Zune 2 leaks out in three flavors

Well, we'd heard new Zunes were coming tomorrow (or maybe October 16th) and it looks like retailers are starting to receive display units -- everyone, say hello to the new Zunes. Barring some Photoshop trickeration, it looks like we're getting two flash models and a slimmed-down hard drive edition, but we'll leave it to you to figure what this all means in the comments.

Update: We're also hearing that a Zune 1 firmware update rolled out today -- interesting. We'll dig out our Zunes and let you know what (if anything) got updated ASAP.

Update 2: False alarm on the firmware update -- but we do know that we'll be hearing about one when the new Zunes are announced Wednesday.

[Thanks, Nate]

[Bob @ Oct 1st 2007 6:56PM]

hmm, still no widescreen. too bad...

[Nerdtalker @ Oct 1st 2007 6:59PM]

LOL! No widescreen? are you blind, man? The thing goes landscape when you want widescreen, unlike the iPod "classic" nonesuch which still doesn't use its screen real estate in a useful manner.

[The Truth @ Oct 1st 2007 7:09PM]

Wrong Nerd. When turned sideways, it's a 4:3 screen.

[sean @ Oct 1st 2007 7:15PM]

Yes, too bad you comment when you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

[Nerdtalker @ Oct 1st 2007 7:40PM]

If being 4:3 precludes it from being "widescreen", yes, you are indeed correct. iPod Classic is also 320x240, so big whoop. ::shrug::

I fail to see what's so remarkably awful about Zune's implementation of the same resolution screen. And don't throw "iPod Touch" at me, 16 GB is a paltry laugh right about now with HD densities what they are.

Pfft... haters. If it was shipped in off-white, and black, perhaps it'd matter. ::rolls eyes::

[404error @ Oct 1st 2007 7:49PM]

I'm not sure why you felt the need to troll Apple and iPod just because someone made a comment about the Zune not being 16:9 and widescreen. I think you're being a little bit too defensive/crazy.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Oct 1st 2007 8:27PM]

Actually, in a sense, the Zune *does* have a widescreen. Depends if you want to be technically correct or not, which a lot of people have to be.

The point being -- the Zune has a lot more screen real estate than the iPod.

[Natedog @ Oct 1st 2007 9:22PM]

"Widescreen" doesn't simply mean the screen is wider than it is tall, you idiots. It's about the exact ratio of width to height: 4:3 for standard aspect and 16:9 for widescreen.

[snife @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:16AM]

lol, I love nerd being used as an insult on a gadget blog - surely we are all nerds

[saintchuck @ Oct 2nd 2007 4:55AM]

Uh... look at his name.

[theycallmetak @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:05AM]

What's with all the hate?

Widescreen generally means anything wider in aspect ratio than 4:3, it doesn't necessarily mean 16:9. The big hard disc based Zune looks like if you turned it on it's side it would be widescreen, i.e. wider than a 4:3 aspect ratio. Maybe you're just looking at the picture on the little screen, but if you actually click on the pic to check out the zunescene boards you'll see a pic of the larger one by itself showing a much-wider-than-4:3-but-not-necessarily-1:9 screen. Besides, the ones in the pics are cardboard displays and you can upgrade those to any size screen you want.

[hman @ Oct 1st 2007 6:57PM]

Why do I have a feeling sales of all 3 combined won't match what the last one did? (owner of brown zune here)

[Fatima @ Oct 1st 2007 6:57PM]

They look like epic fail

[Ireland @ Oct 1st 2007 6:59PM]

I live in Europe, could someone tell me what a Zune is?

[spass @ Oct 1st 2007 7:08PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune

Do you really expect to have someone actually explain it just for you?

[Rajat @ Oct 1st 2007 7:08PM]

Either you are amazingly sarcastic or high on the irish coffeezzzzz!!!

zune.net - check it out...

[Ireland @ Oct 1st 2007 7:17PM]

Yeah guys, like we don't get the internet over here. Can't believe anyone took me serious. The Zune is not for sale in Europe by the way.

[John100 @ Oct 1st 2007 7:17PM]

I live in the US, I would like to know too

[Ruben @ Oct 1st 2007 7:52PM]

Its that stupid thing that is despised by all people that blog on websites, is considered a piece of shit, a disaster in terms of its stance against other competitors, has been called shit brown, shit brick, is created by the evil Microsoft, holds nothing to the iPod........

Yet in under a year, has gotten 11.3% of the hard drive based mp3 player market.

[Leonard Nimrod @ Oct 1st 2007 8:05PM]

Ruben said, "Yet in under a year, has gotten 11.3% of the hard drive based mp3 player market."

I'd love to see some credible sources on that claim.

[louisik1 @ Oct 1st 2007 8:38PM]

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/06/21/zune.11.percent.in.may/

6/21/07

Microsoft's share of the music player market is continuing to climb, according to preliminary details of a new study published by market researchers NPD. The group notes that the lone 30GB Zune held 11.3 percent of the US market for hard disk-based players in May, a modest but significant increase from the 9.9 percent seen in January. Reasons were not given but the increase in sales is widely believed to be the result of both special edition pink, red, and Halo 3 Zunes as well as store discounts over the course of the spring, which dropped prices to as low as $199 at some large retailers.

[Galley @ Oct 1st 2007 8:38PM]

Yet another item in a long list of recent Microsoft failures.

