Zune Insider

In the video it looks like Zune's FM Tuner supports RDS (Radio Data Service) and is actively using the data to on the display - is that right?

by Gregor Herdmann at Thursday, September 14, 5:24 PM

I'm sorry to be a bitch, but is this even a real product? Searching microsoft.com gives this page as the first result: http://www.microsoft.com/msft/speech/FY06/BachFAM2006.mspx and googling gives this: https://www.comingzune.com/ i love the videos, but how much more irrelavant can one get? Who's the marketing brain behind this launch? seriously guys... get your shit together...

by Alex G at Thursday, September 14, 6:09 PM

THanks for the video Cesar. This is probably the MP3 player of choice by me, if I am to get one. Miss ya with the Xbox peeps man, hope everyting is going well. -Mastaglach820

by Matt at Thursday, September 14, 6:17 PM

wow...and i just got a toshiba gigabeat s...which am happy with but just cant resist the temptation to switch after seeing this

by Andrew at Thursday, September 14, 6:27 PM

Question Will the Zune have Bluetooth capabilities?. I will love to get rid of the freaking headphone cables and be free...

by Rafael Perez at Thursday, September 14, 6:37 PM

The UI has completely sold me on the device. People talk about 'next gen' ipods all of the time. But this UI is a 'next gen' PMP UI.

by Manu at Thursday, September 14, 6:47 PM

yeah I love the UI. but what is up with the design? I love the colors (yes even the brown) but that black d-pad is distracting. It should be black for the black zune, different shade of brown for the brown zune, and grey for the white zune. (match the colors that surround the edge of the screen) Whoever designed that really messed up with the dpads and I hope they get changed before launch. ( could be deal breaker for some ) also... so is it true that this thing won't be working under wmp11? why spend all the time to make the best media media player I have ever seen, then not use it for your device? Or is zune just going to be a store option like urge currently is in wmp11? cause if you don't use the awesome wmp11, I cannot buy it. Finally, will their be a mic/record function? I would love to use this for class lectures ( providing the battery life is good ) and would be disappointed to not see this feature added. ( more important than fm radio in my opinion. ) On the positive note, Zune looks amazing, love the new viral video ( hope it comes preloaded on our zunes =P ) Love the zune pass idea ( does this mean that any music shared with us will be allowed to keep if we are a zune pass subscriber? ) hopefully music downloads will be less than a dollar, but I know I am dreaming. Also, can you answer my podcast question? Will it be in a seperate podcast section, or mixed in with all our mp3s. ( hopefully the former ) Keep up the great work, hopefully now that it is official we will be see more posts from you, Cesar... =P

by Woody56292 at Thursday, September 14, 7:19 PM

Looks kinda like a redone Windows portable media player UI. Personally, I think the iPod's UI is plain, boring, and just plain old. So far, it looks like the Zune has a pretty nice UI.

by RomeoDude at Thursday, September 14, 7:21 PM

( sorry last comment tonight I swear ) what ever happened to the rumored magnetic headphones? supposedly the magnetic headphones would attach to the metallic back of the zune. ( see paragraph 4 of link ) I hope this is true, cause this is one of the coolest/most useful hardware features I have seen in a while ( the reason I hate in the ear is because they always get tangled ) please if you can, confirm whether this is a feature or not. =) thanks.

by Woody56292 at Thursday, September 14, 10:12 PM

Looks very interesting and promising. I don't own an iPod, so my soul has not yet been claimed. At the moment most of my music listening is done on my phone, but with the right features (and especially a connection with XBox Live somehow) I'd be quite willing to take the plunge. I'll be watching this closely... and I really appreciate the blog and the chance to give feedback.

