Flash Zune supposedly gets name, capacities

Here's the latest rumor on the flash Zune: once known by some as the Pyxis, it's now supposedly going by the codename of Draco (not to be confused with any Harry Potter or Dolph Lundgren characters), and is supposedly going to be released in 4 and 8GB capacities, and have the usual nigh-unusable WiFi and, thankfully, video playback (unlike l'nano). Zunescene also seems to think it'll be out later this year, and we say bring it on, Microsoft. We know at least one dude who you owe some killer 2nd gen hardware.

[Thanks, Nate and Aaron]

[Garrett @ Jun 19th 2007 2:31AM]

The Tick FTW!

[Bart Lee @ Jun 19th 2007 2:32AM]

Dolph Lundgren's character was Ivan Drago, not Draco. Sheeesh, do your fact checking guys.

[Dustin @ Jun 19th 2007 6:06AM]

close enough ;)

[Yeah8a8y @ Jun 19th 2007 8:18AM]

@2

You knoe, that was the first thing I thought... Shows my interest in the post huh?

[ByronGman @ Jun 19th 2007 2:35AM]

Exciting!

I'm itching to see more Zune-line players. Microsoft could really take its player in some cool directions if they put some innovation into it.

Oh and BTW, what now Apple fanboys? If MS ships a flash player with video play back it will definitely be competition for the Nano, especially if the Zune marketplace finally gets the video downloads that are so painfully missing.

[andres @ Jun 19th 2007 7:36AM]

the nano is... a nano, a very small player that's its selling point. I would consider torture watching a movie in a nano or nano like product of any manufacturer.

[Mrmean @ Jun 19th 2007 8:54AM]

lol at the butthurt MS fanboy getting his shots in whenever he can..

[D3L3T3D @ Jun 19th 2007 11:55AM]

sorry MS robots, it is always going to be perceived this way:

iPod = iconic
Zune = imitation
Actually, name anything MS has done that wasn't an imitation of another commercially available product? Apple's MO is innovation, where as MS has always been the bottom line. Like comparing an artist to a businessman.

I prefer artists myself...

[mike @ Jun 19th 2007 2:46AM]

Oh and BTW, what now Apple fanboys?
--

I believe Ballmer will insist they aren't actually competing against Apple. You know.. that's how they come up with the 20% marketshare numbers... hehe

The latest iPod has a phone in it.. and plays movies... smartass

[ByronGman @ Jun 19th 2007 3:33AM]

I said competing with the Nano, not the Iphone or HD Ipods.

As for everything the Iphone can do, so what? Do you think Apple will stop making Nanos because they have a hot convergence device? Buying an Iphone to use as a flash player is a waste of about $300 extra dollars.

Maybe before you shoot your mouth off you should remember that not everyone has the money to buy a high-end smart phone that will only launch one carrier.

[Mac Dub @ Jun 19th 2007 6:44AM]

iPod HD... That has a certain ring to it!

[Maestro @ Jun 19th 2007 7:48AM]

True, but I can just walk in to a store and buy a Zune. Or a Nano. To get an iPhone, I need to sign a contract, and maybe even pay to get out of my current contract...Meh...

[Mark @ Jun 19th 2007 12:06PM]

Ya, and costs $500 or $600 with new 2 year sign up. Sounds great! My S620 was $250 on an upgrade and does pretty much everything the iphone does(Half as much memory but so what? I have a zune too.) and some extra stuff like gps. Oh and I can put 3rd party apps on it. The flash zune will likely cost $200 or less which is less than 1/2 the cost of the iphone with a 2 year sign up. Nice comparison...

[angelsvairwaves1 @ Jun 19th 2007 1:17PM]

the only thing that makes the iphone interesting for me is the widescreen, touchscreen, and wifi features. So, $600 or Archos 605?

[LoganT @ Jun 19th 2007 2:48AM]

I'll only care if it has the same size screen as the Zune now (3"). And Mac support, though I suppose I could use parallels for that.

