Somehow I missed the skating game, but I already shot and rendered my video before even seeing it, so if you’re waiting on that one, best look elsewhere. But I checked out Audiosurf Tilt, Project Gotham Racing, Checkers, Lucky Lanes Bowling, and Goo Splat. I skipped Chess, Sudoku, and for some reason Space Battle 2, which sounds right up my alley.

The games are all free, and they all display an ad beforehand. That’s a bit ugly, but we knew it was coming, and I have to stick to my guns — the ad-supported world is coming and we’d better get used to it.

Any of you fine folks out there having trouble? I’ll see if I can scare up any info from the Zune team and post an update later. [Thanks, Aditya]

Update: My Zunepal tells me that the DRM reset tool might work, though that’s all the information he volunteered. Anybody brave enough to try it?

There’s a detailed guide here where an individual, angry at the prices of new MP3 players, decides to make his own frankenplayer. One used Zune and one refurbished SSD later (okay, and some serious modification) and he’s got a Zune 32.

[via Anything but iPod]

But what did he see in the clear stream below? His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. —The Ugly Duckling

It’s been a long, brown trip for the Zune: from its early days (mocked and abject) to its awkward years (deemed a dead end and money pit) it’s been embattled and criticized, and rightly so. After all, here was an unpopular company with a frankly ridiculous brand it had pulled out of thin air, attempting to compete with the guys who defined the market. We’ve always been champions of the devices, despite their quirks, and of the service, despite its growing pains — and Microsoft occasionally made it pretty hard for us to stand by our favorite little misfit media player. Well, for once they just made it really easy.

Let’s not beat around the bush, now: this thing is going head-on with the iPod touch, one of the most versatile and well-liked devices on the planet. There are other PMPs, sure, but the caliber of these two devices is well beyond the best offerings from Creative, Samsung, or Sony. To make it easy on the Apple fans who are impatient to comment on this story, let me just state it right now for the record: the Zune HD is not an iPod-killer, but it’s the only player out there that can go up against it and not be annihilated in the process. It’s good enough that everyone owes it to themselves to give it a look — unless you’re afraid of just how good it might be.

Now let’s take a look at this thing. This will be a long review, but at least we aren’t splitting it into multiple pages like half those other sites.

The Hardware

I’d say that at this moment, the Zune HD is the best-looking media player on the market. It beats the iPod touch handily in terms of sheer sexiness, and it appears to hold its own in build quality and materials.

I won’t waste words describing the device; you’ve probably already seen a hundred pictures of it, but just take a second and look at this thing:

Give me a break. They’ve outdone themselves. The slimmer profile means it feels tiny in your hand, and although it’s not much flatter than an iPod or other comparable players, it’s far lighter, at only 2.6 ounces. You wouldn’t think a difference of an ounce and a half would be that noticeable, but it really is. It goes into any pocket like a champ.

Yet it’s extremely solidly constructed; the metal build gives it a solid and sturdy feel, unlike many players and phones (even with metal bits) which seem to just have a shell around them. Torquing it didn’t seem to bother it at all, and a few light bangs on the table (hey, if I didn’t, you would have) suggested I could use it to hammer nails.

The buttons are integrated well with the outer layer, and there are hardly any gaps. I have yet to use it for more than a few days, but it doesn’t feel like anything will be getting loose for quite a while, and the cracks in between the screen and lower section are minuscule and do not seem likely to admit any crumbs or dust of significance.

The one hardware-based complaint I have is the charging cable. The original Zunes had locking plugs, with tiny levers on the side that you squeezed to release the lock. The new one goes in and you have to pull quite hard to get it out; I’m sure the plug is rated for a million of these actions, but it still feels like you’re getting rough with it.

Battery life has been excellent for me: the OLED+SSD combo is rated for 33 hours of music and 8 of video, which after a fair amount of use I can easily believe. Mixed use plus wireless stuff will probably put your average battery life at 13-15 hours by my guess. It’s a squirrelly statistic to nail down, so we’ll keep an eye on customer reviews.

