Look, we know how hard it is to hold in a secret, so we can sympathize entirely with Fry's on this. While new Zunes and / or features are looking more and more likely
for September 9th, said e-tailer has already let slip a few new crucial details about the forthcoming (er,
already out)
120GB Zune. For instance, we're looking at a Buy from FM option that enables users to tag sweet jams on the radio for easy purchasing when they arrive back at their PC. Furthermore, we're seeing Device to Cloud, Channels and Games options, all of which are further explained in the links below. In related news, a shockingly blue 8GB flash Zune has also emerged on the very same website (as
predicted). Which is awesome if you're really into blue.
Read - 8GB blue Zune, via
zuneramaRead - New Zune details, part I
Read - New Zune details, part II
eh.
I said the same thing. A blue Zune? On second thought, the Crips and Smurfs should be happy.
Crips and Smurfs??! My dear, right now, and after all of this, Gods are happy!
Crips and Smurfs??! My dear, right now, and after all of this, Gods are happy!
actually, yeah. FM tagging? i could record from FM radio with my old iRiver.
o0o0o0 zune has radio!! iPod is out! Lmao
"Wireless Sharing": Send your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts freely between any Zune devices!
THANK YOU LORD. :')
"Device to Cloud" - Allows you to use wireless hotspots to update your collection, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels, exchange favorites with friends, or buy songs you’ve tagged from FM radio.
THANK YOU LORD, AGAIN. :'')
wireless sharing has always been a feature of the zune.
@cboy007: Yeah, it has been, but not "freely"; not for "Albums"; not for "Pictures" and not for "Playlists". :)
On Saturday, I connected my Zune 80gb to my PC to charge it. It was really low on power but, when it charged up a little...I got a "new device update available" message! Well...I connected it back up but, when I checked the options it said "Device is up to date".
It's got to be any day now!
Woot. Let's go Zune!
Saad- While I agree that the new features are exciting, hasn't Zune also been able to send pictures and full albums forever? I know I have received both on occasion. Also, I have a feeling that "freely" doesn't mean the end of 3-play. That would be too easy.
I bought a Zune 80 but I live in the UK...
I'm destined to roam this land alone FOREVER... Forever... forever...
sweet features microsoft!
congrats Microsoft.
I would only congratulate Microsoft if they had a competitor for the iPod Touch. Yeah, yeah, I know people are going to jump on me about hard drive space, yada, yada, yada, but admit it, this is just playing catch up with what Apple had years ago. Still, at least they're trying.
You know what I would like to see Microsoft do? Come out with something painfully innovative. Something that makes you think, "Why the hell didn't I think of that? It was so obvious."
You know, it's not to hard to figure out why Apple keeps succeeding. They do the most obvious things. The iPod succeeded because Apple people to own their music. People hate subscribing in order to listen to music. Not only that, but Apple allowed people to listen to their old MP3s downloaded from the recently defunct Napster and to rip their CDs once iTunes came out. I'm sure when the iPhone has the smart phone market a few years from now, everyone will still be saying that it was marketing that got Apple there. They will conveniently forget about the FULL INTERNET BROWSER and the WIDE SCREEN VIDEO IPOD and MULTI-TOUCH.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, Microsoft needs an iPhone moment. When people saw the iPhone, they knew it was going to change things and it did.
i agree about the ipod touch...although microsoft may have something in the works.
about the "People hate subscribing in order to listen to music" thing - that was one of microsof't GREAT features - if you buy more than 15 songs per month on itunes, then you're better off switching to zune for a subscription. how much you wanna bet that on september 9th at the apple event apple will be like "one more thing, we're now copying microsoft and now u can subscribe for 15 bucks a month and get unlimited music! yes! we innovated that all on our own!"
people love subscribing for things if it saves them LOTS of money every month.
also, the zune software allows people to listen to your old MP3's, and rip CD's.
mark my words, the iphone will NEVER have the smartphone market. windows mobile 7 and android will kick its ass, for the same reason MS's is beating it in the desktop market. apple = simplified, easy-to-use, products. but doing that causes them to lose functionality. you can do lots more on windows than on an apple, even if it may be more complicated. thats why the "iphone smartphone" is an oxymoron.
i agree that the iphone changed the market a lot, but it didnt' do ALL the innovation. sorry if your post meant something less apple-praising than it sounded and this entire rant of mine was for nothing :).
i agree that microsoft is playing catch up.
however the wireless and sharing features of the zune are pretty innovative if undevoloped upon until now.
i actually wouldn't want a touch device, zune touch or ipod touch. (i do want a htc touch diamond, yeah hypocrite) i don't see the point of touch on what is princibly a music device and as fun as the internet may be on the touch i wouldn't have any use for it, like i'm sure many others do and don't.