[DutchGuy @ Jun 19th 2007 2:52AM]

Now please get your act together and bring your goodness to Europe.

[Stan Winstone @ Jun 19th 2007 2:53AM]

Pfft- do they get these names from a box of Cracker Jacks? Pyxis, Zune- wtf... How about MiPod for Microsoft's IPod. Now that's original.

[enzo @ Jun 19th 2007 3:22AM]

I dream of putting movies on SD cards... and carrying them in my pocket, and sliding one of them into my zune. Make this dream a reality, MS?

[typoink @ Jun 19th 2007 3:28AM]

While a flash Zune is an important part of the lineup, I'm much more interested in the 2nd Gen HDD Zune. The flash Zune will, I think, end up being very similar to the current Zune, only smaller, thinner, and, y'know, flash.

The 2nd Gen HDD Zune will be the one that, hopefully, polishes up the interface and feature set and really makes the Zune line sparkle.

I'm pretty impressed with the Zune so far (hardware-wise, at least -- the software needs some serious work). Physically, it's an attractive-if-chunky device that feels solid in the hand. Interface-wise, it's easy to use and visually striking. For the price, it's a good deal. It's definitely got a lot of unrealized potential, though, and MS needs to get to work realizing it.

[Marian @ Jun 19th 2007 10:51AM]

You know, the hardware was both designed and manufactured by Toshiba (maybe not the button layout...). The software was done by Microsoft ;-)

[Matthew @ Jun 19th 2007 3:42AM]

Let me know when they make the wifi actually worth using.

[AKBlade13 @ Jun 19th 2007 7:42AM]

Exactly Matthew. I would hope one of their main selling points would actually be worth using.

AKBlade13

[Taylor @ Jun 19th 2007 5:06AM]

Hopefully the WiFi will get a bit of up-and-up on this one. I'd love the Zune if it were only for that. Also, it'd help if it was actually released in Australia where I happen to live

[Tony @ Jun 19th 2007 5:53AM]

Wooopeeee; I can't wait to get this. I mean its the ZOOOON. A novel product by Microsoft. wooohoooo. Ok now give me bucket to throw up in.

[Zeus the God @ Jun 19th 2007 6:23AM]

You are a total failure. I spit on you.

[jaysins @ Jun 19th 2007 8:37AM]

I see a lot of people using their phones to handle their flash based Mp3 needs. My girlfriend and I both do and she's would definitely be your average consumer (except for the fact that she has me to guide her :) ) But she just loads her SLVR up with music from Cd's she puts into itunes and off she goes. I showed her how to do it once, she played around with it for a bit, and bam, she's bragging to her friends how easy it was to put all her songs on her phone and they oooo and ahhhhh. This solution wouldn't work for a lot of more discerning users but for your average person it's fine. Heck some phones are coming with 3.5 mm headphone jacks. I have the se310's hooked up to my N95 and 128Kbs eAAC+ sounds pretty decent though I think an amp would greatly help. You can't be the convenience of it though.

[JohnTitor @ Jun 19th 2007 10:21AM]

the chinese Meizu M6 8GB already killed this in every way, oh except it has no WiFi, not it's not like Microsoft is using it anyway like Archos or even SanDisk

[Bob e @ Jun 19th 2007 11:18AM]

I used to import the Meizu M6 @ miniplayer.info, yes it is a nice player but has a terrible user interface (much like iPod) compared to the Zune.

Zune's biggest drawback IMO is the physical size. Count me in on the next flash based Zune.

[JohnTitor @ Jun 19th 2007 2:24PM]

physical size? of all the things to hate?

[steve @ Jun 19th 2007 11:24AM]

"sorry MS robots, it is always going to be perceived this way:

iPod = iconic
Zune = imitation
Actually, name anything MS has done that wasn't an imitation of another commercially available product? Apple's MO is innovation, where as MS has always been the bottom line. Like comparing an artist to a businessman.

I prefer artists myself..."

