Zune HD gaming and app downloads confirmed: Twitter, Facebook, and 3D games on the way (updated)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 15th 2009 3:59AM
posted September 15th 2009 3:59AM
"Later this year, Zune plans to release free applications such as Twitter for Zune and Facebook for Zune, in addition to fun 3-D games such as "Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition," "Vans Sk8: Pool Service" and "Audiosurf(TM) Tilt." Games can be added to Zune HD via Zune Marketplace over the Wi-Fi connection or when connected to the Zune PC software."Hear that Nintendo, Sony, and Apple? There's a new handheld gaming platform in town. All that remains to be seen is how it will integrate with the Xbox 360.
Update: A bit more is revealed in a Seattle Times Q&A with Brian Seitz, Microsoft's Zune marketing manager. At the moment, the strategy is to keep all the apps and games free and developed in-house or in close collaboration with third parties -- no third-party SDK for devs to freely crank out apps just yet. Seitz is clear that games will be the primary focus of the "sometimes-connected" Zune HD and the Windows Marketplace is Microsoft's priority for handheld app development:
"So what we didn't want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn't work together. Right now our product roadmaps didn't line up perfectly for us to snap to what they're doing or vice versa... Down the road if there's a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that's building an app store and take advantage of that, that's something we'll look into."Man, Windows Mobile 7 and the rumored OneApp app store can't get here soon enough.
Wait, what? No third party Apps? For reals?
You gotta be kidding me.
That is so moronic, so utterly idiotic in fact, that it could have only come from Microsoft themselves.
maybe someone could help me out. i downloaded the zune software to import my songs into it because i plan on purchasing the hd soon but i ran into a slight problem. a good amount of my songs pop up under UNKNOWN ARTIST. they were all neatly organized in itunes before but they arent on here. i would go and change all of the data one at a time but i have a fairly large amount of music. i got about 10gbs of my 40gbs of music that has been put under unknown artist. is there a way to edit my data quickly so that it resembles the info i have it on itunes?
Newsflash 1 Jan 2010
Microsoft announces discontinuation of the Zune HD line, citing 'irreconcilable differences" with the Windows Mobile division. Ballmer gives Gates the tongue, claiming "It's not my fault!"
First, a disclaimer: I'm not an Apple fanboy or Mac user. I run Windows 7 RC on an ASUS gaming laptop... So accusations of that sort would be shallow, at best.
I just want to point out something to all the wishful thinkers here...
If you walk into most Best Buy stores, and wander over to the PMP area, you'll see a big display for the iPods. Several demo units, many of them hooked up to nice speakers or slick-looking MacBooks. The whole lineup is there on display; Shuffle, nano, touch, classic, and in all the different sizes and flavors, too. Apple has impressive-looking signs and flashy TV advertisements playing on screens nearby (or at least playing on your TV at home during your favorite show). iPods dominate one whole side of the display counter.
Then you go around to the other side of the display, and you'll find the Zune. It's in a tiny corner of the PMP display counter, sharing that side with the SanDisk and Sony offerings. There's a little display card that simply has the Zune logo and a space for the Zune HD to be mounted, and the Best Buy tag that lists some of the basic features of the devices. It's generally not hooked up to anything, and unless MS really pushes for it (or someone feels adventurous) there's no content installed on the Zune to demo anyway.
The salespeople don't exactly go out of their way to sell the Zune, either.
And, my friends, that is where the bulk of PMPs in this country will be sold... At Best Buy. Like it or not, most people get their electronics from Best Buy, and they depend on what's displayed there-- And HOW it's displayed-- to determine what they're getting.
Zune HD won't have any app demos running. It won't even have a decent space on the display table because Zunes NEVER have decent space on the display table at Best Buy. The average customer is going to walk up to that table, see a bunch of iPods in a colorful, large display area, and then see- at most- two Zune models in a tiny area and ask "what's a Zune? Is it like an iPod?"
The answer: "Yes, but it doesn't work with iTunes."
"Oh, well I have all my music and videos in iTunes. I bought a lot of my music from iTunes-- I can't use it on the Zune?"
"No, sorry. You'd need to pay Apple for the non-DRM versions of the things you bought, and then transfer them into Windows Media Player."
"Oh. Can I do that with the movies and TV shows I bought from iTunes, too?"
"No, you can't. Those only work on the iPod."
"I guess I'd better stick with the iPod, then."
...and that will be the end of it. You guys will buy the Zune, but the average user already has money sunk into iTunes content, and they're not going to switch and give it up to shop in a different online store at this point. Especially considering that Apple's customer service for iTunes is pretty decent (and Microsoft's record of customer services is debatable).
iPod's installed base is huge. It's really doubtful mom & dad Smith are going to get a Zune for their kid this XMas when they got him an iPod last year. They've been spending money at the iTunes store. They aren't going to throw all that away now.
It may be an annoying fact, but it's the way these things work; MS needed to get into the PMP market a lot earlier than they did to steal customers from Apple. Now they're way too late, and nobody outside of the Internet knows what the hell a "Zune" is.
It would also help if MS would actually advertise the Zune on television like Apple advertises the iPod.
Best Buy has a major deal with Apple to display their products. Microsoft is opening their own local stores in major cities- that's a step. Zune HD isn't the ipod killer- we know that. But fuck, it's a great device, and for a price lower than Apple's underwhelming 3rd Generation itouch device, it's worth it in my opinion.
http://www.thezoone.com/news.php/2009/09/xna-3-1-extensions-for-zune-hd/
XNA has accelerometer and touch screen support. Awesome, looks like Zune is going to get official XNA support in the very near future= better apps than the itouch.