FYI it's not full internet without flash ; ] ahha.
@cboy007
If Apple comes out with a subscription service, it won't be be because they're copying Microsoft, it will be because they're competing with Microsoft. Too many companies have had subscription services to say that it is a Microsoft innovation.
Well, how can I say Apple is innovative, you say? Yes, it's true Apple didn't have the first MP3 player, but they did several things that were revolutionary. The first was, as I said, they allowed people to buy their music. The second thing was the fact that they allowed you to manage your music on the computer instead of in the device itself, which made it a helluva lot more easy to use an iPod.
They also made sure that the iPod could fit in your pocket. If anyone remembers the old MP3 players, a lot of them were fairly huge. I think Steve Jobs knew that he needed to keep it small, if it was going to click with the youth crowd.
What the heck dude? Apple isn't the center of the whole universe you know. I'm glad Microsoft is pushing out these new devices, come to think about it, DOES ANY IPOD EVEN HAVE THESE NEW FEATURES that the Zune now has? In my book, Apple products, are overpriced in today's market and to top it off, skimpy on the features. Sorry Apple fanboy's, but, you have to wake up and smell the joe. Diversify people.
sorry - i wasn't trying to say that apple isnt innovative, it just sounded like you were saying that apple allowed people to do more with their music than microsoft did, and also that people hate subscribing in order to listen to music - microsoft proved that wrong.
And oh yea, that was towards Paul's first comment.
@Paul
"this is just playing catch up with what Apple had years ago"
How is it playing catch up when the Classic does not have wireless sync, remote sync, music/photo/podcast sharing, FM radio, FM radio tagging, FM radio purchase, syncing of music friends listen to. And while the touch/phone has them, the classic/nano does not have wireless marketplace, and SDK for free. Also remember, many of those features that are on the phone/touch have been on Windows CE devices for years. Apple prettied them up, made them look good and, in some cases made them more usable - it convinced me to get an iPhone (although there are many times I regret it with all the problems), but they were there on other devices before.
Wow, guys, I didn't realize so many people would get defensive and upset about a few things I thought were common knowledge. I didn't know Microsoft had real fanboys.
I would like to see Microsoft really compete, but this isn't the way to do it. My whole point is that Microsoft needs to do something that slams the ball out of the park. They need to stop copying and giving up incremental changes and come up with something that's really revolutionary. When Apple came out with the iPhone, no one could really say they were copying anybody. Sure, their were comparisons to other devices, but those other devices had buttons, WAP browsers and pitiful storage.
Nothing was really in the same league as Apple. Microsoft has never really done that on their own. They're always a step or two away from someone who did first better.
@Paul Chapel. u know the ipod WAS NOT the first mp3 player. mp3 players are 10 years old this year. they also were not the first ones to have a HDD in there mp3 player. not the first phone to have a full internet browser. and also its not tru wide screen.
I agree. MS needs an iPod Touch competitor.
However, these new features continue to make the current Zunes even better competitors to the iPod Classic and Nano.
@paul - microsoft fanboys though, are often open minded and look at facts (the one guy has an iphone). you may see us as getting defensive, but we're really just correcting you.
microsoft's real "wow" thing was the wireless syncing and the wireless song sharing, which has been around for two years. i agree these may not be as big of innovations as the iphone, but microsoft has had its great innovations in the past on windows.
I know a guy (singular) who has a Zune and I've never seen anyone stopping him in the street when we're out and about. I don't have an iPod Touch, but I borrowed my dad's the other day and I had girls stopping me in Starbucks (oh yeah, I was in Starbucks, I know I'm going to get flack for that) to take a look at it. I didn't get any numbers, but it was shocking at how excited people are when they start scrolling through contact lists. Just saying. iPods are sexy. Zunes are not.
But if you guys like the Zune, that's okay. I got no problem with that.
Microsoft users are generally concerned more with functionality than looks.
