Teardown reveals unibody Zune HD
Source:
Via:
Permalink
The team over at IFixIt.com performed a teardown on the new Zune HD and the device had a few surprises to reveal, mainly, a unibody design. This means the case of the portable is cut from a single piece of metal making it more durable and much easier to repair than the iPod lines.
Zune HD: The redux
We had some volatile YouTube commenters, who we'll likely ignore in the future, but we wanted to answer a few questions... so we brought in CNET's Donald Bell and Jonathan Strickland from HowStuffWorks to give us their take.
Guests:
Zune HD launches (and our first live show!)
It's official, the Zune HD is out! But just because it's been hyped a little more than we were expecting doesn't mean it's necessarily worth the price. We talk to Clayton Morris from Fox News, and Kevin Tofel from JKOnTheRun about the new portable media player, and whether it's worth it or worthless.
Also, we're broadcasting the show Live on Ustream... check daily at 3pm EST for a new show.
Guests:
Zune HD to launch, Microsoft rolls back the curtain
Source:
Permalink
The Zune HD launches today, and with that means Microsoft is rolling out the new Zune software, giving away 14 days for its Zune Pass service, and... oh yeah... you can pick it up in a store too.
We'll keep all our launch day news here, and add to it as it piles up. Next item up? Yes, there's a teardown.
Zune app store to be tightly controlled
Source:
Permalink
Sounds sad for developers, but Microsoft says it's planning to keep the newly launched Zune HD app store pretty tightly controlled. At the moment, it sounds like there's a Microsoft turf war going on internally, so the company is planning to keep most of the apps free and developed in-house.
Zune HD not traveling outside of the US
Source:
Via:
Permalink
According to an official word from Microsoft, the rumors that have been floating around about the Zune HD not coming to France were true. Not only is the touchscreen media player not coming to that part of Europe, but it will remain US-Only. Microsoft is instead looking to expand its video presence in 18 other markets, many of which are available in the same areas as the Xbox 360.
(Thanks to Amy for the tip.)
Microsoft nixes Zunes except HD, does anyone care?
So it turns out with the impending ZuneHD upgrade, Microsoft won't be manufacturing older Zunes, which isn't that surprising given their lukewarm success in the past. That being said, their fanbase was rabid, but will anyone miss them now that they're disappearing? We ask Jonathan Fingas from Electronista.
Guests:
Zune HD launching with app store?
When the Zune HD launches on September 15th, it may do so with an application store of its own. A video demonstration of the new device clearly shows an Apps listing under Marketplace, and a Best Buy representative answered affirmatively when questioned if there will be an SDK. So far, Microsoft has been mum about the availability of such apps, however, it's hard to imagine the Zune series competing well with the iPod touch given Apple's huge App Store library, unless it has a similar offering.
Zune HD: App store importance?
It's a bit of a slow news day, so we thought we'd talk about our favorite topic of the moment: The Zune HD. When it's released on September 15th, with its beefy Tegra internals, we're expecting the device to be pretty impressive from a pure user experience perspective. On the other side of the coin, we're not really sure what to expect from the Zune's 3rd party application support. It's true, the device could have a great amount of secret developer support, but up to now there hasn't been much explanation about exactly how 3rd party apps will play on the device. How crucial are they to the platform's success? We ask Seth Porges from Popular Mechanics, and Marco Chiappetta from HotHardware their perspectives.
Guests:
Zune HD price / release date goes official, Zune Dock pops up for preorder
Source:
Via:
Permalink
So, the prices that we were seeing earlier in the week? They turned out to be accurate. Microsoft says the Zune HD will hit September 15th for $220 for the 16gb model, and $290 for the 32GB model. Also, the Zune HD dock is going to be released with all the HDMI-toting goodness you'd expect, for a penny shy of $90.