According to the documents filed with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), it seems that Toshiba, a Japanese hardware manufacture is making the Zune device. The Zune product name was Toshiba 1089 Portable Media Player according to the document, which was confirmed by a Microsoft representative.
The menu screen displays the text in white on black background. It looks very plain. No "Video" selection on the menu from this image?
This is a play screen. Larger album art is nice.
Artist list screen. You can scroll and select albums, artists, playlists, songs, or genres. The horizontal white bar also shows the capitalized alphabet as you choose from the list.
The FM radio screen. (track info not displayed in this screen)
Buttons - A menu button on the left of the circle, scroll buttons in the circle, play/pause button at the right of the circle.
A hold switch, just like iPod's on the unit’s top is located near the headphone port.
By pressing up and down on the wheel, you can scroll up and down through menus. When you hold the scroll button to check the song list, the screen superimposes the current alphabet letter over the right side of the song list so that you can know how far you have scrolled.
The screen - bigger but similar to iPod's menu hierarchy. Zune's album art is larger and more detailed than the iPod’s largest size.
FM Radio - North American, European, and Japanese frequencies.
Wi-Fi - ability to spool Zune music to a Wi-Fi-enabled Xbox 360, but you will need a $100 wireless adapter.
Size - bigger than iPod.
The earlier rumor was said the price for Zune with 30GB would be $399. Well, we've got a good news. The retail price is fixed and now only $299, the same price for iPod 30GB.
Everything else seems to be the same as we have announced earlier last week; the colors and the features except...
The new rumor has been already talked among many, and it's said that the Zune's video function might be delayed. Microsoft apparently would not want to share the product details at this time so the rumors are after all people's opinions and expectation, it seems. Again, we really should wait for everything to be officially confirmed. But then curiosity is not so bad. The Wi-Fi capability surely got people's attention, right?
Microsoft executives described its under-development Zune brand as a line of hardware and software for mobile entertainment, both music and video, investing a huge amount of money with a long term strategy.
They are looking ahead for Zune's success in 5 to 6 years. Microsoft's Xbox, game division is still losing money this year, but they think it will turn profitable in Microsoft's 2008 fiscal year.
The rumor has been said that Microsoft is launching Zune within this year, either November or December, targeting the holiday season. The first Zune seems to have a 30GB drive with and a 50% larger screen than the iPod with video. The color options are black, brown, and cotton color. The price? USD 399.
Apple's iPod 60GB is $399. But Microsoft seems to be confident that the consumer will pay more for Zune's new features. We still don't know if Zune comes with a game function, but the initial target group for Zune seems to be the Xbox customers.
