Saturday, September 16, 2006

Zune Official Specs

To wrap it up, here are the official specs and opinions:
  • 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.58-inch footprint (vs 30GB iPod's 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43-inches, and 80GB iPod's 0.55-inch thickness -- trust us, on a device like this a tenth of an inch is a huge difference)
  • 5.6 ounces (vs iPod's 4.8 and 5.5 ounces for the 30 and 80GB models)
  • WiFi is 802.11b/g, photo is JPEG only (right now)
  • Zunes and their users will have names -- Zunetags -- building off the phenomenal success of Xbox Live model.
  • Faster charge time than an iPod, but still no quoted battery life. It will not be user replaceable.
  • Nope, no price or release on the device or anything Marketplace related -- which they told us yesterday they wouldn't be releasing (yet).

Web Opinions:

  • Zune supposedly won't be taking advantage of the device's video capabiilties by selling TV shows this year, nor will it play Media Center video files (DVR-MS files, we take that to mean).
  • Microsoft went with brown on one of the three Zunes because "artists would and musicians would." We're not going to lie, some of us around here like it (key word: some).
  • Zune will be backing concerts and shows, and is really working with the music influencer angle.
  • The 3x3 DRM layer (share a song for three plays over three days) will supposedly wrap files of any supported type (MP3, AAC, etc.) in DRM during the transfer.
And that's it folks. To tell you the truth, I'll be buying my own personal one in brown, there's just something about that colour!

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