@Paul Chapel: Something about you and your stories is really fishy....... You worry me.
i give congrats where they are due. Microsoft is innovating by doing something that make the pmp that much better. whether or not it's better than an ipod, thats your personal opinion, however just remember, touch displays, wide screens, and video playback is not an original apple idea. they took what they had and added feautres that were already out there and made it better. Microsofts doing that with there 3rd generation player and in so doing making their product better for their target audience and those who are looking for these features. they have 4 more gens to innovate before we can compare the ipod and the zune
and ps. i will probably congratualte apple when ipods come out on tuesday
@ paul 11:22PM
i lolled.
when i first took my zune 30 out a year ago in college common room, everyone was like "what the hecks that, lets have a look" needless to say some were impressed, i think one person called it "a brick" but hey, what you going to do :) - People were interested in it because it's so different to what literally everyone else has.
when i first saw an ipod touch i had a glance, i didn't care much, other then the photo zooming, that impressed me. people soon got bored of both sides.
the funny thing is i paid £100 less for the same amount of attention (that i didn't particually want as it's just an mp3 player) as an egomanic ipod user.
also now we realise how young and well kinda 'lame' you are, come on dude, if your showing off an address book atleast hint something to the girls, like "put your number in there and then try and find your way to it" or "touch me, i'm more sensitive then that touch screen." ;)
@collegekid13
But see, I have a problem with your definition of innovation. My major complaint is that Microsoft copies a device and they add one thing and for some reason, a few hardcore MS users think that's innovation. For example, Microsoft copied Sony's Playstation. They made the Xbox exactly like the Playstation and then added Xbox Live and said, see, we're being innovative. Nintendo, on the other hand, didn't copy Sony or Microsoft. They made a box with less power, but with a totally need control scheme and now they dominate the market. That's innovation.
When you innovate, you do something that so shocking that it takes competitors years to catch up. Neither Sony or Microsoft have caught up with Nintendo. Apple isn't playing catch up with Microsoft either. They already have a better device is called the iPod Touch and just because you guys refuse to acknowledge it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Stop tying your self esteem to an electronic product and maybe you'll be able to see a little clearer.
@ Paul Chapel
So with your logic that means that apple took the more powerful, Nokia 810, and dummied it down. Or did they copy the archos 605 dummy it down and add itunes support? it is very rare for anything to be truly unique and never out there before.
and by the way im not tied to any one company especially Microsoft. If i was to be tied to any company it'd be HP buts thats a long story
@collegekid13
If Apple was copying somebody else, why is every company scrambling to catch up with Apple? Your comparison doesn't fit. Say what you want, but no one had multi-touch on a phone before Apple. Some phones had touch screens, but not multi-touch. And I don't remember a browser like Safari mobile either. I know of some phones that had browsers, but nothing like Safari Mobile. Even the Instinct's browser sucks pretty bad.
And I might be wrong about this, but did other phones have gigs of storage before the iPhone, enabling you to have large music and video libraries on your phone? And I know about Handango, but did anyone have an App Store on their phone before the iPhone? Taken altogether, Apple has been kicking A and taking names.
That, my friend, is innovation.
Nice talking to you guys. I'm going to bed. Peace.
@Paul Chapel
But these current Zunes aren't direct competitors to the iPod Touch.
mr. chapel.
you know want me to make fun of everything apples going to do on Tuesday. how this feature is copyed from this person and how they took this from that. and how that happened first. for god sakes if you want ill book you a hotel room for you and your ipod touch. otherwise, just keep an open mind and remember that nothing is original and that Microsoft is always trying to improve what they have whether or not that change is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder
@Paul
Look, nothing in the iPod is new. Everything was done before by somebody else. There were HDD media players before the iPod. There were flash based players before the iPod. There were Video media players before the iPod (I have an Samsung YH-999, introduced in July 2004, the iPod video in Oct 2005). iTunes was bought from another company (per wikipedia, it was originally SoundJam MP). Sony ("The Store") and then a Sony/Universal ("pressplay") had music stores at least a year before iTMS.
Apple did market better, made it smaller, bundled some features together (I thought Microsoft only "Innovated" by bundling) and made it prettier than the first versions of different media players, I will concede that. But to say that it Microsoft copies everything (they copied Sony by simply creating a powerfull console, WTF?) and everything from Apple is pure innovation is quite disingenuous.
And this "Common knowledge" you speak of, is only common among Apple fanboys who believe that all creation comes from The Jobs all mighty brain.
@ paul.
Speak up louder about MS copying apple. I dont think Bill Gates can hear you over the wall of money he has made coying apple.
HOW DID YOU LET THIS PASS???
