"We’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences."

That sounds a lot like making use of Danger, who specializes in consumer OSes. Like say, a Zune phone designed by Danger—a Zune phone, after all, would be such an end-an-end to experience, and fill in Microsoft's obvious gap in the consumer smartphone niche, which even BlackBerry is getting into. JKontheRun has unspecified info that Zune phone meetings are kicking up, to boot.

Here's the real question: Would a Zune phone persuade the Zune guy to keep his tattoos? [All Things D via Macrumors]

According to leaked specs, the nine-point pad will offer users the option of instant messaging on Windows Live or Yahoo Messenger in a phone-style typing schema. The device will also use wireless to share media between home networked computers and access an internet-based media pool, called a Public Home Server.

The player is named after Creative's X-Fi audio technology, which restores lost data in compressed music files to create concert-like audio effects. Users can turn to two X-Fi options—Crystalizer makes audio richer and clearer, and Expand repositions the music to sound like it's coming from in front of you, simulating listening to a live performance on stage. Check out the manual:

[epiZENter]

It was all business as usual, but with all due respect, I do have to beat Robbie up over a few other overly precious quotes:

On the failure of high-def disc formats:

You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, "I am not going to pay extra for that."

On lack of ad revenue as the main reason web-browsing sucks on most smartphones:

The business model for browsing on a phone has not gotten itself completely clear yet. In the PC space, the way people monetize the Internet is through advertising. Now in the phone space, we believe that advertising will be a part of that experience, but it's a different form factor.

On the future of handhelds:

We think the market is going to evolve to people having their favorite device that they are going to carry around with them. That device is going to do multiple things, one of which is going to be music...We call them mobile phones but in fact they are going to become much more than mobile phones.

Again, I mean no outright disrespect, hearing things like this from the head of all Microsoft's CE divisions makes me a little nervous. [SFGate via WMPowerUser]
Thanks, Surur!

Tech Journalists and Reviewers Use Macs: Sure, Microsoft may not think it's profitable to develop software for a platform where users are unlikely to purchase their products, but what about drawing interest from the media? If you look around any tech media event, you're going to see more people using Macs than PCs. And sure, most, if not all, of us have both platforms running. But for those of us who use OS X as our primary OS, how many are using Zune past the initial review stage? It's more of a hassle to go back and forth between machines just to use devices, especially when it comes to the storage of media files. I think the media would be more interested in the nuances of Zune if it fit in with their daily lives.

Zune 2.0 Is a Quality Product: Pound for Pound, I'd say the Zune80 is a better product than the iPod Classic. It has a better UI, more features (hardware and software), a better platform and control mechanism for gaming, and a decent enough design. While many companies in the past have put out good MP3 players, none have hands-down outclassed the iPod. The Zune80 might be the first to challenge the supremacy of the iPod. Why not have faith that Mac users will see that?

Devices And Platforms Should Never Be Exclusive: The iPod never really took off until it began supporting Windows with it's 2G iteration. Of course, Apple had more to gain from opening up to a much, much larger Windows user base, but it never hurts to make a product more widely available to the public.

How Costly Can Mac Support Be?: Even if the number of potential Mac users who would buy Zune products is minuscule, how expensive can it be to code an app? There have been far smaller companies who have supported both platforms, and Microsoft has other Mac apps, so what gives?

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It: The iPod didn't become the de facto standard for MP3 players because of its technical prowess alone. The great white earbud craze of 2004 probably started because a handful of popular kids liked the design of the iPod a year or two earlier, which in turn made them technological tastemakers. All the kids who want to be popular generally follow along. I think it goes without saying that it's currently considered "cool" to own a Mac. Microsoft is never going to get Zunes in the hands of this group if they can't get their music on it.

It's entirely possible adding Mac support won't have a huge impact, but with open source technology and DRM-free media growing more popular by the day, giving people the freedom of platform is always good for the image.

Other cool social stuff:

• Xbox Live-ish icons on your Zune Card that are like achievements, awarding people who listen to an artist the most or passing a total number of song plays.
• Dynamic friends' list that shows what everyone's listening to. Find out about the band Tokyo Police Club from your buddies.
• Windows Live Messenger "now playing" integration
• Album reviews! Tell everyone what you think about so-and-so's latest album, because the world needs to know.

But the big thing is the video store, which comes now with 4,800 music videos and downloadable TV episodes for $2. Their current partners are NBC, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Cartoon Network. There's going to be future Zune Social integration for video, but nothing yet. Microsoft's also leaving the door open for original content and programming as well, but there's no video sharing/squirting as of yet on the hardware devices.

Other changes to the player include:
• Auto Playlists (smart playlists) are back! They're not as powerful as they were before—or as iTunes is—but they're automatically updating playlists that you can have based on your criteria.
• Gapless playback. Finally.
• Easy drag-and-drop song metadata editing.

