Next Generation Zune Coming for Holiday Season

thefickler writes "Microsoft has confirmed the existence and coming launch of the long rumored Zune 2.0 or 2nd generation Zune, and it appears that Microsoft will expand the Zune family with new styles, sizes, and price points. 'Future Zune products will feature podcasting support and expanded video support. The Zune will also move into other geographic markets when Microsoft feels it has an appealing product to offer those demographics. Perhaps most importantly of all, the representative mentioned that Microsoft will build on the wireless support. Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi. The rep didn't mention anything specific about Microsoft's rumored answer to the iPod Shuffle. But interesting rumors from sources considered "reliable" point to a very innovative product.'"

With faltering businesses...

When in doubt, spend.

(also applies to politics)

That will fire things up.

At least that's what Roughly Drafted told me [bayimg.com].

Sometimes, spending is just throwing good money after bad. They can't make Zune a winner because rented and dissapearing music just aren't cool. Even less cool is the idea that billboards will be able to "squirt" adverts onto your player or what your player might tell them in return. Minority Report was supposed to be a horror story, not a business model.

Re:That will fire things up.

They can't make Zune a winner because rented and dissapearing music just aren't cool.

On the other hand, "rented" music allows you to sample a much wider variety of music than if you had to pay for it all. $15 will buy you 15 songs on iTunes forever, or it will buy you an "infinite" (limited by what's available on the Zune Marketplace) amount of music for one month. If you like the music, you can always buy it. Personally, the music subscription is what swayed me toward Zune rather than iPod. Well, that and I can't stand Apple's software on Windows. If you're going to make a Windows app, make a damn Windows app. Don't port an OS X app over to Windows, because not only is the look and feel all wrong but the functionality of "standard" controls is different as well. I don't expecto to have to ctrl-click or shift-click on a button in Windows to make some action happen, but that's exactly how the iTunes software works. Microsoft got it right with Office on OS X, building an interface and behaviors specific to OS X. Why can't Apple reciprocate and make proper Windows apps?

Even less cool is the idea that billboards will be able to "squirt" adverts onto your player or what your player might tell them in return.

So turn off the wireless when you're not actively looking for or sharing with other Zune players. As a bonus, you'll get a longer battery life with wireless off.

Re:That will fire things up.

As much an Apple fan as I am, I also hate Apple software on Windows. Not only does it look out of place, it Just Does Not Work.

We share that particular boat; I use Mac OS X for my personal stuff -- web-browsing, e-mail, music, writing and so on -- and Windows for work and gaming. I love Apple's work on OS X, but I find their Windows software nauseating. When it comes down to it, I think anyone who likes Apple for *sensible* reasons (as opposed to just being a blind fan) hates Apple's approach to Windows software.

Those ports violate everything Apple supposedly stands for, such as software that 'just works.' Software 'just working' requires it to work /in context/ with the operating system, and everything else on the system. Apple's cross-system ports do not by /any/ stretch of the imagination; they attempt to shoehorn bits of OS X into Windows, and they do so poorly. (Also, whatever framework they used to port iTunes to Windows is horrible, and I want to find whoever wrote iPodService, hunt them down, and garrote them with a Firewire cable. WTF, Apple?)

This is actually a pet peeve for me. This same stupid shortcut approach to cross-platform development is why things developed on Windows and ported directly to OS X look mildly schizophrenic and get complaints about 'not being well-designed for OS X' from Mac users. It's also why a lot of cross-platform software ported from Linux using GTK+ for Windows or running under X11.app on OS X doesn't 'fit in' either. Why would Apple think this braindead approach to cross-platform development would work any better for them?

If you're going to do something cross-platform, bloody well develop it cross-platform instead of designing it just for one platform and then taking shortcuts to port it without thinking whether or not your design works in the new context.

Re:That will fire things up.

On the other hand, "rented" music allows you to sample a much wider variety of music than if you had to pay for it all. $15 will buy you 15 songs on iTunes forever, or it will buy you an "infinite" (limited by what's available on the Zune Marketplace) amount of music for one month. If you like the music, you can always buy it.

Newscaster Voice: This just in! Get "infinite" (limited by what's on the airwaves) free music for a month! Month after month! If you like the music, you can always buy it! Now you can enjoy all this and more with Marconi technology called "the radio!" (Note: offer may not appy to Delaware or Nebraska!)

We won't get fooled again

They should use The Who's "We Won't Get Fooled Again" for their ad campaign in a form of irony.

