ZuneHD en-route to Blighty?
Mole talks of OLED Zune for '3D Xbox games'
The Microsoft Zune Portable Media Player could finally land in Blighty this year, but as an HD-capable model with an OLED display.
A mock-up of how the ZuneHD could look
Image courtesy of WMPowerUser
A mole talking to website WMPowerUser has claimed that Microsoft’s “ZuneHD” will have a multi-touch display, with 16:9 aspect ratio, that’s able to support HD video playback.
A TV-out port would be included on one side, as would an HDMI port for connection into your HD telly. It may also allow for wireless synchronisation with your PC.
Rumoured to be available in 16GB and 32GB capacity models, ZuneHD could also include a web browser – presumably Internet Explorer, and support 3D versions of Xbox games – although nothing more is yet known about this juicy feature.
If the mole’s information is correct then the ZuneHD could appear in the UK, North America, Canada and France this September. A price hasn’t been leaked yet. ®
COMMENTS
@ Jonathan White
a) Will it actually be able to decode and display HD content?
Sure. The NVIDIA Tegra mobile platform will have this capability
http://www.nvidia.com/page/handheld.html
To clear up some misconceptions.
The HD playback is more about being able to playback to an external TV. Indeed it's not that great to be able to have HD support on a small screen but it is nice to know you can plug it in and have full HD playback on a large screen.
The games stuff will be to do with XNA game studio. The latest versions of XNA can create games that deploy on the PC, 360 and Zune from a single code base. As someone pointed out up above the games it's referring to will likely be the likes of Geometry Wars, N+, Braid and that sort of thing but possibly also classic XBox games.
As for the Zune being listed as discontinued well, yes, the original iPhone is discontinued too as is the Playstation 1. That's what happens when new products come out. If an old product is discontinued it doesn't mean the entire product line is discontinued, there is a distinct difference between one product in a line and the whole line being discontinued. As Microsoft is releasing a new version of the Zune it seems pretty clear that it's only the old model that's discontinued and not the full line.
Finally, regarding DRM, those comments are rather stupid. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but the Zune has been relatively DRM free compared to the likes of the iPhone and in fact all of Apples products. Even Google's android phones implement a level of DRM arguably worse than that of the existing Zune. It's hard to see how the new Zune could be any more restrictive than any of Apple's products, the new DSi, the PSP or many other mobile products out there that are DRM'd to hell. Yeah DRM is likely, but it's not going to be any worse than most other products out there.
Better late than never?
From the people that gave you Vista etc...
On a slightly more serious note, what's suddenly changed to make the UK/France (not even Europe!) a viable market for Microsoft's portable media player? I'm with Phil above, if they couldn't be bothered before, then we can't be bothered now, esp as we've probably gone out and purchased better devices from other companies.
RE: Why the DRM?
Well I've been stung by DRM so many times for being a paytard that I actually became a freetard for a number of years to avoid issues like having to re-rip my entire cd collection when I changed from a net minidisk to a creative zen player, and so have spent years avoiding itunes/windows media player..... until the last year. Recently, I've begun buying tracks through amazon, itunes, and a few other sites - why? Because now I don't have to fear another lock-in because of crappy DRM.
The last I heard (a while ago admittedly) the previous Zunes had DRM issues... and also, DRM usually means people like me who use 3 different operating systems can't use all my computers to connect to a device... I only use windows for work, I use osx for around the house and storing/backup my files - and I use Linux for my media center at home... my music is mirrored between my media center and macbook pro - so drm prevents me from using my legally bought music in the way I want to... DRM is/was a major ball-ache for ipods, zunes, sony things and a few other players... so to claim only freetards need fear it is just stupid - drm only serves to lock in people who BUY music, under the guise of "fighting piracy"... but now it's being cut from the majority of online stores I am really hoping that devices like the Zune and the ipod will follow and stop sticking it on their media players, requiring specific software and drivers, and instead, just show up as a generic hdd instead, because that's basically all it is anyway.... but hey, you are entitled to your opinion, just don't call mine FUD because YOU have never been stung by it! :)
Perfect combo
Bundle MS Flight Sim with it.
Maybe add a Bob T-Shirt for the first 5 buyers.
