The Life of Matt Campos

10/02/2007 — Well Microsoft has unveiled the Zune 2 and I have to say it is impressive, I orignally bought the first gen Zune because I liked the screen size and all the features, that and I did not want to get on the apple band wagon.

Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT a microsoft fanboi, but I like some of there products, I Use windows xp for my desktop gaming rig because its the most logical choice for out of the box gaming. Linux and wine just is too much of a hassle. Apple is great for video editing and multimedia projects and I guess they make a good mp3 player, my wife and daughter like it. Linux is my choice for Server software, I run my Web Server, DB server and just about every other server i have on the web offering content off of Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu).

Anyway enough of my preferences, back to the Zune 2. So it has an awesome new feature, wi-fi syncing, whenever you get in range of your computer you can sync or have it sync automatically. Now that is NICE, they also introduce they ability to share other media other than mp3 and removed the mp3 expiration on shared music. HOWEVER the 3 play limit is still there. They have changed the hardware and now have a Zune Pad which is a clickable touch pad for navigation. the interface has been reworked and looks snazzy.

I think the smartest and most awesome move Microsoft made in this whole ordeal is they are offering ALL of the software upgrades to the first gen Zunes. This has to be an awesome move on Microsoft’s part as its great PR and raises their standing in first gen Zune owners eyes (like me.)

So if your thinking of buying a new MP3 player, I suggest looking at the new Zune, so far it looks awesome.

From Engadget:

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.

New flash Zunes

• 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).

Everything else

• 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 3×3 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.

Posted in: Microsoft by Matt /