I mean, is anyone really going to buy Zune 2.0? After all, it didn't work with the DRM scheme standard Microsoft was pushing, is inferior in every way compared to Apple's iPod, and was a flop in the marketplace, especially when compared to its competitors such as the iPod.

tagged "playsforsurenot"

zune vs IPOD

I did my own comparison of the Zune with the Ipod last Christmas, when those two items were pretty much what everyone was buying, and I decided the Zune was better. Bigger screen, less cost.... that about sums it up for me, although I have the Ipod video, I never use it. Seems the only advantage it has is styling, although that's a light point IMO.

Re:zune vs IPOD

I am sure that when compared to the iPod, it's a decent product at least from a technical perspective. I always hear people talk about the better screen. Of course it has things like wi-fi ability, etc. The problem is not the device itself, it's the company pushing it. You may get a better product (although, let's be honest, marginally better) but MSFT cripples the dang thing with DRM. It's the RIAA's dream device, so buried in DRM that it's capabilities count for nothing, since you cannot really take advantage of them.

I do not know much about the actual hardware versus an iPod, so I cannot really comment on that. I am just talking about obvious hardware (like the screen) and features. I have always said that if someone could figure out how to hack a Zune so that one could take advantage of the features, I'd want one. Good capabilities, it's just that MSFT totally shackles it.

It's a shame really (from MSFT's perspective). In their greed and blatant pandering to the RIAA, they missed a valuable opportunity.

Re:zune vs IPOD

The problem is not the device itself, it's the company pushing it. You may get a better product (although, let's be honest, marginally better) but MSFT cripples the dang thing with DRM. It's the RIAA's dream device, so buried in DRM that it's capabilities count for nothing, since you cannot really take advantage of them.

I hadn't thought about this before, but considering how some people are boycotting any CD put out by RIAA members (with help from RIAA Radar [riaaradar.com]), they should be boycotting the Zune as well, seeing as how Microsoft kicks back a small amount to Universal Music [cnn.com] for every Zune sold.

Microsoft sold out all consumers in a failed bid to give RIAA members teeth to demand an unjustified cut for every iPod sold, just when Apple was renegotiating licensing with the music labels. Now, you may argue that Apple's on "our side" only because it's best for their bottom line... but at least they're not actively against us in this battle! The least we can do is return the favour.

Innovative?

a very innovative product.

As compared to what...? Vista?

Figures they'd announce this now

I just purchased the Halo 3 Zune, and have an appointment next week to get my car set up with an AUX input solution [dension.com] (Porsche's stupid MOST bus Becker head units don't have AUX inputs available as standard or an option). So of course they have to announce Zune 2.0 coming "before holiday season", which most likely means "August".

Hopefully the Zune 2.0 firmware will be pushed to current Zunes.

And I got yer slogan right here...

"It's the second generation Zune, taking failure to a whole new level!"

It will probably be incompatible with music from the 1G Zune, and won't work with Vista. In other words, nothing new here.

So MS is pretty content...

to let apple be basically a generation ahead in the OS and portable electronics markets?

Kind of lame that this is the best an admitted member of the "anti-Apple DAP crowd" can come up with for an article of nearly pure speculation. Creative and Archos look like they have better iPod killer offerings than Microsoft.

streaming

I hope they revamp their wireless sharing system so people can play the music as it streams in; it seems silly to not have that feature.

Though I doubt Microsoft would drop their stupid DRM system, which is why I still wouldn't buy one...

New and improved

Now!! With twice the squirt!!!

Question:

How do you improve upon brown? WIll it be puke green? Or puke orange?

innovative?

attempting to copy an existing product, can never be considered innovative

What does Fight Club have to say about this?

"Life is working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need" -Tyler Durden I hope you're as enlightened as I am.

Superior, so what?

As long as the Zune's marketed by Microsoft and the iPod's marketed by Apple, the Zune is doomed because, let's face it, Apple's good at marketing, and Microsoft's good at forcing stuff down consumer's throats.

Why sync wirelessly?

I'm still baffled as to why anyone would *want* to sync their mp3 player over wifi, given that you have to plug it in to charge it anyway.
Until they get wireless power into mp3 players, wireless syncing seems like a somewhat pointless feature, to be included for buzzword-compliance only.

And there are so many more interesting things you could do with wifi on an mp3 player too...
A relatively uncrippled pull-based local ad-hoc network (like iTunes sharing as opposed to Zune's heavily crippled push "squirting") would be an obvious win.
And net radio access would be nice as well.
Buying songs online could even work with a good enough interface (I doubt either current Zunes or iPods could make it a really enjoyable experience due to the limits of their controls, but the iPhone would do nicely.)

And that's not even mentioning more general-computing non-music tasks like web browsing and such...

Re:Why sync wirelessly?

If your Nano did wireless synching, you'd be charging it more often than every two weeks...

Well, better not buy one.

Hm. Well, if the _new_ one is coming out, why bother buying the old one, right? New one will be way better.