[- k E n - @ Oct 1st 2007 8:46PM]

@Nimrod

Maybe they included the chinese Zune knock-offs in the statistics. :P

[MasterCKO @ Oct 2nd 2007 7:43PM]

@Galley: haha, a Microsoft failure that, despite being an initial offering from a company new to the particular market space, earned a little more than 11% of market share? I sure as hell hope you were being sarcastic or something.

@Ruben: lol, that was pretty good. Indeed, the Market speaks.

Anyway, the new Zunes actually don't look half bad. I'll hold off buying the new Creative Zen (I was a heartbeat away from clicking the 'buy' button last night) until tomorrow and see if they can swing me to the dark side.

[albo23 @ Oct 1st 2007 7:00PM]

This thing is just going to sell another 99 million short of the iPod.

[SteveMB @ Oct 1st 2007 7:02PM]

Yet it's still 99 million times better.

[dave sousa @ Oct 1st 2007 7:18PM]

dude 99 million short, yea also 6 years short and every country in the world short... way better device over all, and as i said earlier, dont miss my 6 broken ipods at all.... stop being an apple fan boy... love apple hate the fan boys... well loved apple until Fridays iphone update any ways!

[MSMonkey @ Oct 1st 2007 7:00PM]

Looks much better form factor wise. Wifi music store, no DRM and no dying song sharing and sign me up.




I want to pet the monkey..mmmmm

[[e-mail] @ Oct 1st 2007 7:01PM]

Yup, and engadget forgot to mention that a firmware update for the zune 1 is due out the same day the zune 2 is released.

[c.g. @ Oct 1st 2007 7:00PM]

engadget.. can we get a Microsoft free edition of Engadget ?? i mean.. 2 stories about Zunes on the main page.. ?? what's up with that ???? :O:O

bwaaaahahaha.. :P
they look nice actually.. :) i love when big companies compete... we almost always win.

[Blink @ Oct 1st 2007 7:24PM]

Are you kidding? Two Microsoft post on the main page and someone complains? Wow, I can only guess it’s from a Mac fan boy. Because if you didn’t like Mac, for example, you would never follow any tech blogs.

[Kizorblade @ Oct 1st 2007 7:31PM]

*Cough* Scarcasm *Cough*

[c.g. @ Oct 1st 2007 7:34PM]

wow... in the word of miss chnandler bong... "coudl you be more dumb ??".. it was so annoyingly obvious i was joking around and poking fun at people... you're a first level kind of humour guy eh ?... football in the groin.. football in the groin... Cheesus !

[Ruben @ Oct 1st 2007 7:51PM]

Its that stupid thing that is despised by all people that blog on websites, is considered a piece of shit, a disaster in terms of its stance against other competitors, has been called shit brown, shit brick, is created by the evil Microsoft, holds nothing to the iPod........

Yet in under a year, has gotten 11.3% of the hard drive based mp3 player market.

[zeejay @ Oct 1st 2007 8:25PM]

11.3% would be more impressive if every other major vendor in the Windows MP3 player space hadn't abandoned using hard drives.

[Randavance @ Oct 1st 2007 8:30PM]

You know, I'm almost excited about the new Zunes. They seem to improved a good bit in aesthetically, the controls look like they might be semi intuitive, the slimmed down hard drive is quite appealing. I am going to feel a great pleasure in running linux on them.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Oct 1st 2007 8:29PM]

Sarcasm vs. Trollism (if that's a word).

Is there a difference between the two? Really now?

No offense to the OP though. ;)

[mushrooshi @ Oct 1st 2007 8:45PM]

Hey, If you want only mac news, go to www.tuaw.com

[PenaltyKillah @ Oct 1st 2007 7:04PM]

Haha, those guys at CNet are gonna freak about on their shammy NDAs!

[David @ Oct 1st 2007 7:02PM]

I wonder if it has interet explorer...

[Blah @ Oct 1st 2007 10:39PM]

Considering you'd have to type using the 'squircle'...I'm gonna guess theres no internet explorer.


Eh...I think I'll keep my 5G iPod. I'm gonna wait a year-ish until the iPod touch gets past AT LEAST 30GB.

[Trace The Hedgehog @ Oct 1st 2007 7:03PM]

Hey the aquircle doesnt look half bad!!

[Trace The Hedgehog @ Oct 1st 2007 7:03PM]

squircle*

[SteveMB @ Oct 1st 2007 7:06PM]

The read link doesn't work.

[MSMonkey @ Oct 1st 2007 7:08PM]

Will this thing bake man-cakes too?


Pet the monkey!!!

[JoeT @ Oct 1st 2007 7:09PM]

No more shit brick (I own one!)?

Im ready to see what the crazies decide to childishly pick at now.

[pagercam @ Oct 1st 2007 7:10PM]

Are the logos compatible or with Zune tattoo guy need an upgrade???

[Alex Padilla @ Oct 1st 2007 7:13PM]

hmm, very slim. I like the big, HDD-based one, it looks very nice.

now, Microsoft, please make it Mac OS X compatible.

can't wait to see the official specs

[Andrew Horn @ Oct 2nd 2007 4:47PM]

Umm that will never happen. But I would have to say, the iPod is better just by virtue of not being associated with Microsoft.

Signed,
A proud apple fanboy.

[nate @ Oct 1st 2007 7:15PM]

broken link please?