This is hilarious! He calls people MS Robots, then goes on to basically admit that he is Apple robot. I know all you Apple Fanboys think your somehow enlightened, cool and free thinking (this is evidenced by your pension for flaunting your MacBooks in any and every public place. Including at the freakin' mall) but you are just ridiculously gullible consumers. Apple is like an artist, unconcerned with the bottom line, and chock full of innovation huh? Like the iPod. They did, after all, invent the MP3 player.... right?!?!? Oh, that's right, they didn't. They didn't even invent the scroll wheel or any other single piece of technology on it. They just made it shiny and pretty and simple enough for slack jawed idiots to use so all the sheep would flock to it. I freakin' HATE Mac users. They usually park themselves at malls and coffee shops so they can show how much of an "artist" they are. You aren't an artist, you are a insecure posing douche bag who needs his electronics to show the world that he is a somebody. You want the world to think your just like the guy in the mac ad so you go out and buy a mac and park yourself in the mall not realizing that your tight jeans, ironic T shirt and emo haircut are being mocked by the anyone with half a brain.

I could give less of a shit about MS but I hate innacuracy. MS spends FAR more than APPLE on R&D and are almost single handily responsible for the dot com gold rush of the late 90's. They are HUGE innovators (which is different then inventors) and some of us old enough to remember a time before PCs on every desk witnessed just how much they have done. Here are a few off the top of my head.
AJAX
* Web browser component usable by any app
* OLE
* Spreadsheet Pivot Tables
* Tabbed spreadheets (since then, copied by other apps such as browsers)
* On-the-fly spell check in word processors
* LINQ (the upcoming tech that will be in C# 3.0 and VB9)
* Video codec innovations that have led to VC-1 being the premier codec for HD-DVD and BR discs.
* Mouse scroll wheels
* Mouse GoForward/GoBack buttons
* Ergonomic mice (I recall the days where you had to press down on a mouse while moving it in order to move the cursor; Microsoft ended that nonsense).
* Ergonomic keyboards
* Office 2007 UI
* Mac Office floating palette UI
* TerraServer (precursor of Virtual Earth, NASA WorldWind, Google Earth)
* Ability to alter compiled code while debugging it
* User Agents
* Wizards
* Intellisense
* Answer Wizard technology in Office Help
* ClearType
* TrueType (collaboration with Apple)
* Bob (yeah, it failed in the marketplace, but it was innovative (too much for its own good))
* Dynamic HTML desktops
* Taskbar
* Alt-Tab to switch apps
* Lots of small innovations in .NET that when combined equal large cumulative innovation.
* ActiveX (yes, it had security issues, particularly before XP SP2, but is great in an intranet setting)
* Net-DDE, the first tech to allow clipboard functionality over LAN
* Singularity
* Combining the Back and Forward history buttons into one navigation stack control in IE7
* Photosynth
* XPS (does everything that PDF does, adds graphical effects that PDF lacks, does it in a smaller file size, and does it using XML so the files can be manipulated via XML parsers)
* Windows Live Contacts (being developed by Danny Thorpe (legendary programmer at Borland, who jumped to Google, then 4 months later went to Microsoft))
* A bunch of little stuff in IM via MSN Messenger
* OneNote (I don’t think there’s any other app really like it (and those that try to be like it aren’t anywhere near as good), particuarly when used on a Tablet PC)
* Mac Word 2004’s notebook layout and microphone support
* Zune’s WiFi (yes, the RIAA only allowed 3play/3day sharing, but its use will grow into other areas)
* First console to have a harddrive (Xbox)
* Browser runs in a sandbox (IE7 on Vista)
* First browser with anti-phishing tech
* Multi-core/CPU calculations in Excel 2007
* XNA
* Vista’s ability to allow the user to increase RAM simply by plugging in a USB 2.0 flash drive
* First OS to support delayed clipboard rendering
* First OS to have a 3D Sound api for games
* Shadow Copy
* Media Center Extenders (which iTV looks to be a copy of)I could go on.