"The first was, as I said, they allowed people to buy their music."
He said Apple letting you buy music was "revolutionary." KILL HIM!!
"BUY from FM" sounds pretty cool, but I was hoping for a "torrent from FM" option.
Also, where's my divx support?
it's with every non-ipod/zune player
Piracy is not cool.
H.264 is just as good as divx.
This seems promising. Let's hope this all comes to fruition, at least those of us with Zunes...
A thank you wouldn't go amiss.
Anyway, the zune is looking incredibly positive, i must admit im a zune fanboy, however international users like me won't be able to use these new features effectivly but still i'll be able to enjoy a new firmware update and software(at least till they finally release the zune in the u.k), if they allow the update to work on the zune 30.
...and a thank you to Engadget too! I think some of us Microsoft users have been feeling a little neglected on here in the past.
It's good to see equal coverage for potential Apple and Microsoft products that even have a similar release schedule.
Do we really need 8gb music players;why not start at 16gb and then release a zune 8/ipod nano size music player with 32gb of memory
Because a lot of people don't have 8gb of music (or videos [or don't care about videos])? I know quite a few people, including my bro, who only have a few gb of music and don't care for more
who cares if you have 32 days of music; you'll probably never listen to half of it.
People are realizing that they don't necessarily want or need to have their entire music library with them at all times.
Which is why man invented the playlist.
def awesome stuff too bad ill hve to get the 120 gb now cuz i hve teh 80 gb engraved art edition
umlike apple (touch wood) you won't have to upgrade or pay to get these new features, your zune 80 has the same hardware (other then disk size) as the zune 120
@RWD
I don't know. What you said sounds pretty stupid. When the iPod Touch got updated, people got E-mail, Stocks, Weather, Notes and Maps. And then, with the 2.0 upgrade, they got a VPN client, scientific calculator and of course, the App Store, which gives users access to 4000 apps, which includes games and anything else your heart desires.
So, in other words, it's not a fair comparison. Sounds like some Fanboy talking points. Just saying.
paul, i was mearly explaining to someone that just purchased a new mp3 player not to worry about not having new features support. Sure apple has tons of apps, the ones i'd use would be, 'music player, video player, photo viewer' i honestly don't need so much stuff on a portable device i stick in my pocket after selecting a song. but each to their own :) enjoy your apps i've played a few, some are well sexy.
The updates for the iPod touch (1.1.4 and 2.0) both cost money. The Zune's firmware update was free.
@RWD
I don't understand you Zune lovers. First you say that you can't compare a Zune to an iPod Touch, but then you go ahead and compare the Zune to an iPod Touch when you want to insult Apple for charging for iPod Touch upgrades. That seems a bit hypocritical to me.
I have a Video iPod and I've never had to pay for an upgrade to it or for an upgrade to iTunes, so what's your point?
wait just a tick, i was informing someone about the zune update, i didn't mention any particular device, until you brought up the ipod touch.
i like the zune because it's an mp3 player that suits my needs, if i needed internet and such then boy howdy i'd get an ipod touch, if i liked the ipod clickwheel i'd likely get a 160 classic, however i don't.
apple products are good, although mighty expensive over here (UK)
the zunes good for me.
get over yourself and enjoy what you use rather then forcing your ipod down mine or anybody elses neck.
@RWD, who said: "i didn't mention any particular device"
WTF? Didn't you say "umlike apple." When you said "umlike apple" I was just assuming you were talking about Apple, Inc and the iPod Touch, since the iPod Touch is the only iPod that Apple charges for upgrades. Don't play dumb with me. Everyone knows what you meant.
Apple is a device now?
Playing dumb aside
i don't actually know what charges applied where other then that they did, which i thought was kind of sucky of a commonly well looked upon and customer valued company.
and upgrading every year is a common thing with apple's ipod, with barely any new features excluding the touch screen ones. it reminds me of football (real football (England)) club shirts, every year parents would have to pay out for a new £40 football kit for their young children, which is basically extortion considering the changes were only slighty cosmetic. (read ipod?)
anywho. i'm bored of you trying to pick fanboy fights, apple has it's good points, zune has come out stronger then previous years and will compete better with it's own good points. iriver and other now possibly forgotten brands are still pretty solid players, depending upon what you want from a device.
And.. Free is good.
at paul:
paul, the ipods have never allowed you to update old devices to new firmware. original ipod nano's will never play video. and that is because they dont allow you to get the new firmware. this forces you to buy the newer devices to use the new firmware.
aka: paying for an update.