The update should go live somewhere between 10PM PDT and 4AM PDT tomorrow.

Developers only have a measly 16MB of RAM to work with, so don't expect to see anything currayzeee. But it's good to see the Zune and Xbox 360 finally swap some spit. This is just like the series finale of Friends!!

[Zune Scene]

Apparently the Zune Marketplace is heading to "Mobile Platforms", with talk of it being on both Zune proper and Windows Mobile. This is heading fairly deep into rumorville, but it could mean that the Zune will get a mobile music/video store (like the iTunes Wi-Fi store) accessible over Wi-Fi. It can also mean the Windows Mobile 7 will get the same store, and will debut some time in 2009. This, assuming the rumors are correct and this French to English translator we're using is accurate. [Generation NT via Anything But iPod]

In addition, since the Zune has Wi-Fi, you can also do multiplayer games as well! You'll be able to multiplay from Windows to Xbox to Zune, which means that you might be able to develop one game for three platforms (with slight tweaks for each) that people can play with each other. Definitely cool. Check out Kotaku for more GDC coverage. [Kotaku and Kotaku]

Correction Request: Microsoft Sued, Zune Owner Claims Ear Damage Microsoft Zune Injuries Mon, Feb 4, 2008 at 4:14 PM To: bennyg@gizmodo.com Hi Benny,

I read your article and notice that you didn't mention the blast of noise that happened the very same instant as the shock. The coupling of these two device malfunctions are a key part of the claim. Would you mind updating the post?

The actual claim can be found here: www.microsoftzuneinjuries.com

Regards,

Joel

Thanks for the update, but we're not sure what the domain name is getting at — as far as we know, this guy's lawsuit is based solely on the headphone injury, but perhaps it will one day expand to represent victims of any and all bodily harm encountered while trying to join the Social. Geddis' attorneys hope to make this a class-action case, but first they'll have to find more Zune owners who have experienced this problem. Finding a niche that narrow sounds like a tall order to us. [Zune Injuries via Gadget Lab]

Instead of getting 30 hours of audio with Wi-Fi off, CNET got only 22 hours, followed up by 18.5 hours with Wi-Fi on. To compare, The 80GB iPod actually got 45 hours (up from its stated 30 hours), and the original Zune got only 13 hours. It's a step in the right direction, but Microsoft's still got a couple hardware iterations to go before matching Apple's iPod. Then again, with that gigantic screen on the Zune, it's possible that that can never happen. [Crave]

Flash Zune: It's got a great cool scroll pad, high quality screen, ample storage in a slim price, plus just about all the features in the big boy Zunes (including Wi-Fi sync). Verdict: Buy it if you're in the market for a tiny player that does video and Wi-Fi sync.

Zune 30: All the features of the 80GB Zune, but actually the cheapest of the three at under $99 because it's last year's hardware. Verdict: Buy it if you're looking for a great way to break into the Zune ecosystem if you don't need the slimness or storage space of the 80GB model, or the portability of the 4/8GB model, or the fancy new Zune pad.

Zune 80: At 80GB, the top end Zune will hold tons of music and movies, which can be synced automatically via Wi-Fi when you're not looking. Add to that a solid, if basic, software package, the Zune 80's a definite contender to the iPod classic crown. Verdict: Buy it if you want the most space and the most features out of the three options.

Zune Software, Firmware Guide [Gizmodo]

Zune 2 Hardware Test [Gizmodo]

Zune Social Hands On [Gizmodo]

Sending messages, browsing other people's music history, and listening to 30 second samples are super easy to do. If you've got a Zune Pass subscription, you can pretty much go nuts looking at other people's songs and downloading them directly to your player in a sort of crazy music buffet. The most interesting thing we found is that both "Zune" and "Microsoft" are restricted words. You can't have them as your "status" message if you wanted to say "Testing out the Zune." All in all, it's a pretty good start (the site's still in beta) to the internet social aspect of the Zune that Microsoft is trying to expand on. [Zune]

The Software: Large icons, bright orange and pink colors, and lots of small (but tasteful) animations welcome you when you start up the Zune suite. Gone is the dark MTV Urge-based Zune 1 that looked like a mix between iTunes and Windows Media Player. But that's not all that's gone—Microsoft took out a bunch of features in the name of making the experience a lot simpler to use.

First off, there are no play counts and the rating system has been re-tooled to just a heart, a broken heart, or no rating at all. If you're wondering how that will affect your smart playlists, well, there are no smart playlists anymore. I can only speak for myself when I say I love making smart playlists based on songs that I've played the most or rated the highest, so this move hurts like stealing candy from a diabetic low on blood sugar.