by Martin V. at Thursday, September 14, 10:24 PM

CESAR: Some questions ..... 1. Since Microsoft points are usuable on the Zune will we be seeing a Zune marketplace on the 360? Perhaps you guys should talk to majornelson this weekend for his podcast? 2. Are we going to get "real" podcast support in the zune marketplace (rss feed style) like itunes has? If not at launch as a added feature later? 3. We know their are other devices in the works, video centric etc... but are their plans for future larger drive editions? any hints? 4. Where did the magnetic headphones go? Or is that only with the addon pack? 5. I know the zune is part of the zune specific ecosystem ... but will the Zune be able to play previously purchased PFS tracks? I know its apprently not a play for sure device, but you guys also said you want to handle as many peoples files as possible hence the AAC support but what about PFS files previously purchased? 6. Mpeg4 video support does that mean divx/xvid will be supported? 7. When mpeg4's and different video types are moved to the device are they transcoded or resized or will the device maintain the files. (i mean if i put a 640x480 vid on cause i want to watch it on the tv output i dont really want it scaled down and i doubt anyone else would) 8. Zune's starting out music centric but apparently you guys said it will evolve to be video in the store as well does that include tv shows and movies? And will we see this part of the marketplace on the 360 side as well perhaps as part of a "Zune Marketplace" part of the Media blade :)? 9. I really really really hope you guys advertise the hell out of this... microsoft seems to SUCK at marketing, while apples got these annoying yet catchy ads that we see nearly daily on tv on various stations world wide... but microsoft i think i've seen 1 ad and it was office on i think g4 lol not even fox or nbc... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ZUNE TEAM THROW THE MARKETING BEHIND THIS! I know you guys want to "be different" and break the train microsofts been on and PLEASE let this be one of the ways.

by Chris at Thursday, September 14, 10:58 PM

10. Will we be seeing or why aren't we able to use the Wifi to sync with the Marketplace? 11. Will their be eventually a marketplace built into the device, so that perhaps adults or people not adapt or even don't have a PC can get and download music straight to their device? 12. Is the battery replaceable on the zune or is it locked like the ipod in a sealed case?

by Chris at Thursday, September 14, 11:11 PM

You know the more I think about it, I'm surprised Microsoft didn't try to hijack the iPod. What I mean by this is to develop a software replacement kinda like RoxBox (I think that's the name). MS develop a utility to capture the firmware image so the user can roll back to Apple very easily. And guarantee that if they didn't like the new software they could go back to Apple, and if it couldn't be restored then they would buy that person a new iPod. (not much of a real risk) 1) Replace Apple's software with MS' software that only works with the Zune Music Store - Ownership and Subscription Models, but with Microsoft's DRM. - The conversion software would be free, (with a $250.00 Zune store credit or something - they said they were going to lose money for the first 5 years). 2) Allow the highjacked iPod to link to the XBox 360, Windows Media Player 11 3) Come out with a ton of games only for the hijacked iPod (Pod Halo anyone?) With a handheld gamepad dock (I saw the mockup somewhere). If they did this, they would have Apple's scroll wheel and a quality player! They would just attempt to take over as the service provider. Their pitch would be that MS has the best player with Zune because of these extra features (Wi-Fi, FM Radio, ect...). But if you already have a 5G iPod, changeover to the MS Zune format and gain X,Y and Z.

by Kresh at Friday, September 15, 12:50 AM

I'm an iPod guy but I have to admit, I like this. The UI (especially for browsing albums) is nice. And the wireless capabilities sound promising.

by gino at Friday, September 15, 1:01 AM

I still can't believe you're thinking about DRM every music file... Don't you think that's taking it a littler far? There are a number of criteria that will have to be met for me to throw out my ipod for this device... first of all, the hard drive will have to be replacable (with a little handy work of course) because 30gb is tiny, 60minimum 80 would be best. I'm sure later models will feature larger drives which is why i wont buy a gen1... I also want to wait and see what HTC's 60gb jasjar has to offer. (They lost the QWERTY and gained the drive + some more cells).

by Steve at Friday, September 15, 2:10 AM

I really don't believe those who say the Zune is an Xmas 2006 release as even now its barely showing up on the radar. Microsoft isn't known for their ability to keep secrets. Maybe its some underground marketing attempt, release something great and tell nobody about it driving the value through the floor :D Keep it up!

by Steve at Friday, September 15, 2:14 AM

DRM everything I put in there!?!? Keep in mind a fully loaded Ipod (purchased downloads at the lowest price) costs $25,000+ yet every bumb on the street has one... Why are they trying to play "Mr Copyright police" trying to stop something that really doesnt affect them (apple survives)

by Shaun at Friday, September 15, 2:22 AM

Great Job with the site. Come on over sometime, we're Canada's first official site for the Zune. Must be great to have your job :P Cheers

by ZuneStop at Friday, September 15, 3:27 AM

What are the EXACT dimensions (width, height, depth) of the Zune? Is it much bigger then the current Gigabeat?