(apple does it all the time with its point releases too)
*wishes he hadnt bought a 30gb*
damn, i wish i had bought the zune flash's or a 60gb.
good new stuff :)
(still waiting for IE for zune?)
When will people get it? Unless the hardware is updated with a proper keyboard of some sorts, or a touchscreen/multi-touch, having any type of browser isn't viable. You'd have to use the D-pad to hunt and peck each letter/# key, though the touchpads on the 2nd Zune iterations and so on might not be too bad for hunt & peck.
But users are going to complain, because hunting & pecking (and navigating towards) characters is going to be a hassle, and Zune so far has been designed mainly for media playing.
I'd wait until the IE team redoes what a mobile browser should be like, and hope the hardware can catch up with it on the Zune.
I would get the zune for 1 reason alone. It dedicates its entire battery life to playing music, and such is a good mp3 player. If i want to browse, I will use my smartphone. Browsing on wifi is useless, because if im in wifi range ill use my computer instead, and a smartphone makes more sense to work everywhere. Thats why I think an ipod touch isnt a great idea. Sure it plays music and video but so doesnt most other mp3 players these days. And it has a browser, wifi and touchscreen.. all features that drain the battery. Its not a unique idea either. I can load my 3 year old Dell Axim x50v with 32GB of space via compact flash and SD cards, and still have a VGA touchscreen device. No thanks. Until battery life isnt an issue, ill stick with a seperate mp3 player and browsing device.
Keep dreaming...
Nice!
They just need to hype this up more and take some share away from the Ipod!
They just never even compete on tv or anything anymore :(
maybe Bill Gates and Seinfeld could make an awesome(?) advert about it.
or let the device do the talking rather then well, adverts..
I've only seen a few Zune Pass ads and if I were in the market for an MP3 player...those commercials would have done nothing for me. I really don't know why they refuse to directly advertise their devices. I don't even remember seeing an Xbox360 commercial...
im an iPod fan, but this looks quite nice.
this looks like the origional ipod nano... three years later.
Also the iPod shuffle looks like my left testicle, 24 years ago.
Ha your left testicles didn't even have a screen! how else can you scroll through your love juice.
Yeah, the iPod nano if Apple didn't feed it doughnuts or screw up the software.
was it cancer or something?
haha yeah my first thought too, but this one won't catch fire. haha
and no im not hating on Microsoft, or Apple.
I like them both.
@telepheedian
i lolled!
the zune 30 feels right in my hands though, haven't been able to hold v2 but it depends on what you want, screen size. nanos hurt my eyes when i tested them. especiallly that small square one, i think it was dubbed 'phat'?
I'm a huge Apple fan, but that thing is HOT! Apple better bring it on Tuesday. I'm not in the market for an MP3 player, right now. The choice is definitely more difficult now, though.
This looks a little too much like the first generation iPod nano... and on a side-note, Zune is what the PSP was to handheld gaming: A little to late trying to jump into a market that was already taken over by someone better.
Pretty slick. Looking forward to seeing if Zune 30s get these features. Between this and the cross-platform marketplace (which will be absolutely amazing if it's "buy once, use on any platform"), things are really looking good for Microsoft.
Finally a Zune for Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez.
For you Engadget regulars, those are people involved in a sport called baseball.
Tomorrow I will tell you what women are.
is tomorrow when youll finally get to meet one?
What do Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez have to do with a new Zune? Was it just an excuse to make a lame joke about how anybody spending their time reading a gadget blog wouldn't possibly know or care about sports or have social lives? I'm sure a large percentage of the people who commented here today spent some time watching football yesterday. Some of them might have gone on dates, but if I had to guess I'd say you didn't; you were spending Sunday night online racking your brain thinking about how to best make fun of people commenting on a technology blog.
Two questions to ask yourself before trying to make a joke:
Would anybody find this funny?
Would my mother even fake a laugh if I told her this?
If you had asked yourself both of these questions, you would have found that the answer to both is "no" and you might have saved yourself all of this.
I really like the colour of that blue zune, it is flashy and I think a lot of people will pick it up. The ability to mark a song over FM for purchase in the marketplace is a great idea. I for one am someone that does not have time to keep up to date with the latest artisits, videos or songs. It is nice to mark something that I like the sound of for purchase later on. Someone at Microsoft is being very creative and making Apple look so 1990 /w upgraded hard drive mp3 player. Go Ballmer!
