Microsoft Launches Zune HD

[unfrozen.jon]

Zune HD screen is beautiful, when compared with ipod touch or iphone

I'll admit those pics just posted of the Touch, iPhone and Zune do make the Zunes screen look pretty nice but I have never seen my iPhones screen look that bad. I'd like to see it compared with the same video running side by side instead of a menu/pic vs a video.

 

[AidenShaw]

Microsoft Products are only for people to stupid to buy products.

Did you mean "too stupid" ?

And what are "Microsoft Products" - I don't see that brandname on Microsoft's website. Was "Products" capitalized by mistake?

 

[puffnstuff]

any reviews yet I can't find any

 

[stuffradio]

Yawn, another MS product for people who are too stupid to buy Apple products.

Don't get caught up in your own elitist ways. You can't tell someone they're less intelligent than you just because you buy Apple. This is exactly the kind of perception most people see when they see Apple products (for those who don't own one). They think of the Authors who sit in a coffee shop writing a novel or they see snobs talking down on others for not owning their product... what do you think people would want to be perceived to be?

 

[stuffradio]

I think the facts are more profound if you just take a quick look at above photos.


now look at it, what do you think?

I think it was taken by a crappy camera outside... maybe even a crappy iPhone camera.

This is an APPLE FORUM. Apple and the Apple community should focus on improving their own products, instead the company and the community spends its time poking fun at other products when they don't even try them.

 

[bobertoq]

Yes, you are getting less content. You are getting 480x48 less displayed content on screen. In an already height challenged environment, the more the merrier.

Things like video are scaled down, and widescreen content is 16:9 so it would fit just fine. For things like browsing menus, well I don't see why that matters.

 

[Voidness]

If there's one thing that really bugs me about the Zune HD, it's the fact that its web browser is based on Internet Explorer 6. If it sells a lot, that'll effectively resurrect that abomination of a web browser. So unless Microsoft plans on changing the web browser to something more modern (IE8 or Webkit), I really would like to see the Zune HD failing miserably.

Sorry if I came across as a fanboy, but I'm sure any web developer can relate.

 

[RazHyena]

here some more cloudy day - outside shots..... both at medium brighthness
no worse than iphone or touch.....
So you guys should stop listening to FANBOYS!

Hey, not bad! Looks pretty slick.

I still wanna play with one first, though.

 

[Bad Paper]

this

is a page 2 story

 

[AidenShaw]

is a page 2 story

Not...

It's serious competition for Apple Gadgets. Therefor, AppleGadgetRumours.Com should cover it.

It's only page 2 if you're into "Apple Computers" - but those were discontinued a year or two ago.

 

[Thex1138]

White Zune Elephant

If this is all that Microsoft can come up with considering their huge huuuge resource availability... Then they are in serious ka-kaa!
It also demonstrates their paranoia.... They think that because all their other platforms have so much trouble with virii and trojan as well as a fair bit of negative sentiment that it too will splash over to their new Zunadge products... and yes it has... so they've instinctively closed the platform...
And beside all that... the word 'Zune' and the hardware they're spruiking are not compelling at all. Sounds like a word Ballmer would have created somehow.
Microsoft seems to be the virii,phishing and trojan development marketplace...

 

[LagunaSol]

Not...

It's serious competition for Apple Gadgets.

Uh, riiight. Let's check back on the situation in a year, hmmm?

Eventually the shareholders will tire of Microsoft's money-burning quests for "cool" and boot Uncle Fester, er, Ballmer out the door.

It's only page 2 if you're into "Apple Computers" - but those were discontinued a year or two ago.

My new iMac is hurt by your lack of acknowledgement.

 

[Eidorian]

My new iMac is hurt by your lack of acknowledgement.

What happened to the last one then if you have a new one?

You went on to extol the wonders of your iMac. I'm surprised you have a new one when Arrandale/Clarkfield are so soon unless Apple replaced it. Even the Buyer's Guide is pointing toward an update.

 

[LagunaSol]

What happened to the last one then if you have a new one?

