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.'"

Comments

And I got yer slogan right here...

[hobo sapiens]

"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.

New and improved

[eclectro]

Now!! With twice the squirt!!!

I never thought I'd feel bad for MS.

[DwarfGoanna]

But I suspect by the time Zune is worthy of the "iPod Killer" moniker, Apple will have already killed the iPod themselves. Sure, they'll still be selling dedicated DAPs for a while to come, but I wouldn't be shocked if a midrange "good enough" iPhone changes the playing field there. Exactly what they did before with the mini/nano. One thing I find admirable about the new Apple is that they don't seem to give a shit about cutting into their own installed base with a product that fits the market better than what they had before. By the time MS gets this right, *the market they're after is going to liken the standalone DAP to monochrome displays and 200 songs.

*no, slashdot is not this market. I know.

I have one...

[InlawBiker]

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.

Re:That will fire things up.

[Osty]

They can't make Zune a winner because rented and dissapearing music just aren't cool.

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. If you like the music, you can always buy it. Personally, the music subscription is what swayed me toward Zune rather than iPod. Well, that and I can't stand Apple's software on Windows. If you're going to make a Windows app, make a damn Windows app. Don't port an OS X app over to Windows, because not only is the look and feel all wrong but the functionality of "standard" controls is different as well. I don't expecto to have to ctrl-click or shift-click on a button in Windows to make some action happen, but that's exactly how the iTunes software works. Microsoft got it right with Office on OS X, building an interface and behaviors specific to OS X. Why can't Apple reciprocate and make proper Windows apps?

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.

So turn off the wireless when you're not actively looking for or sharing with other Zune players. As a bonus, you'll get a longer battery life with wireless off.

Re:That will fire things up.

[Sparks23]

As much an Apple fan as I am, I also hate Apple software on Windows. Not only does it look out of place, it Just Does Not Work. We share that particular boat; I use Mac OS X for my personal stuff -- web-browsing, e-mail, music, writing and so on -- and Windows for work and gaming. I love Apple's work on OS X, but I find their Windows software nauseating. When it comes down to it, I think anyone who likes Apple for *sensible* reasons (as opposed to just being a blind fan) hates Apple's approach to Windows software.

Those ports violate everything Apple supposedly stands for, such as software that 'just works.' Software 'just working' requires it to work /in context/ with the operating system, and everything else on the system. Apple's cross-system ports do not by /any/ stretch of the imagination; they attempt to shoehorn bits of OS X into Windows, and they do so poorly. (Also, whatever framework they used to port iTunes to Windows is horrible, and I want to find whoever wrote iPodService, hunt them down, and garrote them with a Firewire cable. WTF, Apple?)

This is actually a pet peeve for me. This same stupid shortcut approach to cross-platform development is why things developed on Windows and ported directly to OS X look mildly schizophrenic and get complaints about 'not being well-designed for OS X' from Mac users. It's also why a lot of cross-platform software ported from Linux using GTK+ for Windows or running under X11.app on OS X doesn't 'fit in' either. Why would Apple think this braindead approach to cross-platform development would work any better for them?

If you're going to do something cross-platform, bloody well develop it cross-platform instead of designing it just for one platform and then taking shortcuts to port it without thinking whether or not your design works in the new context.