[UKNigel @ Jun 19th 2007 12:07PM]

I couldn't agree with you more. It reminds a lot of Maddox's article: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

In that he says "In order to own a Mac, I feel like I need to be:
- An artist
- In a band
- Unemployed"

This has proven true for every single person I have ever know to own a mac. Most were unemployed and managed to get their wealthy parents to buy them computers.

And Jobs' less-than-heterosexual clothing choices only serve to piss me off even more every time I see him.

[D3L3T3D @ Jun 19th 2007 12:02PM]

Hey, longwinded, reaad way into things, UNINFORMED, puddingbrained, as popular with the ladies as a menstrual cyle, silly robot jackass- the time it took you type all that out you probably burned several burgers! You'll be demoted back down to fries in no time if you keep that pace up.

P.S. Apple IS Microsoft's R&D, you king of the knuckle child.

[Tristan @ Jun 19th 2007 10:20PM]

Touche' Salesman

[DG @ Jun 19th 2007 11:37AM]

Sounds great. I would buy a Zune 4GB or 8GB for no more than $150. My SanDisk Sansa 4GB was $115 and I love it. I've used the big Zune, and love that as well. A smaller, 4GB for $100 sounds pretty good to me.

[chris @ Jun 19th 2007 12:04PM]

How many of you posters watch MTV or daily soaps?

Besides the posts of "this looks cool" or "that is a neat idea", the rest of you are just drama queens arguing over which company is cooler. All of you fail at life.

[thesawzall @ Jun 19th 2007 12:26PM]

It'll have to be UMS compliant with none of the lousy Zune software or else I won't even consider it.

[thesawzall @ Jun 19th 2007 12:26PM]

MS ought to make it so you can view viral videos on this thing. Imagine downloading those videos from Youtube and watching them on the train, rather than wasting time somewhere else. They could become ever more viral if you could share them via the wifi connection.

But I'd guess the iPhone gets that feature first since they seem to be in bed with Google more often recently.

[sri @ Jun 19th 2007 5:45PM]

There are references in the ZuneSetup to Pyxis Update, and i think it refers to the firmware.

For example,

{
// We only care about firmware if we actually have Zune software to install

//BUG: 1429 - Disabling firmware download for 1.3 release during setup. OOBE will download it if necessary.
//Please see bug for more details
/*if ( parent.g_NetworkAvailable)
{
// Check for an updated Pyxis firmware on the Internet
s_verPyxisInternet = itfFirmware.GetInternetVersion();

//alert("Pyxis Internet: " + s_verPyxisInternet);
if ( s_verPyxisInternet > s_verPyxisPackage )
{
parent.g_CopyPyxisUpdate = true;
}
}*/
}

this code is commented. No Update with software v1.3??
and many more like this.

May be the firmware on current zune's r called Pyxis and the new zune's is called Darco

[AlexNC @ Jun 19th 2007 7:15PM]

I REALLY REALLY need a new music player. And since I already own an Xbox 360, I would love to keep my hardware in the Microsoft familiy, and buy a Zune. I am still holding on the the possibility of movies being transferable to Zunes in the future. BUT, and this is a big but, I want a 16GB flash player. For me, my next purchace is going to be based on which ever company comes out with a 16GB flash player first ... hopefully Microsoft is listening =(

[scifivxn @ Jun 21st 2007 7:11PM]

The Zune I have is a 40G, (I think) and I got it as a gift. I never had an issue with DRM because I'm a DJ and get all the music including rights, but I can see how that's an issue with Zune.

My biggest complaints are:
1. I can't shuffle my playlists in the Zune they just play in order. I can shuffle the entire library, but I don't always want to hear EVERYTHING on my 7000+ song library.
2. There are currently no tv show or movie downloads like on an Ipod. My daughter has the 30G Ipod and has room for several movies AND all of her music. I know you can do the whole DVD decrypt, shrink and format adjustment if you own the DVD. But I've heard it's time and hard-drive consuming.

So as much as I love my Zune...I'm still waiting for more 'perks'