[Adam Krebs]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5220712/anothe...possible-lineup

No offense to whomever Photoshopped this, but it looks like the unfortunate offspring of the large screen of a LG KF700 and the oversized chin of an HTC G1. The image purports to be the next generation flash or harddrive-based Zune model, but I'd argue against it being a flash device based on the awkward positioning of the controls at the bottom, which make it seem like a more difficult-to-operate version of the 4G iPod Nano (a device with usability problems of its own). That just leaves the higher capacity harddrive based model. As Crunchgear's Devin Coldewey points out, it appears the screen is just a stretched copy of the Zune80 press image, the picture itself doesn't really vibe well with the rest of Zune marketing. Even though this clearly isn't an actual render from the Zune team, it does raise an interesting point; what will the third generation harddisk and flash-based Zunes look like? Is the high-end touch screen device the future of the line? Sure would be nice to hear from Microsoft on this.

[Adam Krebs]

http://i.gizmodo.com/5220712/anothe...possible-lineup

No offense to whomever Photoshopped this, but it looks like the unfortunate offspring of the large screen of a LG KF700 and the oversized chin of an HTC G1. The image purports to be the next generation flash or harddrive-based Zune model, but I'd argue against it being a flash device based on the awkward positioning of the controls at the bottom, which make it seem like a more difficult-to-operate version of the 4G iPod Nano (a device with usability problems of its own). That just leaves the higher capacity harddrive based model. As Crunchgear's Devin Coldewey points out, it appears the screen is just a stretched copy of the Zune80 press image, the picture itself doesn't really vibe well with the rest of Zune marketing. Even though this clearly isn't an actual render from the Zune team, it does raise an interesting point; what will the third generation harddisk and flash-based Zunes look like? Is the high-end touch screen device the future of the line? Sure would be nice to hear from Microsoft on this.

[Alber1690]

Originally Posted by Adam Krebs

...looks like the unfortunate offspring of the large screen of a LG KF700 and the oversized chin of an HTC G1...

LOL! And eww indeed.

And good question...I wonder if and how much they invested in other smaller (and presumably cheaper) form factors and models to suit the wide array of consumers that the competition does so well at. Hmm, I was going to add that with the Zune HD, maybe too much time and energy must have been spent on trying to perfect it (hopefully) and in effect caused a delay in other models, but we didn't really get much of a hardware overhaul last year...so maybe they do have a whole line-up cooked up. Just hopefully not one that looks anything near what this God-forsaken creature looks like...

[Phillip Dyson]

Looking at this picture, I can't see much of a difference between this and my Zune 80.
Other than recessed buttons and a slightly longer screen.

May its just too early in the morning for me.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Phillip Dyson

Looking at this picture, I can't see much of a difference between this and my Zune 80. Other than recessed buttons and a slightly longer screen.

It's the taller screen that would really make it awkward to hold in the hand and use - having a tall screen AND buttons below it is a problem...