Zune HD interface and media playback demoed on video
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 9th 2009 3:28PM
posted August 9th 2009 3:28PM
[Thanks, alf]
posted August 9th 2009 3:28PM
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ipod killer
now sell it in the uk
they are selling the zune hd in all of Europe when this is released you wil also have your own Europe marketplace.
fantastic news, cheers
lol...
yeeeaah.
Sexy device but it definitely won't be an iPod killer.
Where did you here this? I hope it's true.
LOL, another ipod killer. Man, the grave of these ipod killers must be overcrowded by now.
There is no such thing as an 'iPod Killer'.
Actually, after seeing this video, the iPod got drunk and killed itself.
hopefully they will release it outside of the US. I was planning to buy a zune a long time ago, and by waiting all that time there are 5 ipod touch in my house.
Now that the Apple Store opened up here in Mexico, the chances of people getting one are even less. I might have to import mine.
Theres no such thing as an Ipod Killer.
iPod clone. Don't bother.
Haven't you guys realized that there will never be an iPod killer? No matter how amazing competing MP3 players are, people will continue to buy iPods because of the logo on the back. The original Zune had more features and a music store that was arguably better but, in the end, it only took market share from Sandisk and Creative. Apple kept its huge market share. That same market share is the same reason the iPhone and iPod Touch have done so well. People automatically thought that they were better because they were made by Apple when, in reality, they were both really, really low end, poorly implemented devices before firmware 2.0 and the app store came about. If it weren't for the huge base (that came about because of the Apple logo, not device quality) the App Store never would have done well.
Ultimately, my point is that nothing will ever kill the iPod because people basically buy Apple products blindly without really comparing other devices that might be far superior.
If it could do half of what the iPod Touch could do then maybe it would be but as it can't do apps or use iTunes Store it is pretty much out of luck.
@iPoop
Did you just compare an mp3 player to a phone? O_o
iPoop, by those standards, the Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and iTouch are all junk players, as none of those could call someone nor can they call 911. So there you have it, those devices are overpriced glorified Mp3 player for the poor assss losers.
Besides, why would you want to call a hot chick in the bar when you could simply walk up to her and talk?
The people saying the Touch has more capabilities than the HD are absolutely right.
If both devices were made by Honda, the Touch would be an Odyssey and the HD would be an S2000.
Have fun with your minivan fellas. I'll take a manual transmission.
@iPoop
You didn't even use good comparisons to a phone. If you are going to make yourself look like an idiot, because your name didn't do a good enough job, at least say really outlandish things. Like, can it send MMS, can it tether, will it be able to copy and paste, will... OH WAIT! The iPhone still can't send MMS, or tether, things most regular smartphones can do. And it do three generations of software updates to include copy and paste. But you should really think before ever touch your keyboard. It makes you look like an idiot.
wait just one second, @ 1:01 did he say you can hook it up to the dock, and then to the tv via a "HDMA" cable? where DO they find these guys.
Catch more videos from the GDGT launch, including footage of the Zune HD Dock and Zune Video for Xbox Live here:
http://www.zunespring.com/index.php?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=249&zs=home
Microsoft's marketing team sucks. The Zune could be a better product, but their marketing team will screw it up.
@jon
im tryin to figure out how this relates to a manual transmission and a minivan? Though i do like it being a zune owner myself and liking the s2000
CMSB, you're right. The iPhone was a JOKE when it came out and only 2.0 kind of made it decent. It wasn't until 2.1 or 2.2 when it was actually stable.
However, sadly, with 3.0 it does happen to kick many competitors to the curb as a finished product. It still lacks multitasking but we all know there are ways around that.
The iPhone is an anomaly in that with software revisions the device has been transformed. Contrast that to the iPod where revisions were just for appearances or to just market a new one with higher capacity. The only real things that were ever improved was the physical design, the inclusion of ALAC and gapless playback. Other than that iPods are the same thing now that were years ago.
That having been said the progress of iPhone software is pretty impressive and I had to hold in my natural bias against Apple to say that. But now with this GV rejection I need to seek another phone even though the iPhone works very well for me currently. I have experience with WinMo, and S60.
@Hike15
You can do a lot more with a minivan than you can with a roadster, i.e. apps on the Touch, compared to mostly PMP functions on the HD.
I keep seeing people saying how the HD's text based UI is old and busted. I tend to see icon based UIs as one more disconnect, just like an automatic transmission.
hahah right.... So Microsoft was able to make an iPod Touch THREE years later after it came out.