You MS lovers are totally crazy if you think hardware is what makes a pmp special. The difference in hardware is really not that different. Just because the Zune can pump 20 million more polygons than the iPod touch or whatever doesn't mean it's actually going to make a bit of difference for the end user. Especially since microsoft alone is developing apps. Tell me. What sort of quality applications do you suppose Microsoft, or anybody for that matter is going to provide for free? They're going to be demo games at best. They might look pretty. But until Microsoft finds a good development team that is willing to put months into developing fully featured games on the Zune I think you MS fanboys are going to be extreme disappointed.
Yeah, what I want from a music/video player is apps. Not music or video...
Apps are fine on a cellphone, on a non-cellphone PMP, I don't need a huge app market. I'm going to fill it up with videos and music for when I'm on the go.
"Yeah, what I want from a music/video player is apps. Not music or video..."
Really? If you think the Zune HD is only a music/video player then it sounds like Microsoft's marketing is sucking bad. I am sure I read something about games and apps on a Zune HD pamphlet once, not to mention they also mentioned on the press release. I am positive that the box says something about games on it as well....
Luckily for me, I get both multimedia AND apps/games, tons of them too :)
What games has Apple developed recently?
Oh yeah, none.
How about Microsoft and their associated studios? Well, there's Halo, Fable, Age of Empires, Forza Motorsport, Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, Project Gotham Racing, plus about 200 more titles, even if they make mobile versions of say, 10% of their catalogue thats 20 VERY GOOD games. I'll take 20 high-quality games over the 1000's of crappy titles in Apple's Store. And if microsoft makes some of them free?- Even better.
64gb or gtfo
@kazbaeden
a read that to, but it's marketing at its worst,
They state in press release 8 cores, but on the specification page, they name only 3 main units,
the CPU, GPU and AV processor ...
The cpu, has indeed more "cores" in their dictionary that is, but all they do is count the different instruction sets, read here detail of all ARM technologies;
http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/architecture.html
So either they define each core, or they should at least number the cores correctly on their own specifications sheet, which all of a sudden you guys leave out, as the only thing standing now is a "PR" press release ;-)
Anyway lets see the first tests, I couldn't care less how many cores it has, I'm just trying to lower the expectations so that you guys are not let down when it is established performance is in the same ballpark then all other PMP's out there. Mark my worts, it will not be 2x faster, not 1.5x faster ... we will not see any spectacular difference, and that is a missed opportunity. If they had used a dual core ARMv7 ... then it would have HW specs that would be woaw, now it's just meh
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=48f7ba37-8ba7-4d16-8873-0b7f83ef77f9&displaylang=en
This add-on for XNA Game Studio 3.1 adds the following functionality to the product:
1. The ability to target and develop for the Zune HD media player.
2. The addition of new Touch APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.
3. The addition of new Accelerometer APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.
Also included are documentation and examples integrated into Visual Studio help that will show you how to leverage the new APIs. You'll even find a tutorial on how to update the Platformer Game Starter Kit to use the new Touch API's!
Continued Homebrew support, even if games will take a while on the official Marketplace!
You're trying to grasp at straws here. You're going for the facts right off ARM's site even spouting out their 400% crap which was actually a comparison to the ARMv6, not Tegra's, and disregarding the info off Nvidia's site even their own press release stating the processors. Otherwise, it's false advertising.
The 6 processors handle:
HD Video Decoder, HD Video Encoder, 2D Rendering, Imaging, 3D Rendering, & Audio
Now don't forget the two ARM11 MPCore chips which are also integrated into the ZuneHD.
Now the Tegra APX2600 isn't the final version. The press release states that Nvidia has more than 50 design projects in the works after this one. The other chipset you were linking was for the netbook/laptop version.
You're trying to dissuade people because you obviously are at bat for Apple.
Well,
I give up, 10 seconds to load calculation app is so much faster then the iPod Touch,
web browsing is so much faster, and gives you the "full" website version like the iPhone 3G,
I switch to the Zune HD ... those 8 cores are rocking indeed.
Check out a review of the new Zune 4.0 software:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1D8oIC2gfg
@ZeroCorpse Don't forget all the cool stuff you can do with MS software. Windows 7 lets you setup a HomeGroup that allows you to share media to all of your other Windows 7 computers. You can see your pics/listen to non-DRM music on your Tivo or XBox 360 (which there are WAY more of than Apple TV's :)
That said though, there's this perception in the marketplace that Apple "just works". Microsoft has some really sweet products but right now, lacks cohesion. Hopefully the Zune/Xbox360/WinMo mashup will bring something truly spectacular in the not-too-distant future.
The Zune HD isn't going to be a mass-market hit until it does a lot of things really well. It will need to have a rep as the cool or easy to use device before the general public will get behind it. I think right now it only strongly appeals to hard core music people and gadget geeks who like to own the best hardware no matter what anyone else says is "cool". Hardware alone won't win it folks, the mouth-breathers out there are looking for an easy way to have a good time, just look at how well the DS and Wii are selling.
Oh, so I guess the fact that it does most everything the iPod does and some other things the iPod doesn't do, yet is better built and doesn't require shitty iTunes isn't compelling enough. LOL
Reported.
This could really hurt Nintendo and Sony handhelds
now all they have to do is make app launching and internet browsing faster
apple's gona get there asses handed to them..oh well, iPod served its purpose for a while c[: