Gizmodo Has Exclusive Zune Photo and Info

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/top/exclusive-microsoft-zune-picture--zune-in-the-wild-194877.php' target='_blank'>http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/top/exclusive-microsoft-zune-picture--zune-in-the-wild-194877.php</a><br /><br /></div>Since <a href="http://www.zunethoughts.com">Zune Thoughts</a> hasn't launched yet, here's some Zune info for you... ;-)<br /><br /><i>"Thanks to our awesome tipsters, we scored this exclusive picture of the Microsoft Zune. Yes, it looks almost exactly like the images we've shown you before on Gizmodo. The player also comes with a pair of magnetic headphones, which as you can see from the picture, stick to each other so they're easier to manage. The reason the shot is in black and white is because Microsoft assigned a unique color scheme to every Zune prototype in existence right now—all 150 of them—so any leaks could be traced to the employee who leaked it. We don't want to be jerks and get anybody fired."</i><br /><br />Click through to Gizmodo to see the picture of the device - it's hard to tell much from a blurry B&amp;W photo, but the basic design looks functional enough. There's also <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/top/exclusive-microsoft-zune-details-194957.php">another post</a> with some insider information that's quite slick: the buttons will have a "press and hold" function similar to Windows Mobile devices where if you hold down the directional pad it speeds up then jumps to an A to Z selection. That will speed up finding certain songs. It apparently also has a built-in FM transmitter, which is damn slick: one less accessory to buy, though it does mean there will be a UK-only version with no FM transmitter. This is shaping up to be an interesting device!

[Chris Gohlke]

Kind of looks like an iPod and a Pocket PC got together.

[Phoenix]

I'm eager to get my hands on one of these when they arrive. As much as I enjoy my Ipod, I long for some changes, so I'm hoping Zune will offer up some real competition.

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As an aside, Gizmodo notes the following:

"The reason the shot is in black and white is because Microsoft assigned a unique color scheme to every Zune prototype in existence right now—all 150 of them—so any leaks could be traced to the employee who leaked it. We don't want to be jerks and get anybody fired."

Perhaps I'm wrong here, but even though this Zune prototype was photographed in black and white, my understanding is that even in black and white photography, all colors have unique tonal values. So couldn't this photo be analyzed in such a way that it could be determined what the colors were originally and as a result be traced back to the person who is responsible for this particular prototype? Seems like an awful risk to me if it means potentially losing one's job for having released said photo. I would have thought Microsoft would have thought of this possibility.

[Janak Parekh]

BTW, quite a bit more detail is available at iLounge (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/backstage/comments/zune-interface-features-detailed/).

--janak

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

B&amp;W tonal patterns can always be manipulated.

[Phoenix]

B&amp;W tonal patterns can always be manipulated.

True. But the question would be whether the photographer thought to do that.

[Phoenix]

They mention that the Zune is thicker than the 30GB Ipod and that it's all plastic. Yuck. If they're going to do that, it better be amazing plastic. If they go cheap, they can forget succeeding with this. No one will ditch their Ipods for something fat, clunky, and cheap feeling.

I can't say I'm liking the white text on black background. As a matter of fact, I don't like that at all. Hopefully, that will be customizable.

Wifi is fine, but I would much rather have had BT. It doesn't look like the Wifi will serve the user for anything truly important. I'd rather know that I could use a pair of wireless BT headphones without having to rely on some stupid bulky BT add-on, than having Wifi that essentially won't do much of anything for me.

And it's too bad there's no true mechanical scroll wheel, but that it just serves as buttons only.

Earlier, I was thinking that Microsoft probably really had something on their hands here, but now I'm starting to wonder.

If this thing ends up feeling like they cut a bunch of corners, they're going to have a real hard time catching up. Even with their three to five year plan, I think at this point in the game, to make any serious inroads, they're going to have to really impress the masses with their first entry - the masses who are accustomed to the beautifully designed Ipods. Otherwise, they're going to have a difficult time gathering consumer interest with future models. It would be similar to Hyundai making improvements to their newest models of cars and trying to entice people to buy them after having made cheap junk. Once people associate a company's products with lower quality, it's very difficult to earn their interest and trust in a particular product again.

I know we have to wait to see for sure, but I'm not liking what I'm hearing so far. Then of course, this info is coming from iLounge which is dedicated to the Ipod, so I'm taking some of it with a grain of salt.

[Felix Torres]

The rumored radio capabilities of the Zune (WiFi, FM receive, FM broadcast) make me wonder if MS isn't playing with a software radio chip in their prototypes. If they were, they could then offer many different forms of wireless (and disable FM broadcast for the UK) just by tweaking the on-board firmware.

Not sure how many products are currently using this tech since its pretty much bleeding edge stuff... Mostly envisioned for cell phones...

As for the other features, they sound a lot like current-gen PMC capabilities, but with a different interface, which is odd. Would've expected them to use something like the PMC or XBOX GUIs, which are both plenty good...

[Janak Parekh]

The rumored radio capabilities of the Zune (WiFi, FM receive, FM broadcast) make me wonder if MS isn't playing with a software radio chip in their prototypes.
I'd be really surprised, seeing as how the Zune's supposed to hit the market this year, right? Software radios are indeed the future, and would excite me immensely, but to ship even remotely anytime this year, Microsoft needs to wrap up and finalize the Zune hardware very shortly.

--janak