Microsoft: New Zune hardware coming this year

Although none too surprising, it looks like Microsoft's gearing up to release at least one new Zune model this year, according to company man Brian Seitz via his Twitter account. Of course, with Ballmer telling an audience last month they're "sustaining our investment" on the product, we're gonna temper our excitement a bit until Redmond shows off the goods, which hopefully won't be long now that the PMP cat's out of the bag.

[jayayess1190 Posted Apr 7th 2009 10:12AM]

Touchscreen please! And external speakers.

[Spiritus Sancti Posted Apr 7th 2009 10:57AM]

"New Zune Hardware Comming"

.....why?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 7th 2009 3:12PM]

I like how some of you are talking about the value of Zune Pass. I just tried Zune Pass and its amazing I feel like a music god. I can download almost anything and I can just download the entire album without worrying about if the song is really worth a dollar. Just yesterday I downloaded about $1000 worth of music and today I bet I will do the same I love this service.

[Hackettman Posted Apr 7th 2009 11:09AM]

Im friggin excited..... Got my 80 gig..... Love it but I need more and I was gonna get the 120..... Im just excited......

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 7th 2009 11:38AM]

Maybe they can actually make use of this shitty excuse of what they call Wifi. A browser maybe???

[cesium Posted Apr 7th 2009 12:24PM]

darn I just bought a zune 120 a few weeks ago :(

hopefully the upcoming zune will be touchscreen with a hard drive. if it is, im selling my 120 and buying that :D

[dubprocess Posted Apr 7th 2009 1:10PM]

one question...what is a zune? MS please stop the madness of investing into an already failed product..give up!

[Decoy Posted Apr 7th 2009 4:01PM]

lol wats a mac? They still make those?

[mynk Posted Apr 8th 2009 12:24AM]

touché

[mynk Posted Apr 8th 2009 12:25AM]

btw, i thought this was someone real trying to talk about how Microsoft didn't do well with the product. until i clicked your name to find your comment history to be "everything sux iphone rulez"



okay i paraphrased.

[acniehaus03 Posted Apr 7th 2009 1:15PM]

I am still in complete awe at Robert Raw's post... I mean really? What does his love of his Mac desktops have ANYTHING to do with new zune hardware? Its not like the zune even runs a windows OS, it's just a mp3 player OS. Some people just amaze me...

[acniehaus03 Posted Apr 7th 2009 1:21PM]

Read his other posts. He either really hates Steve Ballmer or is having a secret Bromance with Steve Jobs... haha

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 7th 2009 5:41PM]

Ahhh...I love how you Zune fanatics can't stand it. Hehe. You aren't crying because your beloved Zune is halfhearted, you're crying because the competition is better. LOL

[Decoy Posted Apr 7th 2009 6:17PM]

What? We like our devices. If we wanted to be unhappy we'd buy iPods.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 7th 2009 6:26PM]

But if you wanted to be happy, you'd abandon a sinking ship. You, like all fanatics...hehe...make a choice and stick with it through its downfall because to abandon it would mean admitting your choice was wrong to gegin with; that your wisdom in choosing the Zune was faulty. And if your wisdom is faulty in one regard, all your decisions are suspect. How then will you navigate life?

[Decoy Posted Apr 7th 2009 8:47PM]

I'm not sure how you interpreted liking a Zune as fanaticism. Perhaps Microsoft will abandon the Zune as a platform, however this article is about their future support and development of it so...

[mynk Posted Apr 8th 2009 12:27AM]

even if zune dies, our passion will survive.
Zune software with every PMP on the planet.

Believe.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 1:43AM]

Oh that's great. Now all the properly working players will now have the same issues the Zunes have. I think not. There's a lot wrong with the Zune software. You ever try to have more than one genre of the very same files. For instance, if you are a DAP collector, like I am, and have an extensive collection of DAPs that each requires specific files...OGG, MPC, FLAC, MP3, WMA etc...and you want to make copies of the very same files on each format...OGG, MPC, FLAC etc...good luck using Zune to manage them. Zune will not process the very same file name twice.

Try it and see. I sort my gigantic collection via genre names. That's the easiest way to see what happens. For example: one genre, Jazz - OGG@320, might have 400 files in it and be used on an iriver. That very same genre of 400 files as Jazz - MP3@320 will not be complete. It will have maybe 15 to 50 songs in it and the other format will 15 to 50 files missing.

Yeah, the Zune software is top notch....NOT. I'm thankful for MediaMonkey, iriver Plus 3, Samsung EmoDio and others that will allow more than one file of the same name.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 1:49AM]

Or suppose you have two or three Zunes and would like, just for the pleasure of it, to have AAC on one, MP3 on the second and WMA or WAV on the third....all of the very same music. You'll have to rename each file in the respective codec so the files won't double in the Zune software. You can have one but not both, or all the compatible formats.

[Mr 14 Posted Apr 8th 2009 2:00AM]

@ Lewislink:

Your logic is seriously flawed. The Zune has always been dubbed a "sinking ship" by many people, and yet it's still here, with a decent amount of faithful supporters. The Zune has always been the reject of the PMP market, because iPod fanboys said so. And yet, here we are, still hanging on to our "sinking ship", and we're happy with our purchases. It seems to me that any product that is in direct competition with Apple always receives an onslaught of hate from idiots like PAC Man or Skank, and you very rarely see any real reason for not liking the product besides it being dubbed a failure by the likes of these same idiots.

The Titanic sank in two hours, and the orchestra played until they were dead. The Zune has been "sinking" for three years, and I'm not going to stop listening to my music on it until it's dead.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 3:03AM]

Yeah, the irrationality of a mind subdued by false logic. The facts can be stated but the irrational mind refuses to acknowledge them, either because of ego...generally the real cause...or desperation.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 3:37PM]

I haven't tried the Zune Pass or the market place yet but I LOVE the Zune software! It organizes very neatly, simple and is user-friendly. The interface is nice (unlike iTunes) and I like that you can customize the background. Everyone is impressed when they see me using the software. iTunes is the worst peace of crap program I have ever used in my life! It freezes a lot and does what it wants. Quality is blah. I really can't wait for the new Zune. Thanks, Microsoft.

[FILA Posted Apr 7th 2009 9:16PM]

i dont know, alot of options coming very soon, with the intro of these new 64GB SDXC cards, only time will tell with a new 64gig flash player, top that off with a new 64 card when they come out by years end, I'll have that 120gig zune player and more in flash, that will be sweet!!! then wait till the 128GB cards, holy shit,

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 12:20AM]

To all Zune gen one owners, the answer to you mystery is already on your device.
1st hint. go to games choose checkers and go to setup. the unactivated scream ask if you want to play regular or touchscreen.
2nd hint. The Zune is from a hardware standpoint nothing more than Toshiba gigabeat on steroids. Toshiba just introed this year a new touchscreen phone with winmo 6.5 and a lghz snapdragon procesor. Do the math.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 11th 2009 1:42PM]

Hopefully Microsoft sends us a Zunephone!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 1:53PM]

Love the Zune!

http://www.styleathome.com/blogs/techstyle/2009/01/20/zune-mp3-contest/