Still running like a champ after 3 years - now it's the kids' computer.

You went on to extol the wonders of your iMac. I'm surprised you have a new one when Arrandale/Clarkfield are so soon unless Apple replaced it. Even the Buyer's Guide is pointing toward an update.

I needed the new hardware for a project. Couldn't wait another 6 months for (rumored) new stuff. Such is life in the computing consumer world.

Oh, and by "new" I meant "purchased 4 months ago."

 

[Mustafa Monde]

Saw one--liked the screen

Got to see one at J&R. I liked the screen, but that was about it. Yet, even though it was kind of nice, there is an indefinable softness to it. I wouldn't say it is a negative, but it did give me pause.

As a big time mac user, unabashed Apple fan, I would get something like this if it offered features I couldn't get on a iPod touch. It just doesn't deliver and I'd have to fire up bootcamp any time I used the thing.

MS are tools to exclude Mac users. They may loath Jobs and imitate the work at Apple, but they're overlooking 10% of the market. Proof positive the marketing team at MS are dopes.

I won't do well for a number of reasons. The interface was okay, not great, certainly no where near as slick as the touch. The marketplacE would be a daily reminder of just how half baked it's OS is. Wooopee for the Ballmer kids though. I know what they're getting for Christmas.

 

[Eidorian]

Still running like a champ after 3 years - now it's the kids' computer.

I needed the new hardware for a project. Couldn't wait another 6 months for (rumored) new stuff. Such is life in the computing consumer world.

Oh, and by "new" I meant "purchased 4 months ago."

That clears things up. Today it's just ridiculous to pay for Core 2 hardware unless it's on a notebook or budget desktop.

I just e-wasted a bunch of working 6 year old Gateway and Dell towers. They were in working order but I couldn't find a home for them.

 

[Macminiintel]

I told my cousin to go see one, as she lives in the US, I think she went to Best Buy. She's a Mac user, but by know means a Apple ultimate fanboy, lol I am though. I asked her to report back to me, she said the display was like some cheaper plasma TV screens, with a shaky backlight, which got annoying after a few mins of switching on the device. The in store lighting at best buy also was glaring on the display quite badly, also she said it had a very cheap lightness feel to it, something you don't get with Apple products. She also said some of the parts which looked look metal, are infact plastic, whats suppose to imitate metal.

i'll still with my iPhone thanks

 

[Beric]

That clears things up. Today it's just ridiculous to pay for Core 2 hardware unless it's on a notebook or budget desktop.

I just e-wasted a bunch of working 6 year old Gateway and Dell towers. They were in working order but I couldn't find a home for them.

Yup. Both my brother and I each just built an i7 920 rig for $1000, with a GTX 260. Same performance as a $3000 Mac Pro. Prices are really dropping these days, and Apple really needs an i5 or i7 in the iMac, or else cut the price like crazy.

 

[macswitcha2]

If you have n iPhone, why not get a Zune since iPod Touch is everything that the iPhone is except without a camera and phone.

 

[Macminiintel]

If you have n iPhone, why not get a Zune since iPod Touch is everything that the iPhone is except without a camera and phone.

LOL why would anyone waste there money on a Zune HD, especially if they already got an iPhone, like me, it does alot more than a Zune. Also OLED display is a bad idea, they deteriorate like crazy after 12-18 months, its the colour blue inside the display, although it will be good test to see how many Zune HD's fail just out of warranty, so customers have to buy new ones or pay for it to be repaired

 

[mosx]

LOL why would anyone waste there money on a Zune HD, especially if they already got an iPhone, like me, it does alot more than a Zune. Also OLED display is a bad idea, they deteriorate like crazy after 12-18 months, its the colour blue inside the display, although it will be good test to see how many Zune HD's fail just out of warranty, so customers have to buy new ones or pay for it to be repaired

False.

Modern OLED displays don't have fading issues for tens of thousands of hours. So for a device that will have its display on, on average, for less than an hour a day, it will last the full life of the device.