@loosely-coupled:
The last time I checked, 2009-2007=2.
@ cmsb55
I agree. There is nothing revolutionary about the iPod other than Apple's marketing strategy. Abysmal sound quality, pathetic codec support, and lack of features steered me away from their iPod product line. Yet still, they are more popular than players from Cowon, Samsung, and Microsoft.
It really is a shame. I feel their computers, operating systems, and App Store are all great products made with the utmost attention to detail. It never really took much with the iPod to "wow' their customers and therefore they have neglected it.
And also, to all those who think the App store is the most amazing thing in the world. You're all right but it's not because of Apple, it's because of the developers who put the creativity and sweat into their releases.
I'll tell you what an iPod killer is....
Any media player that has decent sound quality, that's what.
iPod competitor but not killer.
Ipoop are you talking about real girls or the "chicks" in bathing suits in that app you paid $20 for?
to be specific, this will be a direct competitor to the ipodtouch. It's so obvious that it won't stand against the other ipods except the touch. to be honest, my jaws dropped right to the table when I saw how smooth the device is. I mean, it's sexier than the over rated ipod touch. now if only we could get a lot of great apps for this. i smell iphone apps ported to this baby!
It might not be an iPod killer but at least it has an OLED display which is certainly something to be envied for battery life alone. Microsoft is really going to have to promote this Zune HD to get sales going. Unless MS can offer a lot of content for this media player I can't see it competing in sales with an updated iPod Touch. Of course, if Microsoft can sell it for a really low price, that might help sales in a big way for people that don't like to spend money.
@Danny:
"I agree. There is nothing revolutionary about the iPod other than Apple's marketing strategy. Abysmal sound quality, pathetic codec support, and lack of features steered me away from their iPod product line. Yet still, they are more popular than players from Cowon, Samsung, and Microsoft."
I feel that the iPod Touch is actually a much more fully-featured device simply because of the App Store alone. Regardless of if it's user driven, the App Store and its integration with the iPod are simply revolutionary in my definition of the term - it's now the feature to beat. It allows the device to actually evolve with the user - having purpose for more occasions.
So when you say iPods are lacking features, I assume they're features that an ordinary consumer wouldn't be aware of - say FLAC support or etc. In that case, I do agree that iPods are lacking. That's not to say these features are unimportant, it's just to clarify that I don't believe the iPods (at least the Touch) are lacking in overall features.
Customer Support is another reason I see people flocking to Apple's products. From many polls, I've read that Apple's tech support has been the most helpful - further, they've begun opening their own stores to help people with their technological needs. Big names like Microsoft have just got to this point (barring Sony Style stores).
I think there is a point to what you are saying - people choose a big name like Apple for their media players because they're simply a household name in that category; However, I feel their products are designed for that exact demographic. Anyone who knows Apple's products aren't audio-enthusiast designed will likely pick up something that is, but the majority could simply care less, especially since Apple's products sound decent enough (I'd hardly go so far to say abyssmal, but there certainly is better, especially for codec support as you say),
There's also something to say in Apple's move away from conventional MP3 players. I don't believe Apple's focus is music after the sudden shift in their products lent to the iPod Touch and iPhone's sweeping up developers.
I'm personally waiting for the Zune HD to show me what it's got and for Apple's fall iPod update (even tablet maybe?). I currently have a first generation Zune and Zune 8. The Zune 8 is really nice, but I can see a lot of the complaints about the original Zune are quite accurate.
The reason it won't be an iPod killer is because it's a media device in a world where all media devices are called iPods by the average consumer. Just like many call generic tissues "kleenex," even though Kleenex is just a brand name for certain tissues.
In terms of features, there are plenty of things this guy will do better than the iPod Touch. I'd totally buy one over an iPod Touch from what I've seen already. The AMOLED screen, resolution, Tegra, no iTunes, etc., make this thing such a huge contender for me. But the Apple dorks here are right, it won't crush the iPod in terms of sales. For those of us who already have an iPhone/Touch, there probably won't be enough reason to switch over, at least until they make this thing into a phone, and WinMo 6.5/7 kicks enough ass. I just can't see having more than one device anymore. It's not practical.
Yet another completely fake environment they have created to try to make the OLED screen look better. The first prototype they showed off in the world's dimmest room to try to make it look good.
