Yeah.. pretend you don't like that and while quietly wishing that was in your MP3 player. Oh yeah 85% of the ipods/touch/etc out there don't have wifi...

Brentis

@aKed: Tell that to people who hailed the iTunes WiFi Music Store when it first came out as the best thing ever.

mciarlo

Awesome. Can't wait til September 16th.

Evangelion

Microsoft needs to realize that making it easier for their customers to pay more money buying music isn't exactly a selling point.

aKed

I got my brother a 4GB Zune for Xmas last year. He really loves it. I'm currently using the Sandisk E260 and it's pretty good. But I think I may get that Blue Zune when it comes out. I like the the smaller Zune. I do have an iPod Touch and I'm in love with that thing. But I use that more as a PMP than for music. The pictures and video on the Touch are outstanding. But they are 2 different devices.

Unknown2U

The zune is really coming into it's own. I have an iPhone, ipod and zune 80. I do love my iPhone, not however, for the music capabilities (8 gigs? and Version 1 headphone jack, Cmon..). the iPod gets almost no playtime anymore (unless i'm road tripping it with someone that only has an ipod connector in the car). And my zune.. At first i was slightly disappointed it didn't have some of the features my iPod had (Gapless play back.. was a big drawback) but the updates are really pushing it passed the iPod in my personal opinion.

In my opinion it's completely legit to not like the zune.. but don't not like it just because it's not an iPod - that's just ridiculous. And if you haven't played around with one, give it a shot before you rip on it (if you have used one and still don't like it then be my guest).

KronikFpLiOnYkD

looking good.

wetworker

I really hope they speed up the software.

xxenclavexx

I'm liking the sound of that music recommendation feature.

EU_dig

Wow, you can search for music - inno-fu*kin-vation

Riquez

I can't help feeling that it would have been a smarter move if Microsoft had skipped the first gen "poop brown" Zune and waited until they had a real contender in the second gen.

While they're starting to get competitive now, I feel like so many reactions are leftovers from that first generation, which even Zune fans might admit was pretty sad.

bubba451

I'm freakin' stoked about this. All of you fanbois really need to chill; healthy competition is a good thing. If anything, this software release is going to drive Apple to expand the iPod brand even more aggressively.

No matter how biased you are, this PMP competition can only benefit the end users (us) at this point.

whiteknight89

WOW! You can have yesterday's technology TODAY on a dog slow Zune! I'm sooo impressed!

Brau

This is just amazing. To all bashers, keep hating the Zune but that's all you can do. Zune is now a great device, admit it or not. Zune FTW!

jhoeforth

@Unknown2U: "I do have an iPod Touch and I'm in love with that thing. But I use that more as a PMP than for music."

Knowing full well that PMP means Personal Media Player, that statement made no sense seeing as music is a form of media. Unless you mean PDA? That seems to make sense.

Kymeira

@Brentis- Wow, I guess I'm lucky then. My touch has WiFi, I feel bad for the majority that didn't get that feature...

tangledweb16

@bubba451: The color was out there, yes, but for a user sick of the ubiquitous white iPod, it was nice to see. I have a black Zune 30 myself, and the blue sheen on it is actually pretty cool, especially when the sun hits it.

But you're right in one respect -- the Zune gets a lot of crap (heh) based on the first gen. I've played with the most recent Zune (that is, before the new ones) and the newest iPod Classic, and I really don't see how an objective user would choose the iPod. That is, if a user had never used any PMP, I reckon they'd probably go with the Zune -- better UI, better interface (Up, Down, Left, Right is SO FAR superior to clockwise and counter-clockwise thumb swiping), and the ability to set your own backgrond. It's a more user-friendly device, especially considering that Microsoft is making the new updates for the old gens. An Apple user wouldn't want that?

DGUW

Are you people still trying to make the Zune happen?

copyguy

@aKed: Moron. Microsoft has to realize that giving their customers easier access to purchasing music will generate more monies. Oh wait, that's what they did. The operative word, my friend, is EASIER. Win win. As much as I loath MS...

The Magnificen7

@Jason Chen: Any chance of getting a "Zune: Then and Now" or "Zune: X years later" comparison review going? I'm quite curious to see your take on the whole affair as it stands now.

Maybe even, dare I say, an updated Zune vs. Ipod head-to-head. Yes, I realize it's divisive, and subject to ones preference and prior usage, but I look back at past reviews and realize we're looking at completely different devices today, on both fronts.

Now, just my preferences, but if I were in the market to buy an mp3 player today, knowing what I know.. it would probably be a Touch. But if it had to be a hard drive based player, I'm thinking I might just take the Zune over the ipod at this point. Of course, I say this a day from possible big news.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Hilo

@Riquez: you know, it took ipod 5 fu*king generations (actually 5.5 to be exact) to eventually have the retarded search function...and im still waiting for the god damn copy-paste and open-in-new-tab in the iphone

diehippiedie

The more function, the more confusion.
But this piece looks really supportive to users.

Benzodiazepine

@aKed: Ummm if you've got Zune pass, you're good to go. These features are basically a compliment to that and you get all of the music for one flat rate, $15 a month.

Sam_Zebian

this UI looks better than the iPod´s one.

stopitnow54

Wow.. alot of these features are really nice. The Zune software looks extremely fluid and easy to use. I wish my car radio had and 'Add to cart' feature..

