. Can they repeat this with the Zune? Maybe.....Zune 1 was a complete flop but I think maybe Microsoft might be able to adapt and change it to be more competitive. I hope. I dislike Apple's monopoly on the mp3 player market as much as I disliked the stranglehold Microsoft has on the PC market. For MSFT to even have a chance, however, they really must eliminate the strong DRM of the Zune and make it more like the iPod. Remember the days before the iPod? Sony could have ruled the MP3 market but they created their lame lame magicGate DRM that made putting songs into the player more painful and slow than just burning an audio CD.
Halloween, maybe.
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
"Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi."
Huh? What does "freedom" have to do with it? And why would I want sync to be slower than it would otherwise be?
Now available in three shades of brown!
Then Microsoft should hire a retard. Never mind, I'm one and a half.
HD Radio, record from radio, wifi, perhaps a Sirius compatable model, and user replacible battery.
Yes Apple is good at marketing, but Microsoft forces things down your throat? Really? To force things down your throat means to do things to have one company do things to ONESELF without being asked. Microsoft has not done that EVER, because it would be illegal.
... yeah, I know, they're not forcing this down their throat, it's just that if they don't comply they get to pay 3 times more.
Do you realize we're talking about Microsoft, the company that's been under investigation by the DOJ for years, until the corrupt Bush administration came in and yanked the plug, and the same company that's being fined hundreds of millions of euro by the EC for monopoly abuses?
You know, that company who has PC Manufacturers pay for Windows for each PC it sells, even if it runs Linux
The old Brown was "Soviet Brown". The new one is "Gulag Brown".
Same brown, the new one's just a bit harsher.
- not a good source, IMHO...
after a year still noone is running linux on it
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
Who The Fuck Cares. Apple products aside, MP3 players are a commodity item nowadays.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
In short, it was crippled beyond belief. It had one goal, which was to be a outlet for Microsoft's envisaged new media ownership. It was not at all designed with users' needs in mind, hence the lack of even basic features like podcasting, and the presence of things like highly restrictive DRM, and the lack of cross-platform usability.
If Zune 2.0 is any better, it'll only be by grumbling admission that Microsoft can't screw users THAT much and get away with it. I'm not even convinced that their "podcasting" support will mean proper, standardised podcasting that works for any podcast. They're likely to come up with some craptastic DRM-enabled podcast distribution system that operates through MS's websites.
Anyone who respects themselves would be well advised to avoid a product that never respected their needs.
Proof : http://www.flickr.com/photos/7707549@N05/873523361 /
I love Zune stories because they're the only things that get tagged "lame" and are still discussing MP3 technology.
Get yours NOW with a NEW! browner brown case and FREE, at no extra cost, STRONGER Dissecting Rectal Manacles. Text your email address to IMALEMMING before midnight tonight for a lifetime subscription to UCE.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
OK, first off... why would anyone want a player that plugs into an SD slot? Doesn't that limit which computers you can use it with, or require you to buy a card reader? What a pain... even if they include an SD reader, it would still be so much more convenient to just plug into USB, like the old shuffle. At least the new shuffle's weird USB design avoids having an ugly USB connector, but with an SD interface on the MS player, you still have to have a part that can stick into an SD slot.
Second of all... it allows users to control music, and you can plug headphones into it... these are innovative features? The shuffle is barely usable because that's all it has. So how is that an extra feature for the zuffle? The sleeve? Does that mean that the SD connector slides out of the body of the player? What does it mean? And where is the innovation being talked about?
Honestly, I wouldn't ever buy a shuffle because it would drive me nuts. It would be funny if this part of TFA were true, that MS really wants a zuffle. The innovative part of the shuffle is Apple's gamble about whether or not people would want such a stripped-down player. But that's been done before, so would the Zuffle ever be anything other than a me too product?
On the other hand, "rented" music allows you to sample a much wider variety of music than if you had to pay for it all. $15 will buy you 15 songs on iTunes forever, or it will buy you an "infinite" (limited by what's available on the Zune Marketplace) amount of music for one month.