By putting the Zune on a light-emitting background, they artificially make the blacks look blacker because, relative to the massive coloured light behind it, of course they are. Stick an LCD based product on that background and it will look as good.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - you do not want an OLED in a portable product. Seriously. They look worse in real-world conditions than LCDs because they are 100% emissive. They make the Zune unusable when you are outside or in a room with a window. Which is quite often.
If there's any ambient light in the room then that is reflected and the contrast ratio drops to lower than an LCD.
Oh, and the colours die after a few months because the blue pixels fade faster than the others.
Oh Fnuky, I didn't know you had one, would you mind sharing some pictures of your device so we can see that your claims are valid. oh wait...
There are cheap 'fake' version of OLED screens around, they are OLED but don't even have full 24bit color, and they have lesser dynamics, they look more 'muddy', but you should not take that as some sort of evidence that all OLED screens therefore suck, there are poor and good quality LCD's too, one can't be seen as representative of the other.
God, it took you guys long enough, but sure enough someone had to bite.
@ Levi. I agree that Microsoft has a mountain to climb if they want to get people to stop referring to all MP3 players as iPods, but it is a transition that happens all the time. In the early 90's, all SUV's were called "Jeeps" and until recently all DVR's were called "TiVOs". The iPod is not the be-all-end-all standard of MP3 players. It may not be the Zune that does it, but just because Apple made the product mega-popular doesn't mean that someone won't come up with a better product eventually. Eight years ago, did anyone think that Nintendo would storm back into the video game system sales lead and Sony would have to drop their price and performance 3 times before they could even grab respectable market share?
@Goldaar - wow, I guess you've got me there! I don't have an unreleased product :)
Unfortunately, I work in the mobile display industry, so I've seen quite a lot of OLEDs over the years. And i've seen almost as many OLED manufacturers go bust because nobody bought their overpriced, useless products. I say "useless" based on measurable and reproducable facts.
Since I can't show you an unreleased product in a real-world environment, please feel free to look at Engadget's own pictures of an OLED on full brightness, indoors in a moderately bright room (remember this gets 1000 times worse when you go outside.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/sony-oled-walkman-nwz-x1050-hands-on/1533682/
http://www.engadget.com/photos/sony-oled-walkman-nwz-x1050-hands-on/1533641/
http://www.engadget.com/photos/sony-oled-walkman-nwz-x1050-hands-on/1533631/
Wow, look at how black those blacks are. Gaze in amazement at how bright the whites are. Wow, such an improvement over LCDs! Definitely worth suffering bad battery life and a screen that looks dim and yellow in a few months for!
@Danny
"There is nothing revolutionary about the iPod other than Apple's marketing strategy."
Hmm... You can hate them or love them, but you sure as hell sound like a bitter detractor with disingenuous comments like this. Even the most ardent Anti-Apple analysts and tech journalists will admit how Apple's success has very little to do with marketing.
Was the iPod the first MP3 player? Nope. It was the first attractive MP3 player utilizing a large (for the time) harddrive that fit in your hand and was combined with an easy to use software application (iTunes). It also was the first player that was built for an easy to use commercial music download service (iTunes Store).
Likewise, the iPod Touch was not the first music and video player. It was the first with
- a minimalist design using few buttons
- a large capacitive touchscreen exclusively built for a finger-driven, graphics accelerated interface
- built-in media store for downloads
- a slick OpenGL-enabled 3rd party application platform
- easy application download and installation from dedicated store
Yeah, nothing about the iPod line has been revolutionary at all. /s
Nope looks like the iPhone is the iPod Killer everyone wanted.
Best media UI I have ever seen.
agreed
LOL, if you like text-based menu system, especially for the root menu. Wow, the text based interface is the best EVER.
LULZ AH LAHK PICTURZ YOO CANT LAHK DIFFERNT NOOOOB!
@Sy
"LOL, if you like text-based menu system..."
I do. I use text all the time. In fact, I'm using it right now. I'll bet you can even tell what I am saying just by using these funny squiggly-shaped abstract symbols right here on the screen.
Yeah i just swiched to an iPhone 3gs from my tilt which had winmo 6.5 running on it (thanks to xda) and having text for the main screen was so much better than the tiny icons on the iPhone. It would be better if the icons gave some information such as the actual weather and a working clock. I really cant wait to get to play with an HTC hero and even more excited to see what microsoft brings to the table with winmo 7.
yeah but it is long scientifically proven that icons are better (faster) at being recognised and used than just text..
thus part of the the demise of text based command OS's for example..
MS doing a policy/design 'U' turn eh?
Also the video shows the first look inside of a Microsoft retail store.