You want to talk about having something fail just out of warranty, you need to talk with a good amount of iBook owners that suffered failures from design flaws that Apple wouldn't acknowledge until government bodies stepped in, or the current crop of people having problems with their iPhone being bricked by the 3.1 update and Apple telling them "its a $199 replacement fee" when Apple is actually legally responsible regardless of what they try to say in their EULA.

 

[Macminiintel]

False.

Modern OLED displays don't have fading issues for tens of thousands of hours. So for a device that will have its display on, on average, for less than an hour a day, it will last the full life of the device.

people having problems with their iPhone being bricked by the 3.1 update and Apple telling them "its a $199 replacement fee".

hmm well I've never had any issues from software updates, so people either broke there iphones themselves just so they get new ones, or they like to just whine. As for that the xbox 360 its one of the most failed electronic gadgets of this decade. Also I use my iPhone a lot longer than an hour a day, is that all the Zune HD's battery lasts LOL. I've never heard about that $199 replacement fee, nor the 3.1 update bricking iPhones. I Did here though that the 3.1 update stopped support for exchange 2007 on iPod touch & iPhone 3G. I'm a daily Mac rumours reader as well as 9to5 Mac. this is a Mac forums hence "Mac rumours", meant for Mac fans, not windows fans

 

[curtwilliams]

Zune Pass on Mac OS via Silverlight

Being a fan of both Mac OS and Zune Pass is tough. You have to use a VM to run the Zune software. But now with the new zune.net website you can stream music from the Zune catalog to your Mac via the Silverlight browser plugin. This is very cool, even if a little buggy here at first.

 

[DMann]

Got to see one at J&R. I liked the screen, but that was about it. Yet, even though it was kind of nice, there is an indefinable softness to it. I wouldn't say it is a negative, but it did give me pause.

As a big time mac user, unabashed Apple fan, I would get something like this if it offered features I couldn't get on a iPod touch. It just doesn't deliver and I'd have to fire up bootcamp any time I used the thing.

MS are tools to exclude Mac users. They may loath Jobs and imitate the work at Apple, but they're overlooking 10% of the market. Proof positive the marketing team at MS are dopes.

I won't do well for a number of reasons. The interface was okay, not great, certainly no where near as slick as the touch. The marketplacE would be a daily reminder of just how half baked it's OS is. Wooopee for the Ballmer kids though. I know what they're getting for Christmas.

Agreed. Checked one out at J&R as well. Side by side with the iPhone 3GS, the new Zune looks and feels cheap and plasticky - much like a broken-off screen of a Motorola RAZR. The screen is significantly smaller, with much wasted space at the bottom - the OLED grade on the Zune is fair, as the colors are over-saturated and seem unnatural for all media displayed. We shined a bright halogen lamp from above, with the two units side-by-side. The iPhone's images were much more perceptible in bright light, by comparison, as the transflexive LCD pixels reflected the bright light, maintaining the screen images, whereas the Zune, having non-reflective electroluminescent pixels, with no backlight, seemed more washed out. The indefinable softness you describe is due to the lack of a back-light, especially within well-lit environments, as OLED emits light from the pixels only. Perhaps once OLED evolves further, sports transflective pixels, with greater luminescence, and more accurate color representation for this particular grade of OLED, it will be more desirable and fare better under brighter conditions.

The UI is nothing to write home about, as it is less responsive than the iPhone/iPod Touch UI, is not nearly as fluid, and feels erratic and jumpy overall. The HD Radio reception was a bit crackly, and the IE 6 web browser was both laggy and clunky. The comparatively smaller screen is quite noticeable while attempting to browse, view images, and navigate the screens - why the landscape keyboard doesn't expand to the full size of the small screen remains a mystery. As a music player, the sound quality, using an HF2 headset, did not seem any better than the iPhone's, which sports a better built-in speaker - DRM would be a deal killer for me anyway. A major disappointment overall, lack of apps notwithstanding.

 

[iPhone 62S]

Did you hear? AMSTRAD is now coming back with the AMSTRAD HD!!!

Why not, eh? The the Zune can come back with outdated technology and make a big deal of it, why can't they?