Zune 'Phone' devices listed in latest software update
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 26th 2010 8:48AM
posted January 26th 2010 8:48AM
posted January 26th 2010 8:48AM
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@HighestRanked
For you, I guess tomorrow's event is exciting huh? Tissues at the ready?
lol that didn't take long!
@DiGiC
...thats what she said
@DiGiC Oh boy, the good folks at Palm must be shaking on their shoes right now, if this turns out to be true then their reign is over...
The race for LAST PLACE is HEATING UP folks!
@nicholiservia
...thats ALSO what she said (: :p
brb while i change my pants
@skyblaze
I have to change my shirt. I spit up my drink while laughing at your fanboygasm.
@(Unverified)
I didn't have to change anything. I've learned not to drink anything while reading Engadget comments. There's still chocolate pudding in my keyboard.
Any-who, Zune Phone. Massive want.
@(Unverified)
Fanboi-ism... where to start with this one...
He made no mention whatsoever to any other product. Thus your a douche.
I think that covers it.
@skyblaze
Here's an underwhelming HP Slate to wipe that with.
Oh good, more WinMo phones ::yawn::
@CapnHowdy if you're so sleepy as to yawn on the internet, you should not be here telling us, you should be getting a good night's rest. Don't forget to take your iPillow and iBlankie with you.
@disciple83
But iDon'tWanna
@CapnHowdy Wow, a double-FAIL. Good job!
@lamerz The only failure I'm guilty of is not appeasing the hoards of prepubescent engadget readers, like yourself.
Whoah this is huge. It does make sense though, for microsoft to be able to make their own phone by using their very own version of WinMo so they won't step on manufacturers toes.
@insky I think most people have the wrong idea about this pink phone stuff. Taking a guess I would say that it's going to be a qasi replacement for the sidekick. A semi dumb phone that they plan on marketing to tweens so they can access zune and other MS offerings. Great Idea, but I'll wait for 7. If it's an OS they'll probably offer it to manufactures for a cut rate price if not free to cut into Google's anroid market share.
very cool indeed...I wonder if they'll deliberately leak something in the next couple of days to lessen Apple's media coverage.
Incoming, impending!
Yay! Queue up the Ewoks for this celebration!
In all honesty the only thing preventing the Zune from being a phone now is the lack of GSM antenna. If the phone did nothing else besides what the HD does now, plus make calls, I'd still pay a premium for it. What would be really awesome is if it sold as a retail phone like Nokia does here in the states. I don't need a phone that acts as a GPS or a portable PC, I have a laptop already. I want a device that I can take running with me to listen to music, connect to my ZunePass, and make a phone call. Nothing more actually. Mr. Ballmer, if you're reading, and you do happen to do something like this, come find me, the offer for the premium price still stands.
@disciple83 So by your logic you can go to Wallmart and buy a cheap pay-as-you-go phone and rip out the antenna and duct tape it to your Zune and it'll work as a phone. Whatever your current field of expertise is, you should change it immediately and look into engineering.
@CapnHowdy
Pretty stupid comment on your part. It was easy to see that he was saying that Microsoft would not have to do much in the way of hardware to the HD to make it into one of the higher performance WM phones out there.
@dennisheadley Perhaps you should join the other genius in gaining your online engineering degrees
@CapnHowdy
I am an electrical engineer. You're wrong. Stop being so angry and politely disagree.
@mAsh
And I'm a Billionaire Astronaut Cowboy. I'm curious what exactly I was wrong about. The type of tape used for the antenna?
@CapnHowdy
You certainly curiously don't sound like an engineer yourself. There are many standarized hardware based on certain technology standards that can easily be implemented and adjusted to make a phone. Even custom designs aren't that particularly difficult if you follow those standards. Since Microsoft already has a background in oh, I don't know, phone operating systems it really shouldn't be that hard for them.
@CapnHowdy
Billionaire Astronaut Cowboy, eh? You should probably be getting back to space.
@dez
I thought the only billionaire astronaut cowboy was Commander Shepard, oh wait he isn't real. :(
@mAsh
Your perception is as sharp as a plastic butter knife. Suggesting the addition of cellular functionality to any device as easy (I won't poke fun of the GSM reference) is asinine. If you haven't figured out that's what I poked fun at then please do yourself a favor and beat yourself to death with your keyboard before your inane diatribes cause more IQ loss among the engadget readers. Because.. you know.. that would be a damn shame.
@disciple83 Are you serious, CapnHowdy? Really now? You keep saying how it's a stupid idea, then why not enlighten us? Oh wait, you're the smug type. With added radio technologies, some hardware changes to accommodate cellular service all housed in a plastic casing etc, why isn't it *not* possible while using a similar Zune HD interface? CapnObvious, you can't be that big of a twat now can you?
@LiQuiDFuSioN Don't put words in my mouth, I never said it was stupid. Just not easy like the other prodigal sons in this post. If its so easy, then why don't you make one? You can't be that ignorant, can you? Oh wait.. this is engadget's comment section.
@CapnHowdy
My bad, oh, man I'm sorry. Carry on, carry on.
"DUCK!"
*iPhone runs for cover*
@onlymyrailgun
Don't give it another task, otherwise it will need to stop running for cover...
sorry I had to...
@googleadam
It's okay, I'll just ask it to sing a tune.