Or you could just stick to the infinite supply of free and legal music from archive.org, magnatune.com and so on and so forth. The majors have never been fresh and they are looking more and more like the Chicago Stock Yards every day - cruel, exploitative, low quality and easily circumvented.
So turn off the wireless when you're not actively looking for or sharing with other Zune players.
You trust Microsoft to let you turn off advertising? The "features" existence should tell you that's not an option that will last, even if you knew nothing at all about their software. In the M$ stock yards, advertisers are the customers and people are the sheep.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Yes, I really hate being able to replace my (admittedly brown) battery.
How often does Bill Gates sell you a new one? Does it cost less than the iPod's long lasting one? Does it come from Sony and catch fire?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I think Apple is vulnerable in the Mp3 player market right now. The iPod does not have great battery life, and it still scratches easily. If they don't release a new version this holiday season, I will think about getting a Zune 2.0. I read that Zune 1.0 had great battery life and was well made, the problem was the DRM. If they fix the DRM, then Zune 2.0 might well be the superior device.
I wonder why MSFT stockholders allows Microsoft second-rate money losers in the market for years and years. Xbox, MSN, Zune... Apple usually makes a profit in its first year. Maybe thats why MSFT stock is still below its 1990s peak and APPL is six thimes its 1990s peak.
"Future Zune products will feature podcasting support"
Are they saying that it will take a new hardware model to support podcasting?? Apple did it with just software.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I have it on good authority that it will look just like the iPod shuffle, but, get this: It will also be available in brown!
If I don't put anything here, will anyone recognize me anymore?
This reminds me of another company that made technically superior products that were so quirky, hard to use, weird-looking and goofy corporate that almost no one bought them even though the engineering was profound. Microsoft is the new Texas Instruments.
technical writing / development
this looks like its whizbytes work. This news is taken from http://whizbyte.wordpress.com/ and is not properly cited so. shame slashdot. I tried to contact you guys about it but you dont give any email addresses.
If the bugger screen had more pixels, it might be a feature. But any device that you hold in your hands where you are physically capable of holding it closer to your face, or simply leaning forward to look at it... then a somewhat bigger screen is not very exciting.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The thing about the iPod and Zune is the way the companies handle the users' experience, iPod does a lot to make the experience enjoyable for the user and hides all the stuff that the user shouldn't do. Installation is pretty straight forward. If you want to copy a file the options are grayed out etc.
On the Windows related player products I've seen and I am assuming the Zune you get similar - some extended install session - a wierd DRM connection/verification process proving that you are you, then pop-ups with warnings, etc. before you can do anything. And I bet lots of warnings about songs not being squirt able, or that they are about to expire in XX hours,etc. So the user is constantly reminded of what can't be done and not just presented with what can be.
Microsoft does well is lots of dialog pop-up boxes, warnings confirmations, etc. Many of Apple's programs adjust the programs to not interrupt the user experience.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
We in Europe have yet to even see a ZUNE (any revision) as MS consider us not worthy
By the time Europe get Zune 2.0 america will have the Zune Pro, Zune 7, and Zune'of'the'loon
The itunes port to windows (allowing ipod to work on windows) is significantly better than the MS software that allows you to hook up your zune to the mac or linux..
Oh wait, that software doesn't exist.
Scientist #1: So I put the new Zune in that tank and ran some juice from the AllSpark into it.
Scientist #2: Wow! Cool! What did it turn into?
Sci 1: Let's say "a big, steaming pile of awesome."
Sci 2: What do you mean?
Sci 1: It turned into this animatronic version of Mr. Hanky...
Re:expanding customer base?
(Score:-1, Troll)
AKA luserbase.
Thought that was the ipod userbase's name.
How predictable for an Apple response to mod it down in that direction.
"Forget the engineers." -Carly Fiorina, briber of MIT Technology Review.