It's not like Apple could ever compete with a wireless iPod.

Dammit

I always buy stuff [hideapod.com] right before the new product lines get announced.

I never thought I'd feel bad for MS.

But I suspect by the time Zune is worthy of the "iPod Killer" moniker, Apple will have already killed the iPod themselves. Sure, they'll still be selling dedicated DAPs for a while to come, but I wouldn't be shocked if a midrange "good enough" iPhone changes the playing field there. Exactly what they did before with the mini/nano. One thing I find admirable about the new Apple is that they don't seem to give a shit about cutting into their own installed base with a product that fits the market better than what they had before. By the time MS gets this right, *the market they're after is going to liken the standalone DAP to monochrome displays and 200 songs.

*no, slashdot is not this market. I know.

It still won't...

...support any of Vorbis, FLAC, or Speex. Is nobody else worried about that?

In a word...

no.

My question is..

So when can I buy a 2G Hide-a-Pod [hideapod.com]?

Maybe They Could Just Mind Their Business

Maybe we'll finally have the freedom of synching our digital audio players via wi-fi.

If the pigopolists would just leave device makers alone, we'd already have such an obvious feature. Instead they pull stunts like this to limit device features and user choice. If M$ is first to market with a wifi enabled music player it can only be because of market manipulation like the above. [theregister.co.uk]

They won't really be first, though. Zaurus and other PDAs have had both free music players and wifi for years.

how about offering something new??

I'm no fanboi. I'll give the Zune a chance when MS offers something that is better than the iPod. I'm not looking for something as good as the iPod or an iPod with BIGGER features. How about some real innovations like: -more HD space is always nice, how about beating Apple with a 100GB or 120GB Zune? :) -intelligent shuffle that actually uses play counts, last-played, ratings & play-selection-order (and who knows what else) to intuitively determine what songs would fit together? Sort of a moodlogic for people instead of idiots & jerks? -non-platform specific compatibility -better firmware customization (that iPod linux thing is a worthy try but come on) -something that doesn't look like a blatant ripoff of the iPod -custom codec installation -API for application construction & integration I could go on & on...

Podcasting

Anyone else think it's funny that the Zune will support "Podcasting"?

Advanced Release Schedule

Maybe they can just get this "Zune 2.0" out next month so we'll still have time to get something good released by Christmas.

Podcasting Support

"Future Zune products will feature podcasting support and expanded video support. ..." So Zunes will have cameras and microphones in them, so that they can be used to make podcasts? And perhaps even the ability to upload the podcasts via WiFi ...

Hmmm....

You realized you used Microsoft and innovative in the same sentence?

What were you thinking?

Is that even possible??

Andy

I have one...

Believe it or not I won it at a charity auction. I was pretty excited to get it, my 2gb mobile player wasn't cutting it for long trips. Here's the truth - they did a good job with it. It's well made. The interface is solid, easy to use and intuitive. I didn't have to read the instructions to use it. The software works pretty well, but is a little confusing. When the Zune came out it'd have been pretty hard to F*** up. With all the money in the world and dozens of business cases to study it'd be pretty difficult to come out with an MP3 player that didn't do a passable job. The Zune did just that, and now true to Microsoft form 2.0 will come out, and then 3.0 and 4.0, and it'll continue to improve. If I were voting with my own money I'd have probably bought Creative's 30gb model, but in truth the Zune is pretty good at what it does. If you can live with people poking fun at you for owning it, go ahead and buy one. It only syncs with Windows, by the way.

Here it is...

The Jesus Zune... time for someone somewhere to get excited about a product that is about to revolutionize the Zune market. I for one am selling my stock in other Zunes.

But... what is it??

I just RTFA, and it sais NOTHING, and that is truly NOTHING, about what is really in the pipeline. Only lines like "it's going to be better", and "we're expanding it blah blah" with a lot of marketingspeak - but really nothing on the actual product. The only concrete product mentioned, the "Zune Shuffle" or whatever, also falls short of an actual description, let alone giving me the idea that it is reliable.

Sorry folks, nothing to see here, move along. Really, there is absolutely nothing.

The only thing about this article is that it keeps the buzz going, it keeps the people talking about this device. And guessing. Just guessing. Because there is nothing really said there, everything is just a guess.

Editors, please do your job, and don't put this kind of nonsense on the front page. It doesn't belong there. I'm really interested in tech news, and also what Microsoft is doing - even though I don't buy their products, they are one of the major forces in the computer world - but this is the least informative article ever.

Ah well, let the Microsoft bashing continue.

History repeats...

And the same folks who didn't line up to buy Zune 1.0 will run right out and not line up for the next one.

And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.

Will it run uClinux?

Probably won't if it goes GPLv3...

