Having just played with a prototype for a few minutes, I’m really impressed with the Zune HD. I’ve got a video, too, showing off how well the animations work.
The device is tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod Touch and it’s got a better UI, the main menu’s scrolling so natural through the swipe gestures. There’s a little note on the side, under the volume toggle—”Hello from Seattle.” The power button is up top. The home button is nice and prominent, a bar rather than a round button on the Touch. It’s smaller. And the accelerometer is more swift in responding to repositioning; images rotate very fast.
Of course, this thing won’t have hundreds of apps ready for download when it comes out, as the Touch does.
But I would take this in a heartbeat, provided they get around to making a Mac client.
Melektaus
Friday, May 29, 2009 at 10:18 AMWhat about the marketplace though? Are we getting the marketplace? I know we are not getting the Xbox Live/Zune video marketplace thingo (at least not at first) but what about the bog standard Zune music store? I already have a Zune 120GB (and it rocks) but what really makes it snap is the Zune Pass – it’s just a an irritating extra level of difficulty to get access to that from Australia. If I could get it in an official channel I’d might be distracted from the disappointment of us missing out (yet again) on the aforementioned Xbox video store.
ObviousT
Friday, May 29, 2009 at 11:58 AM“Marketplace” runs off the side of the screen…
Sure is pretty, hope they’ve made a LOT of improvements for Mobile IE.
Melektaus
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 1:59 PMLooks like the pre-show information was incomplete – we are getting the Zbox Live/Zune video marketplace. Finally.