The Screen

Much has been said about the OLED screen already, and much of it is true. It really is an excellent little display, the primary cause of which being the deep blacks possible with a non-backlit screen. Right off the bat, due to the top menu’s minimal design, you see how contrast is markedly improved. It’s difficult to photograph, so just use your imagination on this shot:

The colors are vibrant and motion shows no trace of blur, lag, or ghosting. I didn’t experience what people seemed to preemptively criticize the device for, namely a screen that’s not bright enough. The backlit displays of iPods are certainly brighter, but firstly they’re not so much brighter that they’re usable in broad daylight, only in other marginal circumstances, and secondly the improved contrast of the OLED screen makes up for the lower brightness.

The touchscreen is very good. I would rate it second in class after the touch and iPhone’s, but it doesn’t lose by much. It’s responsive and precise — and that’s all she wrote.

Like every other glossy little device, the screen does get smudged easily, but it was easily cleaned by a microfiber cloth. The brushed metal back and bottom part of the front show no fingerprints at all.

The Sound

The sound is high quality, like the old Zunes, with the added bonus of an equalizer. There are no custom settings, but the usual suspects are there for you to choose from on the fly. The default setting sounds just fine, though. People will argue back and forth about the sound quality of different devices, but honestly there’s almost always going to be more quality variation in the encoding and your headphones than in the device. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the included earbuds.

The Interface

Many of you checked out the video of the interface I put up earlier, but for those of you who skipped it:

The interface in motion says more than I can in words (or at least, it says it more succinctly), but I’ll summarize. It’s gorgeous, and once you get the hang of the few things that aren’t immediately obvious (what does that icon mean, how come there’s no back button on this screen and so on), it really is very intuitive. The iPod touch interface is still functional, but it lacks the style of this one, and the media-specific additions like the quick launch section of the main screen. There’s nothing worse than having to drill down through layers of interface to get to something, and while the Zune UI makes drilling down as painless (and pretty) as possible, it also lets you skip it via the Pins and recent items on the main screen.

Zune’s UI is designed to do two things: first, to direct you as quickly as possible to the content you’re looking for, and then to envelop you in it. Album art or a sort of screen saver monopolize the screen space, which is an unfamiliar thing to me; I don’t tend to look at my MP3 player while I’m listening to it, though I certainly have a good reason to now. I neglected to include the excellent ability to display the artist’s bio, pictures from shows and such, and related artists, to which you can jump directly if you feel like it.

Unfortunately, this leads to some sacrifices in the now-playing screen. The old Zunes had controls always at the ready thanks to their little Zune Pad (RIP), and since that’s obviously no longer an option, I’m surprised that the Zune doesn’t have pause and volume controls at the ready. Having to tap the screen before doing that isn’t exactly a lot of work, but when the most frequently used controls are hidden and more esoteric ones (send to a friend, add to playlist) shown prominently, it can rankle one.

I found the keyboard to be pretty damn good for a first try; typing in “crunchgear” in the video up there was the first time I used it, and I didn’t have a single typo. The narrowness of the display makes for difficult two-fingered typing, but as yet there isn’t much of a need for writing more than a web address or artist name. That will probably change but I think the keyboard is up to the task.

The Browser

While it doesn’t surpass the iPhone and iPod touch’s excellent Safari-based browser, the Zune’s browser is actually very good. It doesn’t support Flash, of course, and being based on IE6 being a version of the IE mobile browser seen in WinMo phones, it does break on more creatively-coded sites, but by and large it rendered things correctly and was reasonably fast. Text is readable at most reasonable zoom levels and scrolling is easy and smooth. The accelerometer response is fantastic; no delay at all when switching from portrait to landscape. (This paragraph updated with better information after speaking to Microsoft people. It’s not based on the desktop IE6)

The Marketplace

The ability to browse the marketplace on the device is fantastic, and they’ve really made it easy to do. You can see it in action towards the end of the video above, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Basically, on the device, the Marketplace is simplified but you still have access to all its music, and searching was fast and accurate. Previewing music was instant, as was buying (none of the delay I have with the Windows client), and the download was fast (about three or four minutes to get a 50-minute album). If you have a Zune pass you can listen to your heart’s delight.