"Device to Cloud" - Allows you to use wireless hotspots to update your collection"
What does that mean? I'm imagining it simply means that (if you use the Zune Pass), you can get more songs. Adding that to the fact that you can already subscribe to your friend's songs and listen to them in their entirety, the Zune Pass is a really neat feature - especially for my friends and I who are alway sending each other links to other bands and musicians nearly every day.
What would be cool, however, is for Zune to utilize their marketplace in the sky to sync all of the music played on your computer to the database in the cloud. I don't mean, upload the songs to the cloud, just remember the songs that you have on your computer and link them with the Marketplace. That way, if you are out and want to add a song to your Zune that you forgot at home, then you can just go to the Marketplace and download it, since the software has already sent a link saying that you own it on your computer. It would make an 8 gigabyte device infinitely more useful.
What would also be cool: Mac support. I mean seriously, yo! My iPod Nano is looking more and more featureless compared to other devices. (iRiver, Zune, etc.) Of course, I'm guessing Apple will follow suit and add wifi to the rest of their devices this year. Right, Apple?! Catch up, dang it!
:-)
P.S. I don't even know if the feature I described makes sense. It kind of sounds like gibberish now that I re-read it.
Loved the “Listen to your favorite FM radio stations and click to tag the songs you like for later purchase when you sync your device with your PC” feature.. very nice.
But only 8 and 120gb? what about 160 or higher? No "looking" updates this time? Will there no longer have Ipod classic anymore?
thank you, someone with a brain on here. these fools keep making posts about "the new zune" its just a capacity upgrade. the features are in the new firmware update that will be applied to all zunes the minute you sync them, sometime this week. im happy to see the browsing of the marketplace from the device.
hopefully this means they will unify the zune marketplace and the xbox marketplace when the fall dashboard update comes out on the 360. then we'll be able to have all the same content work on any of our devices with just one subscription
My birthday is on Tuesday. At the end of the day, depending on what both side announce, I'm either buying a Zune 120 or an iPod Touch(if the prices drop to a palatable range for the 16GB or more).
I tell you though, these features are making the Zune 120 mighty attractive.
Looks like an 1G iPod Nano
-Brett
Apple innovates, Microsoft imitates.
MS s like Howard Hughes. Loads of money but no real idea of what to do with it.
Wanna know what innovative is? - Allowing all your past customers to get new software features without having to buy whole new hardware..
Innovative is now Microsoft is taking the Zune's wireless and making it into something that is really useful. Connecting to any internet hotspots and downloading whole new playlists? That's awesome.
New podcasts on the fly without having to return home to sync? Sign me up!
Microsoft needs to implement technology from it's Live Mesh into the Zune next so that I can sync some of the stuff from my home PC while away.
Plus Howard Hughes? The guy was instrumental in commercializing air travel.
You do realise that the PSP is taking off right now right and has been outselling the DS in markets like Japan for a large chunk of this year..
what does the PSP and DS have to do with the zune update?
Whattttttt?
CAN NOT WAIT!
I want these features to be able to use them on my 80gb, which :( is in repairs (mostly my fault- got a replacement zune and was jogging with an 80gb even though I have an 8GB flash Zune too, I just only had the 80GB at the time and had to make do. My 8gb was at home and I wasn't. Anyways now I have to wait for it to check out the new features on my main PMP, but at least I still have my 8GB to try out the new features on which is still just as sick. I wonder if they will ever implement an online gaming aspect to the games seeing as Zune will have games, has wifi and the platform to do it on (Xbox live), all it needs is a lot of work to put it all together nicely! Then we can play XBL arcade games or maybe just XNA games vs other xbox/pc/windows mobile gamers out there and maybe one day Xbox live anywhere will finally be a reality like they said it would be in '06 or '07 (can't remember). But yeah these features are going to be sick I can't wait for syncing to "the cloud", that will be the best feature.
When will the Zune get Mac support? I'd be the first in line.
I don't care if the new Zune hardware or software is innovative at all. I just know, I'm getting a FREE sweet update (with a slew of features) on my Zune soon. Sure beats dropping a couple bills each year to buy a fruit branded player, that gives you nothing more then a new form factor (that is incompatible with all old peripherals), and probably one new feature (if you're lucky).
Btw, I'm emphasized this many times before. Apple didn't invent multi touch. In fact Microsoft used multi touch before them (Microsoft Surface). Do some research before you claim Apple invented the wheel.