Slashdot Mirror
Zune HD Unveiled, Set For Fall Release
Several readers have written to mention that Microsoft has confirmed and unveiled the Zune HD. It has a "3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output," and it makes use of multi-touch input. More details will be forthcoming at E3, including how the device interacts with Xbox Live. Reader johnjaydk notes a PCWorld article that asks whether the Zune HD will be capable of competing with the iPod Touch. Quoting: "... the real competition between the Zune HD and the iPod Touch will come down to software. The new Zune will be based on a custom version of Windows CE, while the iPod Touch runs on the already popular iPhone platform, for which thousands of applications are available."
Zunes are also finally coming to Europe as well, which marks the first time Microsoft has announced the US exclusivity on the Zune is being dropped. Understandably, the US press has perhaps overlooked this fact, but if you live here in Europe, it's possibly bigger news than the Zune HD being announced.
Will this be the first mass produced consumer product to use an OLED screen? I know I've been reading about them for some time, but other than one digital camera (i think) I don't know that I've heard of any products that will actually contain one. It will be interesting to see how it looks relative to other small media players.
If nothing else it's great that they're raising the bar.
From TFA: "Supported 720p HD video files play on the device, downscaled to fit the screen at 480 x 272 - not HD resolution. Zune HD and AV Dock, and an HDTV (all sold separately) are required to view video at HD resolution" Seems like every single product these times has to have "HD" at the end, just like "2000", "Professional", etc, etc..., even if its missinforming...
Which means that anyone who can program for Win 2k/xp/vista/7 can program for the Zune. I've done WinMobile programming and it's easy in C#. Many apps can be easily ported from desktop to Mobile and back, with the main issue being the screen size.
The tuner (I assume it does regular FM if it does HD) is a big win here.
I wonder how hard it is to transcode video for it? If it's as easy as for iPhone (using Handbrake, for example)...
Best Slashdot Co
The device is sturdy (judging from past Zunes), the screen (while not HD by any means) will still be a decent screen to work with, and the hardware will be solid enough to output 1280x720.
It's a winner in my book, even though I still wish the screen itself was 720p.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
I bought an HD radio just to check out the technology. The cheapest one I could find was $80--quite a bit for a radio. But the quality is spectacular (HD AM sounds better than the best non-HD FM reception), and you get more stations and metadata.
I am surprised that his hasn't caught on more yet. I believe it is because the chips needed for HD radios are still expensive. I sure hope the Zune drives down implementation costs and helps bring HD radio to the masses. Listening to NPR as if I'm right in the station is a great experience.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
You can develop iPhone/iTouch software and deploy it without any involvement by Apple. Just connect the computer with the application to your device. What you cannot do without using iTunes or your own (probably corporate) server is widely distribute your applications to others around the world.
I'm always amazed how ignorant non-Apple users are about Apple's products and how much disinformation they spew. If you really want to know what you can or cannot do with an Apple device or software, you should ask the people who know - experienced Apple users.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Can you develop Zune software without Windows?
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Mod me down for defending Microsoft, but the note
"The new Zune will be based on a custom version of Windows CE, while the iPod Touch runs on the already popular iPhone platform, for which thousands of applications are available."
fails to acknowledge that Windows CE has been around a bit longer than the iPhone OS and has tons of applications available. Just sayin'.
Part of the reason is that Ibiquity, the folks behind the HD radio standard, managed to get the FCC to approve a MANDATORY encryption key as a part of the standard. In other words, ALL HD radio traffic is encrypted with a key that you have to license from Ibiquity - full stop.
No matter if you can make your own decoder chip - you SHALL license the key from Ibiquity or you won't be able to decode ANY traffic.
And as a result, if you want to do something and Ibiquity doesn't want you to - you don't do it.
And Ibiquity doesn't want your spiffy new radio outputting any form of digital stream - no USB, no Firewire, no SPIDF, no Uncle Mikey.
So when Griffin wanted to have the RadioSharkHD stream the HD over USB to your computer - BZZZZT! Wrong answer.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Maybe the old axiom about MS getting it right on the third shot is going to hold true, yet again?
What has Microsoft ever gotten right?
To substitute "changing the station when an advert comes on" for "paying outrageous fees for data transfer".
To be able to listen to live broadcasts of sporting events without paying a membership fee to some site.
To take advantage of the economy of large-scale broadcast delivery instead of relatively expensive parallel non-broadcast media.
But you do get other things from broadcast radio that mp3 players don't as easily give you: exposure to new music, the ability to listen to music not in your catalog for free, without copyright infringement (I know, that may not be an issue for many slashdotters).
Yes, mp3 players have a lot of advantages, but they also have disadvantages. Cost to retrieve data and/or purchase music being the big ones in my book.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The Apple devices are the same, terrible audio quality especially if you consider the high price.
Actually, the audio quality of the iPod is generally regarded very highly
http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Apple-iPod-Classic-120GB/
http://www.t3.com/ipod-and-mp3-players/all-mp3-players/apple-ipod-shuffle-third-generation-review
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1857401,00.asp>
It's the piss poor earphones that have always let the side down. Swap them out for something better, and the sound shines through.
"We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
(I work in the broadcast industry, so I'm posting AC to cover my ass.)
FM HD Radio, in "MP1 mode", provides 96kbps of bandwidth to receivers. On "good" stations, they'll allocate the full 96kbps of bandwidth to the primary HD audio channel and won't use it for anything else. However, HD radio also lets you divide up this 96kbps into two or more audio streams - you can do 64+32, 64+16+16, 48+16+16+16... not to mention you can dedicate channels for sending data instead of audio.
Audio is compressed with the "HDC" codec, which is a tightly guarded secret of iBiquity Corp and they refuse to release any details about it. It's a constant-bitrate codec, and apparently the compression is a bit better than MP3 but it's not at the same level as current AAC/SBR codecs.
Most people who run a secondary audio stream use 64+32. When you're running a 64kbps main audio channel, I actually prefer the sound of the frequency-limited analog FM since it doesn't have digital compression artifacts. Certain songs can bring out HDC's artifacts in a big way.
AAC (both protected and non) support for one. Enhanced battery life, notes, contacts, calendars, and games (minor, but it's something). It's been done. And this is only counting the updates for my first-gen 5GB iPod.
Option-Shift-K.
480x272 (WQVGA) is a very common resolution. Look at the widescreen Garmin nuvis.
So you need a digital certificate from Apple. Big deal. Once you get it ($99 developer fee - much cheaper than Visual Studio)
This is very different from what you've said in your original post up the thread:
You can develop iPhone/iTouch software and deploy it without any involvement by Apple. Just connect the computer with the application to your device.
You're also factually incorrect regarding the pricing. XNA Game Studio 3.0 (which is the VS edition that you'd use for Zune game development) is a free download, and you do not need to pay to run XNA games on Zune (Xbox is a different story, but we aren't talking about that here).