I'm waiting to hear more about the "Zune Phone" and the whole Pink stuff......I just hope that the phone is GSM based
@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi: I just hope that MS doesn't bifurcate the WM7 platform too much into business/consumer. Some of the rumours suggest that they might.
If they DO, the only differentiators should be the apps that have prominence from the main interface. Just don't lock business devices out from consumer apps, and vice versa. Only phones aimed for corporate clients should be locked, and only if the corporate purchaser determines that access to apps etc would be a security issue.
all i want is a phone with good internal memory to carry all my media collection GPS and ability to control my media devices (xbox, zune on my PC). i dont want many apps or games. please microsoft!
@rakeshin Its called a micro sd slot, add what ever amount of storage you want. Its a nice little bonus to winmo and most all other pda phones. Only a certain few companies think they need to sell multiple different products only differentiated by the amount of storage they have because it can't be expanded by the end user, oh and price of course.
I see this more as a software add on to winmo phones though, not a whole new class of product. They have already pushed zune marketplace to the xbox live. Why not push it to phones as well, its just a software update.
@KAL326 you are right..
i can buy a 32 GB microsd card for what 400$? oh! right.. there are no 32gb microsd cards available on market yet. i dont blame you if you dont have media more than 16gig but in my case.. im a mobile person. i spend 4 hrs of a good day on road and dont want to sync my videos and music each and everyday. i still dont understand why mobile phone manufacturers are not putting inbuilt memory. iphone will come up with 64gb phones soon. all we can do is put a microsd card in which can go beyond 32gb. wait for sdxc standard phones. gosh
@rakeshin Or you could have multiple 16GB Micro SD cards, 2 for around $90. Or you could wait a bit for the 32GB cards to come out if more that one is really a problem for you. Seems your storage dilemma could be fixed as early as next month.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/samsung-announces-64gb-movinand-flash-32gb-microsd-card/
Why would the iPhone need to duck and run for cover? According to PT Ballmer microsoft is selling millions and millions of phones. I love all the Apple haters just wishing and hoping for some magical device to drop iPhone from it's position. Isn't going to happen. It is about the integrated iuniverse not about the individual device. BTW I am typing this on my IPhone while surfing the net, my email is coming in and I have music playing on my headphones. So much for not multitasking. It just simply does it better than the rest.
@Mactacular
Better than the palm pre? I somehow doubt that
Is that device still available? I haven't seen one in the wild. A few 100k sold vs millions confirms what I said. Multitasking is a neat thing to talk about but most consumers wouldn't need to know there device is running apps in the background. You see when a device works so well there is no need to have an illusion about features. BTW has your push up screen that reveals the beard of buttons popped off yet?
@Mactacular You are aware of the fact that Microsoft is building completely synchronization of Xbox live, Zune, and Windows into WinMo 7 right? Say what you will about the whole iUniverse or whatever, and kudos to you for typing on your iPhone. I can do all of that too on my HTC Fuze. I could have also done all that on my Nokia 9300.
However, I currently use an iPhone, and lets just talk about background apps...On my fuze if I got a text message while I was playing a game I could reply to the text then resume the game. How's that working out for you on the iPhone, cuz I have to reload the app when I get a text... If a normal user isn't concerned about background apps I can't be normal, cuz it pisses me off like no other sometimes, and the day my contract is able to be upgraded I am setting my iPhone on fire and mailing the video to you. But its more likely it will set itself on fire since it probably has that explodey battery in it. I wonder if I can surf the net too while it's exploding? How's that for multitasking?
@Mactacular
lol oh how delusional you are... and this coming from someone who enjoys his Apple products..
@disciple83 Funny, every time someone wants to claim how awful an iphone is they put together a list of absolutely inferior devices as the nirvana we should all be using. And, they report that they only got an iphone to prove to themselves how horrible it is. Sounds like a waste of money to me. You would have been better off never experiencing it so you can remain angry about how awful it is. How are the games on your Fuze? I didn't realize on your Fuze you could play games while getting texts. Your right that is something my iphone can't do. But, then again I would rather sh*t in my own mouth then have a Fuze. As for Nokia 9300 your kidding right? Nothing quite like pulling out the phone that bond used in the early 2000's to simulate control of his car. I would love turning it sideways and flipping open a door to reveal a beard of buttons. Welcome to the 90's.
@Mactacular
I bought the iPhone cuz i used to own an iPod touch, figured the 3g was gonna be great.
9 Months later im left missing my Windows Mobile 6 Blackjack.
Not the blackjack II, not 6.5, my blackjack.
I have several problems with the iPhone like not being able to multitask as the blackjack did. and the loading of apps and everything was faster on my blackjack. I gave it to a friend and to this day she still loves that phone and does better than a good deal of the new winmo phones out. (ex. Tilt2, epix, at&t winmo phones.)
The only thing im happy on the iphone about is i am not paying that ridiculous data plan. Jailbroke this phone and i tried to love it but just cant. I am hoping they release a phone that can play media with a 3.5mm jack and has the integration of the zune marketplace cuz never have i paid for music til them.
oh and bout rather eating your own shit than use a fuze, i guess you are spewing it out now huh ;)
tl;dr i bought the iphone for reasons besides to shut up apple fans, and it still sucks compared to old winmo phones.
@Viral I can't agree more, thanks mate!