Critics are rightly pointing out that there are hardly any apps available (and those that are there are basic and slow to load), which is indeed a disappointment. There will be more available in time; after all, they’re not just launching a player but a new platform. Still, while it explains the lack of apps, it doesn’t make everything all right. The iPod touch absolutely kills the Zune in this respect, but in a few months you’ll have a lot of serious apps available that will close that gap somewhat: Facebook, YouTube, and so on.

Don’t get me start on the “showing ads before games” thing. That’s garbage and with luck Microsoft will realize it and pull the plug.

The Client

I’ve never really liked fancy media clients, but I do prefer Zune’s over iTunes. I think one of their taglines is “browse your music, not a spreadsheet,” or something, which is applicable if you don’t want to use the clumsy album art views in iTunes or the impractical but pretty Coverflow. Zune does give you more of your music front and center, especially in quickplay mode.

The main part of the client hasn’t changed noticeably since version 3, but they have added an entire new way to browse your music. The quickplay view (as opposed to the collection view) has the bio and pictures of whatever artist you’re listening to displayed attractively, with an ever-changing array of albums behind it. Nice for parties or HTPCs, or just as a break from the busy collection view with all its type.

(click to embiggen)

The Marketplace is as it was, for the most part, and until they get more content in the movies and HDTV sections it’s hard to pass judgment. The iTunes store is better-integrated with iTunes than the Marketplace is with Zune, in my opinion, and honestly looking for music on the device was faster and more pleasant than the desktop client.

The new “Smart DJ” playlist is exactly what it sounds like, basically a Genius clone. Difference here is you start it by just feeding it a track, which it analyzes for genre data, related artists and so on. I’ve never liked these things, but the Smart DJ has one up on Genius in that if you have a Zune Pass it’ll bring in a ton of tracks from the store to augment your own collection. Then of course, you can choose to keep them. If you don’t have a pass, it’ll display the tracks it’s selected but skip them, though you’ll have the option to buy them.

It’s sad as hell that there isn’t an OS X client, but maybe Microsoft figures that Mac users still aren’t a big market, since Apple herds them so effectively into the iTunes ecosystem. Still, I know plenty of people (and commenters) whose only objection to the Zune is the lack of a client for their favored OS. Keep requesting it, and hopefully the port fairy will leave a native client under your pillow.

The Radio

Works fine. HD radio stations are easy to navigate and favorite, and they sound great. You can pause and resume, buy tracks directly if the information is in the broadcast, or just… listen to the radio.

The TV interface

It’s been shown here and there, but here’s a rundown I baked just for you:

I like it a lot. It’s a pain that you have to use a dock all the time, though. I was looking forward to just carrying a cable and being able to blast out an HDMI signal from the device itself. Maybe they’ll come up with something that addresses this. To be honest, though it works great, I’d hold off on buying the dock for a bit to see if something more portable comes out.

In the meantime, the video looks fantastic; no sign of stutter or lag. I had some issues getting some videos to play, and the formats the device supports are pretty limited — no more so than other players, but it’s still annoying.

The Conclusion

It’s nearly impossible to recommend something without any reservations, but I think I can get by with only one: if you don’t want to buy Apple, buy Zune. The iPod touch still stands as the one device to rule them all, but it’s saddled with an increasingly punishing Apple architecture, something which the Zune is refreshingly free from. At the $220 point, the 16GB Zune HD undercuts Apple significantly, and at $290 is competitive. The Zune Pass sweetens the deal; subscription music still sounds weird to me, but like Pringles, once you start, you can’t stop.

It’s a beautiful, intuitive, fun-to-use PMP, and while it will soon have some extra capabilities in the form of nice apps and games (hopefully without ads, for the love of god), the Zune’s primary purpose is and has always been delivering (and expanding) your collection with style and gusto.

Seriously, people — this is a fantastic media player. Don’t take my word for it, though. Go to your local electronics store and see for yourself how good the screen is, how intuitive the interface is, and how right it feels in your pocket — you may not want to put it back when you’re done.

The bottom line is that the Zune HD is just as good as everyone wanted it to be, and way better than some people would have liked it to be.

In the meantime, I’m sure a lot of people have been waiting on a decent walkthrough of the Zune HD’s interface. I’ve got just that for you, in HD no less, so click that play button and get an in-depth tour of the music and video navigation, browser, and marketplace.

For the record, I didn’t choose the thumbnail. I’ll get a YouTube version up for the review since the HD matters for readability. I’ve tried to strike a balance between brevity and completeness, but it ended up being over 10 minutes long anyway. Well, what else have you got going on? Look at these pictures while I talk talk talk in the background.

I didn’t have time for the dock and HDMI out, video of that and the TV UI will be in the full review. It’s nice, but you’re not missing out on much — if you really must see it right away, there’s a video with no explanation or sound hereabouts.

Update: Honestly, guys? Eight links to Apple Insider? We’re happy to have alternate points of view, but if you want to share a link please just do it once.

Anyway, the new stuff they’ve got coming is hot. I’ll post a full unboxing and tour tomorrow for the curious. Having handled the hell out of this little thang, I can tell you it’s worth taking a look.

Update: The update is live. 131.2MB? Seriously? After I wrote a thousand words on iTunes taking up 88?

http://zune.net/en-us/products/software/download/default.htm if you must know.

Update:

C’mon guys! Let’s make this happen!

“Zune needs an update”
“Can’t contact Microsoft Update right now”

Son of a..

Seriously. Launch it or don’t launch it. I like this thing but your competitor, Apple, wouldn’t launch a new platform that didn’t work, even at midnight. Let’s do this, people!

Okay. I’m doing this in the morning. With coffee. If you can make it go, comment how you did so here for other very early adopters.

Oui, it’s true. The Zune HD we’re all pumped for will not be hitting Europe this year, if indeed it does at all. Microsoft France’s entertainment division director has said during and interview that “for now, we have no intention of marketing (it here)” or, to be precise, “pour le moment, nous n’avons aucune intention de le commercialiser.” Okay, that’s one way to get your product out there…

To be fair, the European music landscape is much different and has significant non-overlapping parts. The Zune team produces a lot of content around each artist, like bios and custom pages on the Social site, so it actually would be a lot more work to bring to Europe than simply shipping a few boxes.

I guess they had to choose between launching a player with little local support and launching it later with something better to prop it up. And since Zune’s brand relies heavily on its backend stuff, they had to go with the latter. Still disappointing, I imagine, to a lot of fans over there.

[via WMPowerUser]

Unfortunately, that’s what Microsoft has to do in order to run with Apple and Samsung and the rest; slick little touchscreen players are the future, and as we’ve seen, you can make the screen bigger (or the whole device smaller, as with the Zune HD) if you remove those bulky controls.

So, farewell, pal Zune. We’ll post a proper retrospective at a later time. Anyway, I’ll continue to use you because you’re good and I don’t want to buy anything from Apple.

On the plus side, this means there will be some crazy prices on Zunes within a few weeks. For those of you out there like me who buy their tech one generation behind (lovin’ my PS2), it’ll be a bonanza.

[via Zune Spring and Engadget]

Whatever the case, the Zune HD is making its way around the US so everyone can get their hands on it. I think Microsoft understands that not many people are just going to pick their device based on specs, but the screen and interface will probably turn a lot of heads in real life. They’re taking it around to a bunch of Best Buys for people to check out, so check this (extremely long) list of locations to see if you’ll get a chance to have a hands on.

Look for the swanky Zune HD “van” (pictured… more like SUV but okay). The areas they’re visiting, so you don’t have to search are (in order of listing): Chicago, San Franciso, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, DC, Boston, Minneapolis, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Miami, and Seattle.

CHICAGO AREA

Naperville IL (Store 310)
4400 E New York St
Yorkshire Plaza
Aurora, IL 60504

630-851-0122

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Burbank IL (Store 311)
7600 S Cicero Ave
Burbank Town Center
Burbank, IL 60459

708-229-0065

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

John Hancock Ctr IL (Store 1381)
875 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611

312-397-2146

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

Old Orchard IL (Store 334)
9625 Skokie Blvd
Skokie, IL 60077

847-982-1263

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

SAN FRANCISCO AREA

Emeryville CA (Store 499)
3700 Mandela Pkwy
Oakland, CA 94608

510-420-0323

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

San Francisco CA (Store 187)
1717 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94103

415-626-9682

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Pleasant Hill CA (Store 135)
3260 Buskirk Ave
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

925-988-0256

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

LOS ANGELES AREA

West Covina CA (Store 102)
950 Lakes Dr
West Covina, CA 91790

626-919-3249

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

Mira Loma CA (Store 775)
12281 Limonite Ave
Mira Loma, CA 91752

951-360-0817

Saturday, August 22, 12pm – 4pm

NEW YORK CITY AREA

86th And Lexington NY (Store 835)
1280 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10028-2109

917-492-8870

Saturday, August 22, 12pm – 4pm

44th And 5th NY (Store 1028)
529 5th Ave
New York, NY 10017-4608

212-808-0309

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

ATLANTA AREA

Columbus GA (Store 843)
2925 Manchester Expy
Columbus, GA 31909

706-322-3541

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

Turner Hill GA (Store 389)
2940 Turner Hill Rd
Lithonia, GA 30038

678-526-8199

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Kennesaw GA (Store 501)
850 Cobb Place Blvd Nw
Kennesaw, GA 30144

770-424-7868

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

DC AREA

Laurel MD (Store 265)
14160 Baltimore Ave
Laurel Lakes Centre
Laurel, MD 20707

301-497-1890

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Arundel Mills MD (Store 1053)
7000 Arundel Mills Cir
Ste F1
Hanover, MD 21076

410-540-8340

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Pentagon City VA (Store 276)
1201 S Hayes St
Ste #b
Arlington, VA 22202

703-414-7090

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

Potomac Yard VA (Store 493)
3401 Jefferson Davis Hwy
Alexandria, VA 22305

703-519-0940

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

BOSTON AREA

Holyoke MA (Store 418)
50 Holyoke St
Holyoke, MA 01040

413-533-4443

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

Framingham MA (Store 532)
1 Worcester Rd
Framingham, MA 01701

508-872-2223

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Braintree MA (Store 530)
550 Grossman Dr
Braintree, MA 02184

781-848-1100

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL AREA

Mall Of America MN (Store 1000)
340 W Market
Bloomington, MN 55425

952-853-1359

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

Oakdale MN (Store 15)
8301 3rd St N
Oakdale, MN 55128

651-739-1899

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Richfield MN (Store 281)
1000 West 78th St
Richfield, MN 55423

612-861-3917

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

Maplewood MN (Store 10)
1795 County Rd D E
Maplewood, MN 55109

651-704-1901

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

DALLAS AREA

Arlington TX (Store 57)
1730 Pleasant Pl
Arlington, TX 76015

817-467-3155

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Ridgmar TX (Store 234)
6750 West Fwy
Fort Worth, TX 76116

817-731-9983

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Grapevine TX (Store 148)
1515 W State Hwy 114
Grapevine, TX 76051

817-442-9912

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

HOUSTON AREA

Gulfgate TX (Store 233)
510 Gulfgate Center Mall
Houston, TX 77087

Sunday, August 23, 12pm – 4pm

Greenspoint TX (Store 215)
10777 North Fwy
Houston, TX 77037

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Willowbrook TX (Store 214)
7318 FM 1960 Rd W
Houston, TX 77070

