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Zune HD Hands on Demo and Impressions

Treq said:
As for being able to play back 720p through an hdmi cable? Who really wants to waste 2GB per hour of video for the off chance that they might play it on a big screen?
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You realize you can add/remove media on the device based on when you need it, right?

I'd love to use it when having a movie marathon with my friends - rip all the videos to my computer and put them on the Zune, take it with me to the friend's house, plug it in their TV, and not have to worry about DVD changes.
 
Heh... noticed that too....

To be honest, I get the same thing when quickly trying to navigate my iPhone. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 taps to get it to do anything. It's probably just an issue nobody has figured out how to completely overcome yet with these touch-screens.

At least with the iPhone and iPod touch though, they have a real, physical button that always exits an app and takes you back to the "home" screen -- so in other words, one of the most commonly used options is NOT going to aggravate you by missing your attempt to select it with your finger.

I got the idea the Zune HD does NOT use multi-touch.... I mean, why would it really need to? It uses a standard, linear type of menu structure and detects rotation between portrait and landscape modes. That seems good enough for a device that is going to only run the included applications. Multitouch really shines more for a "platform" you want to be able to run all manner of downloaded apps on.


notjustjay said:
How many times did the guy tap on the screen, and nothing happened, and he had to tap again to make it work?

Also, is there multi-touch or not? He didn't seem to show it, especially while looking at photos, and you'd think that would be a great opportunity to show it off.

So Microsoft makes their rotation animation speed a little higher, and that's all it takes for people to say "Wow, that's fast!"? Yet it took a good second or two lag to get to the radio screen, with no indication that it's doing something.
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Roessnakhan said:
The market is going touch screen, it isn't copying Apple, its going along with the market. The Zune HD also has notable features that the iPod touch does not have: OLED screen, FM Tuner, and HDMI out (with accessory). The FM tuner is of no use to me because I don't listen to the radio, but its still 1+ feature on the Touch. The only thing the Touch really has going for it above the Zune HD is the App store, which while offering endless possibilities development-wise, doesn't match some of the hardware in the Zune HD.
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Apple sets the market, Apple IS the market, and noone else likes that, or will admit it :p
 
It actually looks nice and of course nothing new because as usual MS just takes cue from Apple. I'm not having an issue about copying Apple's innovation, I'm having the same problem I've had with MS ever since I became a Mac user, they just prefer to monopolize rather than include the rest of the world in on their products.
It's ridiculous the Zune software has never been Mac friendly. Just because Apple makes amazing products doesn't mean Mac users wouldn't prefer a Zune instead. MS is not in the position with the Zune to limit it to Windows. Apple kept the iPod Mac only for only one year and they opened it up to the Windows world. Since the iPod has nearly 90% market share it's not to MS's advantage to make the Zune marketplace Windows only.
Oh well, it's Microsoft's loss and Apple's victory.
 
Treq said:
Yeah it is. The President had to issue a press release telling everyone that he owns an ipod when someone thought they saw him with a zune.
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I think you're just trolling now with your fanboyism. (Did Steve Jobs personally save your cat from a burning building, or something?) We're all apple fans, but stop making us look pretentious and ignorant. It's okay if MS makes a product worthy of proper mass consumption. The ipod touch is far from a perfect device to begin with, and the Zune HD is offering a new option for MP3's.
 
From what I can tell, I do not consider it to be more physically beautiful than the touch. Looks thicker, too. UI doesn't look bad, but I prefer the touch/iphone from what I can tell. However, it does seem snappier than the iPhone (I don't have an iPod Touch).
 
amazing GUI?!?!?

What's up with the huge font size? Are they aiming for the hard-of-seeing crowd?

We have to wait and see, but there is absolutely nothing revolutionary, elegant or even beautiful about this new Zune interface. Gigantic, clunky words on a single page are a waste of screen space.
 
juanster said:
hope is as great as they say, so the touch can have some competition and they make it better...
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I also hope that it is better than the touch. Because if it is, then Apple is forced to take proactive measures and improve the touch. I love competition, it breeds excellence...
 
Unprocessed1 said:
I think you're just trolling now with your fanboyism. (Did Steve Jobs personally save your cat from a burning building, or something?) We're all apple fans, but stop making us look pretentious and ignorant. It's okay if MS makes a product worthy of proper mass consumption. The ipod touch is far from a perfect device to begin with, and the Zune HD is offering a new option for MP3's.
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This whole thread is nothing but trolls... but the fact is, this just looks like a copy of an ipod to me.
 
Digital Dude said:
Well, in typical shameless fashion, the developer seeks to copy the iPhone in every respect. Where would this unimaginative company be without Apple?
Regards,:confused:
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How is it copying Apple? Just because its a touch screen with a home button? The menu structure of the Zune is totally different than the iPhone OS.
 
I and it seems like many others here were done with PMP 24 months ago. I'm sure they are the cats ass for many, but I really don't want to carry around a dedicated devide for music and video.
 