What they did add, beyond the tastefully animated and skinnable interface (you make it you!), is quite nice. You can now wirelessly sync to your Zune, which can be initiated from either your computer OR your Zune. Once connected, you can drag songs or playlists onto the Zune icon in the bottom left. Fairly straightforward, and definitely easier to understand than the iTunes/iPod's "choose which things to sync" for a beginner. This "make things easier for the casual user" motif can be seen in all of Zune 2's changes.

Other additions we like:
• There's a little icon next to each track that shows whether it's on the device or not.
• Podcast support is quite nice and is divided up into video or audio podcasts, and but video podcasts need to be converted. It took about 30-ish minutes to convert 6 podcasts from X-Play and Attack of the Show on a low-end Pentium D machine in the background while we scoped out the rest of the Zune stuff.
• TV Shows sync fine, but also need to be converted from Windows Media Center's DVR-MS format. This also takes a bit of time depending on how fast your computer is and how long the show is.
• Windows Media Lossless is now supported.
• The video playback screen is nice, big, and full screen.
• The Now Playing screen when playing music has a huge wallpaper of your album covers.
• Marketplace has been cleaned up to match the rest of the Zune UI.

Other complaints:
• You only get two views, one where there's a huge list of artists on the side, the other a gigantic flat list of all your songs that you can sort by artist, album, or genre. Again, simplified to the point where advanced users would miss some functionality.
• Searching doesn't find stuff while typing.
• No edit screen to edit ID3 tags. No mass/multiple item edit. All you get is pressing F2 and editing the artist name, album name, or track name. You can't even change the track number. This makes it hard to edit track details.
• Synced photos are aliased compared to the first Zune software. We're not sure if this is because each picture is synced full-size and then resized on the fly (for better squirting), but it's noticeably worse.

In the end, despite a graphical overhaul that added eye candy, the features Microsoft left out make us wishing for the old Zune suite back. We'll definitely say that what's left is very refined—but like a statue that's been over-polished down to a unnatural sheen, it's missing important features. And we'll take features over a glossed-up interface any day. Let's add back the features in Zune 3.

vs. iTunes: What used to be quite a close match between the Zune suite and iTunes has turned into a one-sided first round knockout for iTunes. Apple's changed iTunes very little since a year ago, but Microsoft has completely re-vamped their offering. We'd rather them de-vamp this, take a look at iTunes, and add back smart playlists, song ratings, play counts, metadata editing, and everything else that makes iTunes the best music manager software on desktops—Mac or PC.

The Player: While Microsoft changed a whole lot on the desktop side of the Zune experience, the player side actually changed very little beneath the big-lettered facade of its front screen. It's true that the menus are large and in your face, but the now playing screen is essentially the same as in the first edition. The same goes for playlist view, the song list, genres, albums, and artists. Only slight navigational changes (such as more horizontal scrolling) and presentation differentiate this version from its predecessor, as you can see in the video above.

We got our hands on the 8GB Zune and proceeded to shove it into our pants—this time for scientific reasons.

Videos and pictures still display the same—tilted to the left in landscape mode—but the addition of podcasts is very welcome. They're separated between audio and video, and video podcasts play exactly like a standard video. The whole section is nicely integrated into the Zune experience.

The biggest change is the wireless sync, and to Microsoft's credit, it works beautifully. Dig into the settings menu, under wireless, and you can trigger a manual wireless sync. Connect it to a power source and it will automatically sync after a minute's worth of idle time. The setup process to connect to your wireless point is simple as well, but needs you to connect your Zune (via USB) to your PC. There might be a problem if your computer's out of Wi-Fi range, but otherwise it's pretty much painless.

Some things, like podcasts and video, are too large to sync quickly over Wi-Fi. This means you should sync with USB if you're in a hurry. Other than this, we don't have any complaints about Wi-Fi support. They've finally delivered on a feature people have been asking for for a year. This is exactly why this Zune 2 firmware update feels more like a maintenance release than a feature upgrade—which makes us understand why Microsoft is giving it away for free to old customers.

vs. iPod: Have we changed our recommendation from last year? Yes, things are quite different now. The iPod itself didn't get many new features, but the introduction of the iPhone means you've got something else to consider now. Then there's the iPod Touch, which has the power to provided both music and internet features, and more when hacked. You don't want to have to manage your music library in both iTunes and Zune, which tips the scales in Apple's iPod classic's favor.

However, for brand new customers that haven't dipped into either company's ecosystems, the Zune player seems to have slightly more features. Both iPod and Zune support music, video, TV Out and podcasts, but the Zune still has FM radio and it still has the Zune Pass subscription service. Add to that the convenient wireless sync, and you've got an offer that's quite tempting. Despite these plusses, the child-like software that limits what you can do with your music really hurts. In the end, it seems that Apple has kept the delicate balance between keeping functionality while making their software usable, while Microsoft has fallen off the fence and landed on the side of over-simplicity.