by Rik at Friday, September 15, 3:54 AM

Will the Zune be able to Sync over Wi-Fi? Because that would be the coolest feature ever!

by Francesco at Friday, September 15, 6:25 AM

I'm seeing a recurring theme on some of these questions. Sounds like a future post should hit on the Zune Marketplace (ZMP) interface. I currently use Y!Music Unlimited ToGo with iRiver. I definitely want to replace that player and the YME is slow. I've been holding out to see what the Zune offers before I make the jump to i... This is your one shot. I like the subscription option so glad to see it's in ZMP. (I know some hate it but if there's a song I like in YMU subscriptions I just buy it at .79 anyway, the 'rent' option lets me explore a lot more...) -Is Zune Marketplace a re-skinned WMP? (I like what I see of it, I trust you'll be able to set the colors to match your Zune ;) - http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/zune-marketplace-to-keep-your-zune-player-happy/ -Will it support PlaysForSure? No XBox here (sorry), but I have a DLink DSM-320 media adapter and that plays my YMU subscriptions, would hope it can also access ZMP stuff. -Will it support all my playlists? I know it said you could bring them in but I'm hoping it will support the m3u files directly so the same list could exist in WMP, ZMP, and also be accessible by my media adapter. Finally, please keep the price at or below i's $249/30GB level....

by kp at Friday, September 15, 8:31 AM

it's beautiful! great job!

by herbal23 at Friday, September 15, 8:37 AM

Don't worry about the fact that they are DRMing all the files sent to the device as MS is yet to get DRM right, cracks normally are released within a day of the official release then MS comes back with an update within a month (the fastest updates ever written by MS have been to solve DRM loopholes)

by Robert at Friday, September 15, 9:08 AM

I've tried to avoid posting here, but the Zune as a platform rather than a device is something that really appeals to me - because the hardware is capable of doing it, make upgrades to the software rather than making people buy a whole new device. It sort of brings interesting perspectives in to where you can take the zune technology: you could add in a WAP-like browser, connect wirelessly to computers to browse and play songs from their libraries (if you have access)...etc. Maybe even transfer files to and from a system! Would be great! A few questions though: - can you turn the wireless of to conserve battery life? Is there an easily accessible switch for this? - Why can't the 3days/3plays thing be determined by the DRM status of the song? So if my songs that I made are unprotected, they wouldn't have this restriction? Zune-to-Zune could be a new distribution method for upcoming artists you don't have music store presence. Pay per download from my Zune! - Will we be able to create software or codecs for this new platform? There are some mfile types (like OGG, APE) that Microsoft aren't likely to provideo codecs for. Can we port and install them? How about creating an application to run on the zune (improve wireless capabilities with computers, wifi sniffer...etc?) - support for the Macintosh or Linux? Karl

by Karl at Friday, September 15, 10:26 AM

-All the music file tags displayable on the Zune UI? Sample youtube doesn't show lyrics displayed, hopefully that's available in Zune. -Podcasts were mentioned as playable. I use Juice as podcast receiver and then use the auto-playlists to monitor files for my podcasts and that works really good. The same functionality available in ZMP?

by kp at Friday, September 15, 10:38 AM

Some of the more CLUELESS BLOGS: http://www.idolator.com/ So post-blog hip they can't even keep their site up and running 24/7, let alone allow facts to obscure their 'tude. http://tinyurl.com/f55ew Gizmodo, in a stunningly misleading title: Zune vs. iPod: About the Same Size, Both Stuck in 4:3, completely misses the point of screen size and conveniently neglects to include the progress bar. Why is this important? Because you can see the progress bar on the iPod gets in the way of the visual. I'd love to hear applets dismiss the iPod as being "about the same size." Evidently this is pretty complex stuff for the Giz to deal with. The UI is clearly superior to the iPod. The only downside seems to be the 320 x 240 resolution.

by crescentdave at Friday, September 15, 11:03 AM

ok, hre i go on the questions bandwagon. I have but one question to it, and I promise it's not another repeated one. I beam dozen friends sme really cool music I paid for. Some of them really like them and actually buy it after three days. Do I get some credit points for referral, in weedshare.com style? That's the most important information for me. How will the P2P culture change around this detail. if you actually get to read this, cesar, I just thank you..