Treq said:
This whole thread is nothing but trolls... but the fact is, this just looks like a copy of an ipod to me.
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Okay, when the iphone of the future has an OLED screen, please tell me you're going to crap over Apple for "copying" Zune?

Quite frankly OLED is the future, and Apple was NOT the first to take the initiative.

I never realized a touch screen interface could be considered "copying". The Zune already had a niche, and it's trying to expand on that. It looks like they made a quality product.

Is Apple paying you for PR? lol.
 
Unprocessed1 said:
Okay, when the iphone of the future has an OLED screen, please tell me you're going to crap over Apple for "copying" Zune?

I never realized a touch screen interface could be considered "copying". The Zune already had a niche, and it's trying to expand on that. It looks like they made a quality product.

Is Apple paying you for PR? lol.
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Dude, how am i promoting apple? I'm just saying this isn't a big deal. Nothing very new. And, it's a zune. What's the niche market? 12 people?
 
I have to say, Zune HD looks great. But iPod Touch has this little thing called App Store. And by that alone, iPod Touch wins hands down.
 
NT1440 said:
Yea, but what difference would it have made with that guy filming, has he heard of focusing?
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I'm guessing the lame camera he is using cannot focus close enough. The question is whether he knew that and didn't care, or didn't know (possibly doesn't know how to check).

But that's all I could think about while watching it. As far as the Zune is concerned the best part of the experience seemed to be the smooth graphics and no lag between apps/menus. This is one area the in which iPhone is soon going to be well out of date unless the new model upps the ante in this regard.

Go MS! Apple needs some competition. OS3.0 should be very good but the hardware needs to keep getting sexier (this includes smoother scrolling, no jitters and jumps). This non-real time aspect to the graphics is a serious problem for the iPhone platform which is being pitched as a games machine. Glitches in action games are a real no-no. The few games that I actually kinda like have been ruined by this.
 
Akira1980 said:
I have to say, Zune HD looks great. But iPod Touch has this little thing called App Store. And by that alone, iPod Touch wins hands down.
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well... it took apple one year to have this fantastic app store. I am sure microsoft can do that in a year or two.
 
So the end of "Marketplace" is cut off on the actual device itself and wasn't just a bad photoshop? SERIOUSLY?

It honestly looks like an iPod touch gone wrong. Pressing the 'home' button causes the same 'zoom out to home screen' effect as in the iPhone OS, the scrollbar looks identical to the one on the touch (yeah, it's a small thing, but still), the interface in the Videos section looks really close to that on the touch...and I agree that the guy was a total idiot, I laughed when he kept attempting to scroll further down the Videos page when he was clearly already at the bottom...oh no, wait, if I scroll back up and then down it might let me go further :rolleyes:

Some of it's concepts are neat, but it honestly looks a bit too hard to navigate. I don't like how the 'back' arrows are in the very corner, and are partially cut off. Like other people have said, the UI is a little bit of a mess.

Although I'm intrigued on how Microsoft will improve on this and what effect, if any, it'll have on the touch :)

unixphone said:
well... it took apple one year to have this fantastic app store. I am sure microsoft can do that in a year or two.
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Microsoft will have to find a decent way to implement it though, and it's another shortcoming of the UI - if they have their own version of the App Store, how exactly will one manage or access their apps? It will be such a pain to have to scroll through an entire list of apps on the Zune HD's home screen, it's so much easier with the icons on the touch to both manage and use apps.
 
you know the eye candy and animations, etc are really so much cooler and slicker.... i really hopes that apple comes out with something as juicy looking too... and obviously it would be better.:p
 
Treq said:
Dude, how am i promoting apple? I'm just saying this isn't a big deal. Nothing very new. And, it's a zune. What's the niche market? 12 people?
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Over 2 million Zunes and over 11% of the market. The Zune HD will certainly increase their market share.
 
Roessnakhan said:
The market is going touch screen, it isn't copying Apple, its going along with the market. The Zune HD also has notable features that the iPod touch does not have: OLED screen, FM Tuner, and HDMI out (with accessory). The FM tuner is of no use to me because I don't listen to the radio, but its still 1+ feature on the Touch. The only thing the Touch really has going for it above the Zune HD is the App store, which while offering endless possibilities development-wise, doesn't match some of the hardware in the Zune HD.
Click to expand...

on thing I might like to point out on that is the Zune HD does have something like the App Store. It is called market place.

Market Place = App store. Give you an idea the Market Place term is taken from Xbox live and it what the 360s use.

I am interested in the ZuneHD and depending on how it turned out when it hits market I might use it to replace my old failing 20 gig g4 iPod which is about 5-6 years old now.

Reason the Zune HD has my attention is the 360 tie in. My only problem I would have is iTunes is my music player so it would take a little work setting up some of the play list on WMP but I think I could live with it over all.
 
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