Aturayd

@Brau: wow have you even used a ipod classic? and i hate to tell u the new zune software looks 10x faster than my itunes.

phantam

@aKed: "more features to spend more money"

why are people such idiots, this is designed for people with ZunePass, monthly subscription they have that they can now download tunes while on the go at a hotspot without even having a pc around.

phantam

The Zune has always been a competitive PMP, out-of-the-gate, and currently. It has never been an iPod killer though. To be an iPod killer, you have to, at a minimum, match the feature set of the iPod Touch. There is feature overlap with Windows Mobile, and that is certainly killing it, or rather management is killing it. Why the deuce wasn't the Windows CE dev team working their asses off when the first iPhone demo was shown at Macworld in January of '07? Who knows? I sure don't, and I don't know why MS is cutting off their nose to spite their face with the lack of a touchscreen PMP with a web browser. Here's a hot tip to the Zune team: A Zune with the iPod touch feature set (web browser, contacts, etc.), the wifi Zune store, and (this is a big and...) 80+ Gb of storage, is a de facto iPod killer. It doesn't matter if the device is fatter than the iPod Classic. There is a very large subset of the PMP market who would like nothing more than an iPod Touch with a hard drive.

proton_decay

@KronikFpLiOnYkD:
I might rip a little if I may........

As I'm in New Zealand the only Zune I've ever seen is my own (80gb). The physical device is really good and people that see it are really interested in it. iPod classics are everywhere here but Touchs are fairly rare.

However, I feel the software (PC side of the system) is terrible. Even the 2.x updates still lack a lot of common sense functionality. I'd be more interested in a robust core system than new features at this stage.

A perfect example of how broken the software is - try loading Massive Attack's Mezzanine.......

All in all, I do love the Zune tho.

raum

As a full on Apple user, I gotta admit, the Zune gets more tempting every time its released. I shouldn't really exclude the Zune as a player since its not really built by MS, rather its built by a totally separate team.

The thing I'm wondering is when is the lawsuit going to kick in against the Zune saying that its not as fast loading wifi searches as it was on this video! haha. You know some idiots going to try it.

imTheKing

Heh, I just fired up Mezzanine myself to see if I could figure out what Raum was talking about.

All I can figure is I'm thinking of the House intro now.

Crashproof

@raum: Hmmm, I have Mezzanine on my 80g Zune and it loaded without any problems. We must become friends, now! NOW! Or not, whatever.

thrashanddestroy

I love my Zune but the Zune software is a friggin resource hog....I have a fairly fast computer and it slows me down a little. We need some PC side software updates.

This does look cool though

efenili

Yes the touch is a nicer PMP, if you need all that. It you have to browse the web and check your email on your PMP, feel free to pay $500 for 16GB of storage. If all you want is something that plays music, movies, podcasts, games & has some interesting wifi/sharing functions, $250 for 120GB is pretty reasonable.

My point, your comparing Apples to oranges. The Zune80/120 is not M$ answer to the Touch, it's their answer to the iPod classic, which it pwns. M$ has not dropped a product to compete with the iphone/touch, but since they own the company that created the sidekick now, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a Zunephone.

RobotVampire

@raum: I have that album on my Zune 80 without issues.

Maybe you could be a little more specific as to your actual issue?

Fifth Echo

The one thing I've been waiting for is to be able to use the Zune as a hard drive, like an iPod. I guess I will just have to wait longer.

spyguy99

How come MS can't just use videos like these for their commercials? These are great!!! and what about videos of Games features? Anything on XNA?

mailbox01

Apple could actually learn a thing or two about UI design from Microsoft this time around, the Zune interface is much easier to use and move through than the iPod. I didn't know how they'd do search, but that's a really good implementation using the D-pad.

Hyloka

What's even better; is that all of this will be available for free on my Zune 80.

On the other hand; get moving with Zune Marketplace/Zune Pass in Canada, Microsoft!

Guizzy

@Brentis: ...and one feature that the iPods with WiFi don't have that's already in the Zune of syncing with my PC via WiFi.

Gotta say, as a person who purchased a Zune 30 (and then sold it to a friend...eventually coming back into the fold as a Zune 80 owner), the Zune has come from a mediocre product offering to the DAP I prefer and recommend rather quickly.

Hell, if they could add a Mac client, there's a few other people I could convert to a Zune user...

Fifth Echo

MS just made it harder for me to make a decision... Up until now, I was done with the Zune and it's lackluster extras, and I was planning on getting a new nano, but this just made me rethink everthing... Unless Apple drops a huge bombshell tomorrow, I'll be sticking with Zune and get a 16 GB Black Flash player...

hyewarrior

The Zune + Marketplace combo seems very attractive, but let's not forget Haier's Ibiza + Real's Rhapsody combo has been around for more than a year. It will be interesting to see how this newcomer offering from Microsoft compares.

rdelfin

@spyguy99: You can easily make the Zune function as a removable storage device. Here you go "Zune as Hard Drive"

Oh yeah, I love my Zune. 8gig red. And yes, I have used many ipods and zunes...Zune wins.

yashichi8bit

[www.engadget.com]

^ All videos on one page.

I'm impressed. Blue Zune 8 is on its way into my pocket.

.endejas.

Here's hoping the 80GB players hit Woot for $85 like the 30GB ones did last year. My z30 is full.

JoeWoodsprite

@Fifth Echo: and those kind enough to try my mezzanine experiment...

Track 5 is called Exchange. Track 11 is called (Exchange). For whatever reason the two songs won't live together on my Zune eco-system (zune software and device). Off the top of my head I can't recall which one over-writes which.

Even if I use the built in meta-data search functionality, the problem exists. Actually, I think this makes it worse.

This is a common problem with songs of the same name. To get around it I have to add the artists name to the track title. It is possible to avoid this it by ensuring the album is specified but this is a pain in itself as then I end up with a bunch of Albums with one song in them - I'd rather just have them treated as singles.

I hope I got that right. I'm not at my PC at the moment so can't test and it's been a while since I butted heads with the issue. Be interested in others experiences.Cheers

raum