281-444-5768

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

PHILADELPHIA AREA

NE Philadelphia PA (Store 589)
9940 Roosevelt Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19115

215-676-7206

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

S Philadelphia PA (Store 898)
2300 S Christopher Columbus Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19148

215-336-2212

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Springfield PA (Store 582)
642 Baltimore Pike
Springfield, PA 19064

610-604-7474

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Willow Grove PA (Store 576)
1130 Easton Rd
Fiesta Motor Inn
Willow Grove, PA 19090

215-784-7020

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

MIAMI/FORT LAUDERDALE

Aventura FL (Store 558)
21035 Biscayne Blvd
Aventura, FL 33180

305-933-9025

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

Fort Lauderdale FL (Store 543)
2829 N Federal Hwy
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306

954-564-7733

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Tropicaire FL (Store 553)
7751 Bird Rd
Tropicaire Shopping Center
Miami, FL 33155

305-267-9913

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

Cutler Ridge FL (Store 556)
19191 S Dixie Hwy
Point Royale Plaza
Miami, FL 33157

305-256-9552

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

SEATTLE AREA

Bellevue WA (Store 498)
457 120th Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98005

425-452-8060

Saturday, August 22, 10am – 2pm

Lynnwood WA (Store 477)
19225 Alderwood Mall Pkwy
Lynnwood, WA 98036

425-670-2670

Sunday, August 23, 10am – 2pm

Seattle-northgate WA (Store 470)
330 NE Northgate Way
Seattle, WA 98125

206-306-7663

Sunday, August 23, 4pm – 7pm

Tukwila WA (Store 447)
17364 Southcenter Pkwy
Tukwila, WA 98188

206-574-4617

Saturday, August 22, 4pm – 7pm

DAMN. They couldn’t have just put it on a web page?

Apple may have the the sexiest player around, and it’ll be even better after the September announcement, but the Zune HD really, really has it beat in this situation.

[video courtesy of Gizmodo]

On reflection, that last one isn’t exactly big news, but it does pin down the release date: September 15th. We had September 8th penciled in, but we’ve waited four months, why not another week?

Looks like you can go pre-order your very own ZuneHD as soon as these get fully deployed; it’ll take a $25 down payment, though.

Can Microsoft’s latest Zune, the Zune HD, take down the king? It depends on which king you’re talking about. As it stands, the iPod Touch is a whole different beast because of the App Store. What Microsoft has done with the Zune HD is nothing short of spectacular, but who is it really competing with? My BlackBerry can play videos and show me pictures taken on a recent trip. The HTC Hero and/or myTouch 3G can stream music from the likes of last.fm or Slacker. I can download MP3s from my iPhone. Everything the Zune HD does, I’ve been able to do with a slew of different devices that I already own.

You see, the features that the Zune team has been touting don’t interest me much. I don’t really care to see an artist’s bio, their pictures or anything of that nature. Sure, the modified IE browser is nice and works great, but I want to know how deeply integrated the Zune HD is going to be with other Microsoft devices like the Xbox 360. I don’t need to fork over extra cash for an HD dock to stream 720p content onto my TV. I can already do that through my Xbox 360, FiOS and whatever content is stored on my NAS. Tell me what the plans are for the next six months. Tell me when the damn thing is actually going to launch.

With that being said, please enjoy the short video that I took of the Zune HD in action. One thing I failed to capture was the on-screen keyboard. MS has taken a different twist, which may or may not be unique to the Zune HD, but it’s different than most other on-screen keyboards that I’ve seen. Unlike the iPhone (or any other device that lacks a physical keyboard) when you’re tapping away at the Zune HD’s on-screen keyboard; characters don’t pop up by themselves. Tap a character and its neighboring chums to the right and left will create a small arch with the center character popping up just a little more than the rest. It seemed to work well, but the firmware isn’t final so I’m unable to fully comment.

