While we broke the news of the
ZuneHD to the world as we did
the original, we have no way to verify the authenticity of this new image originating at
Windows Mobile Power User and now trotting itself around the Intersphere fueled by the adrenaline of fanboy fantasies. We've been skeptically going over it pixel-by-pixel (what is that on the back? A camera, a screw-hole?) as this is the notorious period that always follows a product leak when dubious PhotoShops and fanart begins flooding our tips box. Fortunately,
Zunited's sources have stepped up with an assertion that the pic is in fact an authentic ZuneHD. So let's turn an eye to the specs, the glorious, almost absurdly high-end specs that accompany the picture.
Zunited's sources won't touch these and we're keeping them at arm's length for now under the it's too-good-to-be-true heading. Click through to see what we mean.
[Via
Zunited]
So, if we're to believe the ZuneHD specs that "trickled into" the inbox of
Windows Mobile Power User then this is what's coming from Microsoft:
- multi-touch capacitive OLED screen in a 16:9 aspect ratio
- 3D Xbox game support (whatever that is)
- playback of "HD media" available from Zune Marketplace
- TV-out from what looks like a mini-HDMI port on the left-side
- HD Radio
- choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage (not a lot for HD content)
- wireless sync
- multi-touch "browser" of the Internet-type, presumably (so why nothing shown on the main menu in the image above?)
- launches this Fall, "around September" in the US, Canada, UK, France and possibly other European countries.
- likely to be a "showcase" for Windows Mobile 7 when released (Huh? WinMo7 won't be out until 2010. Perhaps they mean early WinMo7 betas expected in November?)
While the rumored specs are impressive they aren't completely unprecedented. Already, we've seen Samsung's massive
OmniaHD sporting an HDMI jack and biggie 3.7-inch capacitive AMOLED display stretched into a 16:9 aspect ratio. Thing is, the OmniaHD's display has a less than HD 360 x 640 pixel resolution -- HD in this case means 720p video capture and HD video out. Definitely haven't seen hand-held sized (less than 4-inches) capacitive OLEDs sporting a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels yet.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted April 15th 2009 6:39AM
they can be put on the headphone cord.
Drop the OLED for plain LED LCD, double the thickness, give me 120 (or more) HDD space and double the battery life. Sell it for $300 and you've got yourself a buyer.
Keep what you got and try to sell me 32GB or $400? Yeah, no thank you.
I'd actually be surprised if that was real. Why bother to change the menu font?
WTF? Of all the things listed, it's the menu font that has you doubting?
:O
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the OmniaHD's touchscreen resistive? Speaking of which, when I used a WM Omnia at the verizon store I could have sworned that the screen was capacitive, as it required no pressure whatsoever.
It's capacitive
It really is a sad situation for the relatively few Zune fans out there in the wild. With Microsoft almost completing the nail in the coffin for this "me too" device, Zune fanatics are desperately clawing at anything tossed at them to appease their screaming cries of hope. Like a band of wayward souls in the sea of lost hope and ridicule, these drawings and specs are their only evidence in keeping their faith alive for the device. If this product does comes into fruition, the price would alienate current Zune fans. As we all know, Microsoft equates to cheap, bottom barrel pricing.
How will low price alienate customers?
shouldn't you be with your friends at the peewee basketball game or something?
I confirmed this on Zunited as an authentic image. Thanks to Engadget for the recognition. I do want to say that we only confirm the authenticity of the image.
We DO NOT in any way confirm these specification, in fact from what I heard they are incorrect.
Also, in regard to the image, it is authentic and made by Microsoft, however, it is outdated. The source has said "there is a better ui design" that is all.
For more info see http://www.zunited.net/ or http://www.twitter.com/volvoshine
So what exactly have you heard in regards to the specs?
that zunehd.net site that volvo mentioned isnt even registered by Microsoft.....
I think that's not a camera. Look at this: http://www.omitek.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/zunehd2-camera.jpg
nice
DRM FREE! Who knows why microsoft decided to add that as a meta tag to zunehd.net? ;)
I thought it was already confirmed by Engadget that that site has nothing to do with Microsoft.... or did I miss a retraction?
MS doesnt own that Site dude....
do a whois search on it
Fake.
1. Photoshopped.
2. Multi-touch capacitive. This is obviously fake, unless MS has been developing something nobody knows about, or they branched out Winmo7 specifically for the Zune (highly unlikely)
3. Playback HD media. Unlikely, considering the storage space. More likely that it would support 480p content.
4. Multi-touch internet browser. Winmo is just getting IE6, so where does this come from?
5. Showcase for Winmo7? Well, nobody is doubting that the Zune is being integrated into Winmo, so this is probably just a misinterpretation, or simply the new Zune will be another testbed for the Zune software before MS putting it in Winmo.
I don't get your point 2. What's stopping Microsoft from making it multi-touch? Do they have to announce to us when they are working on a multi-touch capacitive device?
Agree with @DeoWulf, #2 is an absurd statement. Multitouch support is native in Windows 7, and the first multitouch devices were all in Windows anyhow. It would not be a terribly big surprise to see it in a mobile platform as well.
Also, all the work with the surface, sphere, and other multitouch projects has shown the company certainly has people working on it and investigating the UI implications. I don't get why this is "obviously" fake. It would seem to be a natural progression, both for their own hardware and especially their software to support it.
@DeoWulf & Brad: Read my comments again. I didn't say it's impossible, but for now, MS suddenly finished developing a multi-touch capacitive support just for the Zune is unlikely, unless they already planned this by branching out Winmo7. If they really did, good for them. MS doesn't have the luxury of having secrets like some other companies, especially if they want to allow games in this (thus they must provide betas/SDKs of the "OS" to developers. Regardless of what you are wishing for, there are more reasons that this is fake than for you to making up rationality on 1 thing.
Do I sound like I want to re-convert my 150GB of music to a different format every time I buy a new PMP?
WMA Lossless, why? What other devices is WMA-Lossless compatible with? Or Apple Lossless for that matter?
You numbskulls who throw down the "just use a proprietary format" line, I can't figure out how you don't understand that it's a losing argument. You read this blog, don't you? Locking down a device = bad for the consumer.
There's only a few areas that PMP's can really increase: storage capacity/storage type(SSD), battery life, screen quality/technology, design/input. MS is going to have to do something to push the envelope to really grab any market share away from Apple. To be honest, I'd rather pay extra to have my entire full quality music collection portable, than say, 10 more hours of battery life. I can always find an outlet or USB port to charge my PMP as long as it can last 12-20 hours playing audio.
I don't think that MS or any other PMP manufacturer are the ones researching HD/SSD technology. They just buy what's available. So if the capacities are available...make use of them.
If you remove your white earbuds for a little, and turned off the Gospel of Steve, you might realize there's a bigger world out there. One without restrictions on what you can do with your own stuff.
HD Radio would be sweeeeeet.
I've got a feeling that that's fake, just a touch diamond2 with a zune icon shopped on, with the little camera just being filled in.
wifi? kthxbai
THIS actually looks nice.. better than the samsung P3 IMO.
choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage (not a lot for HD content)
Ugh... FAIL
THEY also said that,
THERE WILL BE A MASSIVE 120 GB EDITION!
sorry for the caps
hey Engadget! the Omnia HD doesn't have a HDMI jack!!!! no no no, it have a normal 3.5 to Rca nokia n95 tipe, for HD videos it uses DLNA WIRELESS!!!!!!!
it will need all that to run the halo game they are working on....
Looks 'shopped to me, note the hypno-toad styling of the word "zune" on the front.