•The Zune's blockish body is thin, but not as thin as the iPod's rounded body. Height causes the Zune to not be as pocketable. (Zune: 1.6 x 3.6 x 0.33-inches, iPod: 2.74x2.05x.25 inches.)
•The Zune's candy red beats the crap out of the iPod's anodized finish. The pink looks terrible, and I reserve judgment on the green. The Zunepad has a textured surface, but the bodies of these things are aluminum and the slickest paint you've ever seen on a gadget.
•The headphone jack is on the bottom, as is the dock connector (same as big Zune connector). There's a lock on top.
•The D-pad's raised profile is a blessing when it comes to track changing while the Zune is in pocket. but it does cause a bit of friction when sliding into the denims. Man, I need to exercise.
•The Zune's aluminum back looks gray, and is dull in comparison to the mirrored finish on the nano. Good news, it won't scratch as easily.
•Twisting the chassis shows some flex.
•It's very similar in size to the last gen nano, but has the same size screen as the current gen nano, in a much more efficient layout.
•More or less - the Zune has a 1.8-inch screen vs the 2-inches on the pod. Don't be fooled by the black border around the Zune's screen, which makes it look bigger than it is, but to Microsoft's credit, the black border helps the screen pop nicely.
•Oh, one more thing we can't forget. These little flash players by Microsoft have Wi-Fi inside for song/photo sharing and wireless sync. Pretty impressive in such a small package.

•The new touch sensor, the Zune pad, is actually terrific. There's a bit of lag, and drifting causes the flicking to be less precise than say, an iPod touch, but I prefer the Zunepad to the too small wheel on the iPod nano for quickly browsing lists. Clicking the D-pad for select is not that precise; often I'd want to click down and would hit "select" instead. That point aside, this is possibly the biggest reason to upgrade from a Zune 1 to a Zune Flash or 80GB. It is a lot better than the dumb directional pad of the original Zune, and scrolling through large lists of songs is much better this way.
•The screen has the same res as a full Zune 80, at 320 x 240 pixels, same as the nano, but is slightly less bright. Nonetheless, it's sharp and it's a great screen.
•The Zune pad's texture feels like your finger is on a zipline as you scroll. Whee!
•Here's a comparo of the Flash Zune to the nano and 30GB generation one zune.

"...but there is 
something that Microsoft is holding onto releasing information 
about until Tuesday. They have been keeping this info very secret, 
as they want to get the "bang" effect when it is announced.

There is going to be an option from the Zune website called "ZUNE 
ORIGINALS". People who order their zune from Zune.net, will have 
the added bonus of being able to customize their zune. This will 
include colour, up to five lines of custom text, and the choice of 
25 preset logos that they can have etched into their zune prior to 
delivery. There will be no added cost, but it is only available 
through Zune.Net... 

...I do believe that Microsoft will go Ape$h%t if this info gets out 
before V2 release on Tuesday"

Also, in case people forgot, Zune Social is the name of their cool new social networking site where you can see what your friends have been listening, to as well as check out stats under each band to see who's listened to them the most. Prepare to see our names under Pat Benatar.

Microsoft's J Allard told Reuters that gaming on a portable music player has been done before, but badly (undoubtedly pointing to iPod games), so it's a tricky proposition for them to do well—meaning they'll have to figure that out first before diving in. As for the Zune phone, they're focusing on getting the music and video part down first before tacking on other functionality. However, both are a possibility, because the new Zune OS is built on top of Windows CE, the underlying technology for Windows Mobile and Gizmondo. [Reuters]

Bill Gates says that the Zune is part of a 10-year plan to build a digital entertainment business, of which the Xbox 360 is definitely a big part of. Whether they'll tie the Zune and the 360 (just like the Zune got some Media Center integration) is unknown, but probably coming.

Robbie Bach also wants everyone to know that "this is going to be an Apple-Microsoft" thing, reiterating that not just are they aiming for #2, eventually they want to be #1. [Seattle PI]

[Financial Times]

Lets not forget all the Pre-release stuff:
• Zune Getting Media Center Video Integration?
• What the Hell is a Zune Pad?!
• Zune 2 Price
• Zune 2 Getting Wireless Syncing, DRM-Free Music, Video Downloads, Colors
• Zune 2 Launch: Excited?
• Flash Zune Specs Leaked by FCC
• Zune 1 Getting New Firmware, Features
• Zune 2 Hard Drive and Flash Models Leaked?
• Rumor: Zune 2 Launches Tomorrow
• Zune Scene Predicts Zune 2 on October 16th