by alexandre van de sande at Friday, September 15, 12:31 PM

I don't work for MS but I've been following Zune for awhile. This is what I know about some questions asked in here. I would guess no to bluetooth as it would be a feature to mention in the FCC or Fact sheet docs and it's nowhere. Shame because the first thing I ever noticed in those iPod dancer commercials was the silly cord flopping around. I would like to know more about the recording capabilities on it as well. No mention in any hardware specs and no mention in any of the music blog reviews so me thinks not. Podcast support will probably come as a software update later. It will play a file now but not support RSS feeds or even seperate the files unless you sort them as such. We all know how secure wireless is. The WiFi on this device is obvioulsy limited for reasons. Security is a major concern on a device sold to kids. Having the communications wide open by default would cause them far too many headaches. You'll have to buy music through the site under SSL restrictions and securely transfer the data to the device for proper DRM. Maybe future versions will work through these limitations but not the first gen units. I think they DRM every song because they do have plans to open a music store with user generated content sales and importing content with no DRM would cause that issue. As the DRM license holder I should however be able to unlock it for anyone at no charge. I can't understand how they could plan to sell my content without paying me for it so my guess is yes they plan on making every artist his own producer and marketing agent and they will facilitate the platform for the exchange. The viral marketing is working like a clock. Everyone is right in step and the hype is just about right. If the device can even come close to expectations it will rock. A browser seems obvious to me as well. They should have a wireless version of ie ready for the device. If they don't they missed the boat on that one. I would like to know more about the Marketplace as well. Cesar, I second the motion your next post is on the Zune Marketplace. You can read more about the new Microsoft DRM and how they may plan to work with artisits here: http://www.zunemax.com/the-zune/microsoft-zune-and-the-xbox-xna-game-studio

by Zune MAX at Friday, September 15, 3:03 PM

I'm not sure you went about this correctly. Clearly if networking and community are a big part of your approach then you need critical mass. Putting out a relatively high priced unit isn't going to give you that. You really need a lower priced unit. That $79 shuffle from Apple is really going to move. They've moved 10m shuffle units because people don't really need a lot of the visual features. I think you need to think about ways to put out a 50 dollar unit. Just get your product into consumers hands and get some momentum. At 50 bucks it's a consumable and an impulse buy. Even to just try it out. Shoot for 1 Gig and cut everything else out that you can. Have a 100 version with more storage and more battery juice.

by dana at Friday, September 15, 3:35 PM

For your high priced unit you should use (if possible) a click wheel like the blackberries. Use that entire flat front for screen. And target parents who need to shut their kids up on long trips. You can sell me a $400 full screen unit that I can download Elmo onto and that I can put into my daughter's hands so she doesn't go bat shit crazy when we fly for 6 hours. That unit pays for itself in my book

by dana at Friday, September 15, 3:37 PM

It's looks like a slick product, but I have to ask why it has taken until 2006 (a mere 5 and a bit years since the launch of the iPod) for Microsoft to realise this was an important market? I don't really care that much for Apple or Microsoft, both watch the market and rework other people's innovate but flawed ideas. But how can Microsoft talk about "freedom to innovate" when they release a product that offers very little more than other companies? I would have liked to have seen document viewing (office), simple games (maybe a cut-down directX api) etc...

by Giles at Friday, September 15, 5:35 PM

Giles: They never said the zune wont be able to do stuff like that... remember this is Version 1 of the FIRST device in the zune line of products :) And from what i've heard the dashboard on the device is autoupgradeable :) so who knows they add features to the xbox why not the zune :D

by Chris at Friday, September 15, 11:24 PM

@ dana: no, no, no to the clickwheels. I have a creative zen xtra ( click name url ) and I can say from experience that click wheels are one of the most annoying things ever. the reason they work for blackberries is because they aren't the primary input device. Although a full screen zune would look nice. ( a gaming zune with a click pad on both sides and screen in the middle would also look cool ) like a boombox. =P

by Woody56292 at Saturday, September 16, 8:40 PM

Something that caught my attention: They never show you how scrolling works. The video very specifically never shows how you scroll through the menu...it just zooms in to only show the screen when they are scrolling...just thought that was interesting.

by xxdesmus at Wednesday, September 20, 5:48 AM

OMFG OWNAGE im buying one

by SicKn3sS at Saturday, September 23, 5:18 PM

http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=916 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=917 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=918 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=919 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=920 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=921 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=922 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=923 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=924 - http://forum.cgd.ucar.edu/showthread.php?t=925 -