i love it! It does look super cool.

What's changed between that prototype and the final retail version?

~Brian

brian - well, the case is different ;)

Not too much of a change, eh?

Cool I want one. ;)

Neat, although it looks kinda weird with out the matte finish.

That is AWESOME!  I would totally get that if it was on the market (UNLESS orange was an option - the orange Zunes are my favorite!)

Does it still have the rubberized texture, or was the prototype a different feel?

Ivan

cesar, is there any info you can provide to prove/disprove that Zune software uses abnormally high amounts of cpu on Vista?

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/zune-using-abnormally-high-amounts-of-cpu-on-vista-237107.php

I haven't upgraded to Vista yet and this worries me.  Thanks

Funny. That's how I feel when trying to find someone to squirt.

Now you are showing us stuff that never happened with the zune. Nothing is happening with the zune right now? Updates?? New hardware?? come on!!!

Wow... reminds me of those old Game Boys.  That's pretty cool... any chance of that clear case coming out for the techie groups?

Cesar, You had mentioned in a prior entry that you would check with the boss man to see if you could spill any hints on when we could expect some updates.  The social seems to be getting more and more riled up on the forums.  I'm sure this doesn't help sell more Zunes, when the fan base is loosing some faith and talking about it on fan sites.  I'm staring to believe that the Zune team has moved on to the next models and there is little hope for improvements to the current model.  I can see why the team wouldn't want to talk about future models, but why so quiet about the model that's already out?  Unless of course, there are no major plans for future firmware improvements, except for the fixes to known bugs.  Proclaiming this would be a huge dissapointment to the Zune believers.  Therefore, maybe it's best not to say anything.  I truly don't want to believe this, but I'm trying to make sense of the hush.  If you can't tell us what's up, can you share the reason why the silence is a wise business decision?  Maybe that will help people feel better about their purchase and continue to dream about what the future holds for their much loved Zune.  I appreciate your work on this blog and anything you could share without loosing your job.    

T, the lesson to be learned is to buy a device based on the feature set it has, not what you think it will/should be.

Full disclosure: 1st Gen iPod user. It played and managed music really well in 2001 and it's still going strong today.

Yeah true but Microsoft said many times that Zune will get knew features via firmware updates.  Not to mention add video to the Zune Marketplace.  You hear all this stuff and then after three months you hear silence...that can make some Zune users impatient.

Of course too much or two little is not a good thing.  We want a happy medium. ;)

A good number of 1st generation customers bought the Zune for the reasons segadc mentions.  They believe that the Zune's functionality would be expanded to equal the features, if not blow past the features of the IPOD.  That is far from the truth right now.  It does have a bigger screen and FM stereo, but that's it.  The wireless capability right now is a complete joke and should not have been what Microsoft advertised as unique about it.    Most people don't even turn on the wireless, because it's just a battery drain and there are too few Zunes out there to even try to connect.    In addition, the DRM has made the feature almost useless.  Zune users want a clock and sleep timer, they want to sych contacts, they want videos on the Marketplace, some want games, and they want a wireless feature that is worth turning it on for.  The list goes on and on, but even if we got 2 of these things, The Zune love would come back to the fan sites and current customers would stop talking about returning their Zunes for Creative Lab players, or god forbit, Ipods.  They would stop talking about how the Zune has already failed.  They would stop posting all the negative articles out there about Zune.  Someone researching the Zune on the web right now would probably pass on buying a Zune after they saw what people are saying.  That can't be good.  The Zune needs some good press soon.  The only good press I've seen is the talk about a Zune phone that is being denied here.

hey all, I feel your pain, and I understand how frustrating the silence is. but just because there's no word from the me/team, doesn't mean we're not listening, and that the dev team isn't working hard on an update. Right now they'd rather be heads down and make improvements to the software than be interrupted to talk to marketing ;). So, nothing specific (yet), but stay tuned.

bring the updates already. UNICODE, GAPLESS, VIDEO CODECS, SLEEP TIMER, CLOCK, BETTER ALBUM ART...COME ON, BOYS. WE ARE LOSING THIS BATTLE. WE DON'T WANT TO LOSE THE MEDIA WAR...COME ON !!

Must every single post here warrant crying over a slow development schedule?  I mean really, it's been out for three months.  That's not a whole lot of time, and they did already come out with an update.  

I can't say I'm not irritated with some of the issues either, but you have got to cut them some slack.  They needed to get it out before the holiday season, so of course there'll be some bugs.

nar - I hear you on cutting the team some slack. I've cut back to asking the dev team "when can we start talking about the next update" to around once a week (vs. three times/day ;)

but it's cool for people to express their feelings about the lack of updates in these comments. I agree that Zune has been out for three months, but the team is working to make it better. Overall though it never hurts to ask :)

Thanks for letting us vent. ;)

Cesar, Thanks for hearing us and being an advocate.  You and the dev team are all in a tight spot right now.  I also know how hard it is to work on a project when people keep bugging you to get an update.  I always want to respond, "every time you ask me for an update, it's that much longer until it's complete." :)    

cool, thanks t - hopefully this conversation can resonate through the forums :)

I've stopped thinking about updates. I even bought an iPod out of anger against the Zune. :) with an intend to replace it. Then I realised that the iPod is never going to get updates while with the Zune there is a rare chance that it might.

I gave the iPod to my brother.

I use the Zune only for the music I have with me and stopped worrying about extra features. Its not that I don't want any other features. But because the Zune is only good as a music player (with unDRMed music in my library), thats the only way I've been using it.

Luckily its not a flash player otherwise I would have had to use the desktop software more often, which would have bugged me.

Any updates will only make me happier :)

John,

I can't repro what Gizmodo is saying about CPU usage of Zune on Vista (see http://www.mohea.com/mike/words/001028.html for my results). Of course, they didn't provide any details about what they were doing, so it's hard to say for sure.

Mike (a Zune dev)

Seems to me a physical difference here is the edges are rounder than in final production??

Me wants one of those early prototypes that had the silver dial/buttons, that we would see in those 'leaked' photos.

If a pink Zune could fetch > $700 on eBay I'd imagine you can get maybe $1500 for the clear one!  

That is unique :P Is he the only guy aroudn with a prototype version?

By the way Ceasar I am in the UK and you never reply to my emails. I own Zuney.Net and need to ask you a few questions, if you can drop me a line

rob (at sign) zuney.net.

rob, email me once more - contact info below

I'm not complaining, I'm waiting patiently, and loving my Zune in the meantime.

I only have one wish for the new firmware... a proper storage driver.  If the record companies want to block that as a way of bypassing the DRM, then just make me partition off part of the drive... I don't ming, really.

I have a 30gb Zune with about 15gb of music on it.  I am carrying around a highly portable hard drive that requires no outside power supply, and I CAN'T use it.  That, to me, is the frustrating part because I'm also carrying around an external 3.5" drive enclosure just to hold about 2Gb worth of documents I want with me.

Clock?  Sleep timer?  Personally I don't care about either one of these.  I'm not in the habit of sleeping with earbuds in, and if I need a clock I'll look at my phone.  I want something that truly takes advantage of what the Zune has plenty of... SPACE.

I think that the clock/sleep timer is very important. I am thinking about switching back to i pod for that reason.

I want to by a Zune for Audible Books. But I cannot because there is no sleep time. I fall asleep and wake up eight hours further in my book.