Image courtesy of Ben Patterson

“Intro” by The xx

The only other misstep I noticed was with the home button and Internet browser. When you’re navigating through every other feature of the Zune HD, a single tap of the home button brings you back to the main page, but when tapping the home button from within the browser it chorks hard. It takes two or three taps to get back to the home screen. But, again, the Zune HD I took a look at was definitely not final in any way. Also, the Wi-Fi at our meeting location was spotty.

Things are looking good for Microsoft and the Zune team with the HD, but I’m still waiting to hear what they have in store for the device because everything else is old hat.

Ooh la la. Damn, I need to load Windows onto my Mac.

Good news for Zune fans. CNET spent a little time with the upcoming Zune HD and came away mighty impressed. Big points were awarded for the 3.3-inch screen, 720p video playback, audio quality, music playback features, and — gasp! — a great web browser?

According to CNET:

“Speaking of Wi-Fi, the Zune’s new Web browser smokes. Not since first using the iPhone have I been this impressed with a mobile web browser. There’s no branding on the browser, but I was told it was cooked up by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team (makes sense). Page load was snappy, and pinching and reorienting pages work just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. You also get a fast on-screen keyboard with a nice little magnifier effect with each keystroke. The only bad news on the browser is that there’s no support for Flash audio and video content. So Pandora and YouTube are out, but I was able to get onto Facebook and Twitter.”

The actual music playback seems pretty cool as well, especially for anyone who likes a little substance to go along with whichever band is being played:

“The Zune’s coolest music trick, though, is that it automatically pulls in a gallery of band photos, biographical info, and similar artist recommendations for any currently playing song–regardless of whether the track is from Zune Marketplace or your friend’s hard drive or torrents. It’s feels a little more like digging through Last.fm now, instead of just a straight-up music directory. If the Zune’s connected up to Wi-Fi, listings of related artists will link though to the mobile version of Zune Marketplace, where tracks can be streamed and purchased directly.”

Another cool feature that people may appreciate is that video and audio content purchased via the Xbox 360 will show up in your recent purchases history on the Zune HD and can then be downloaded to the device itself.

The Zune HD will be available sometime this fall. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet.

Zune HD hands-on, impressions, tears of joy [CNET]

[via Electronista]

Forget media-streaming set-top boxes and plunk down $150 on this 80GB Zune with free Home AV Pack deal that Woot! has going on (today only).

The Zune is refurbished, yes, but it comes with a 90-day warranty direct from Microsoft and the AV dock is brand new. Since the Zune is wireless, too, you can zip movies to it over your home network as it sits in the dock hooked up to the TV. Not bad for $150, considering you can also carry it around with you as well.

Zune 80GB Multimedia Player & Home Audio/Video Pack [Woot]

If you haven’t been watching Mean Mag’s Cinemash series then you’re doing it wrong. Cheech and Chong + Tron = Amazing. Kind of NSFW and don’t watch with the kids.

Thanks for reminding me about this, KLash!

Check out the uncut version here, which I think has a way cooler intro than the Mean Mag intro.

I’m sure Microsoft’s streaming service will be top-quality. No, really, I am. I’m sure it’ll integrate beautifully with their Zune product line. I’m sure it’ll make the XBox 360 an even better “digital entertainment hub”. I’m sure some people will be very happy with it. But really, do we need yet another streaming solution? Is this actually good for consumers?

Via The Telegraph.

Read his whole DIY if you’re so inclined. Then you can listen to your Orb-streamed music anywhere in the world.

Here you can see me playing some classic Michael Jackson. I downloaded all his albums with my Zune Pass, and had immediate access to them on the iPhone, by way of OrbLive. Do note, in OrbLive, you can specify if you are on Wi-Fi, 3G, or EDGE in the settings, and it will determine quality accordingly. So if you have a strong 3G connection in the car, you can even enjoy your tracks over your car stereo.