Zune problems

One embarrassing footnote to the "million Zunes sold" meme is that few of those sales have been to individuals. The majority of Zunes are still sitting on store shelves. We know this because Microsoft managed to shovel an excess inventory of at least 4 million Xbox 360s on retailers. That fact that Microsoft hasn't been able to fake similar levels of sales for the Zune indicates that sales of the Zune are REALLY low.

More Articles on Zune [google.com].

Meanwhile, Apple shipped several times as many iPhones in its first weekend, selling it only in its own retail stores and AT&T shops. That says something about Apple and Microsoft's ability to retail.

Apple has also been selling iPods at a profit; Microsoft's Zune + Xbox division has lost BILLIONS every year. Think about that for a moment.

-
Ten Fake Apple Scandals: 1 - Phony Rage About iPhone Price and Profits [roughlydrafted.com]
Reality: The iPhone costs less than any smartphone, and will have a higher resale value after two years than any phone. Here's why.

Tag

whogivesashit

No new SKUs?

Microsoft will expand the Zune family with new styles, sizes, and price points.

What? No mention of new SKUs? I'm disappointed in the summary.

Zune::why?

Zune 2.0 is like Services for Unix 2.0. Why do they bother?

Sometimes Microsoft just competes because they don't have anything better to do with a couple of billion dollars.

Give em a break...

Poor microsoft, they succeeded in their xbox ventures with xbox and then xbox 360. Their plan was to get their foot in the door with the original Xbox and then really grow with the xbox360. Now I won't say they succeeded 100% but they're doing pretty well at least compared to Sony. Can they repeat this with the Zune? Maybe.....Zune 1 was a complete flop but I think maybe Microsoft might be able to adapt and change it to be more competitive. I hope. I dislike Apple's monopoly on the mp3 player market as much as I disliked the stranglehold Microsoft has on the PC market. For MSFT to even have a chance, however, they really must eliminate the strong DRM of the Zune and make it more like the iPod. Remember the days before the iPod? Sony could have ruled the MP3 market but they created their lame lame magicGate DRM that made putting songs into the player more painful and slow than just burning an audio CD.

Merry Crapmas

Next Generation Zune Coming for Holiday Season

Halloween, maybe.

Zune 2.0...

Now available in three shades of brown!

signs your hardware is dead...

after a year still noone is running linux on it

WTFC

Who The Fuck Cares. Apple products aside, MP3 players are a commodity item nowadays.

My Zzzzz.. display the The Red Ring of Death!!!

Proof : http://www.flickr.com/photos/7707549@N05/873523361 / [flickr.com]

Apple is vulnerable

I think Apple is vulnerable in the Mp3 player market right now. The iPod does not have great battery life, and it still scratches easily. If they don't release a new version this holiday season, I will think about getting a Zune 2.0. I read that Zune 1.0 had great battery life and was well made, the problem was the DRM. If they fix the DRM, then Zune 2.0 might well be the superior device.

Podcasting

"Future Zune products will feature podcasting support"

Are they saying that it will take a new hardware model to support podcasting?? Apple did it with just software.
 

A very innovative product?

I have it on good authority that it will look just like the iPod shuffle, but, get this: It will also be available in brown!

MS is Texas Instruments?

This reminds me of another company that made technically superior products [99er.net] that were so quirky, hard to use, weird-looking and goofy corporate that almost no one bought them even though the engineering was profound. Microsoft is the new Texas Instruments.

proper citations?

this looks like its whizbytes work. This news is taken from http://whizbyte.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com] and is not properly cited so. shame slashdot. I tried to contact you guys about it but you dont give any email addresses.

New Zune + AllSpark yields

Scientist #1: So I put the new Zune in that tank and ran some juice from the AllSpark into it.

Scientist #2: Wow! Cool! What did it turn into?

Sci 1: Let's say "a big, steaming pile of awesome."

Sci 2: What do you mean?

Sci 1: It turned into this animatronic version of Mr. Hanky...

Re:From TFA:

You must be new here. WMF is, if anything, the anti-mac fanboy.

Re:From TFA:

You must be new here.

No, this person [slashdot.org] is new here.

Re:expanding customer base?

AKA luserbase.

Re:Innovative?!!

As usual, FUD. Here's some innovation for ya: "The player can't be turned on or off as it is always in the same state."

Re:expanding customer base?

Nah, they'll just be teaming up with McDonalds on marketing.

Re:Don't believe the negativity

On paper the Zune looked okay. The problem for most people is that Microsoft was a little deceptive in advertising in what Microsoft failed to disclose. It had a bigger screen, but the resolution was the same as the iPod and the player was larger. It had wifi but it wasn't really wifi. You can buy music online only it's not compatible with anything you may have bought before, etc.