[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft announces Zune HD here

[akulavolk]

"though hardware has never been Microsoft’s problem"
...except for that whole "red ring of death" thing on the Xbox 360...

[MorrisTheCat]

Yawn.... another "Me Too!" product from master copycats of the technology world. I mean, OK, it looks pretty nice, but how well will it actually work. That's the question that will determine if this thing is a contender for the iPod touch. This doesn't compete with the iPhone, since it has no telephony functions.

[flybynight]

FAIL.

[fribhey]

"but gosh darn it if that thing doesn’t look slick"
maybe that's because they stole the design from the 1st gen iphone... all they did was make the 1st gen iphone more square and made the bottom on the front metal/silver instead of black. the back of the zune hd is identical to the first iphone..... plus it has 4 ugly screws on the back which don't help in the slick factor
yawn

[dreyfus]

" though hardware has never been Microsoft’s problem. The proof will be in the software, and we all know that’s sometimes been a challenge for our friends in Redmond."
... a pretty naughty thing to say about a software company :-) (frenetic applause) – my daughter disagrees with the hardware part though (7th Xbox and counting).
This "thing" does look quite good/industrial on the front, agreed, not sure why they are not staying with clean lines on the back though. These pseudo-ancient-greek-column style corners with the screws sure do not look like they belong to the front side. I am not too worried about the software part. It is based on Windows CE and the browser is IE... so, it is guaranteed to suck.
According to MS's own statements the device itself does not have HD video out – it will only work with a dedicated dock selling as an option, there is no info about supported formats. All my digital HD content is from the iTS and it will surely not support FairPlay. There is no HD Radio here, only DAB – the two are not compatible.
Looks like an improvement over their previous fails, but barely enough to make a dent. I hope Apple does jump on the OLED train though, viewing angles and blacks on the iPhone and Touch could deal with some improvement.

[ZeroGravX]

"and a web browser (which, according to the street, is built on Internet Explorer)"
Uhg, IE, what a joke of a browser. I don't understand how a company can be all about quantity of features rather than the quality of the browser and it's rendering engine. Case in point, IE8 has made it even harder for web developers to create web pages with that stupid backwards compatibility stunt they are pulling.
Now, throwing it on a Zune makes things worse. I hope there's no personal information stored on the Zune because of this either. Else Zune users (all 100 of them) are going to need antivirus software for their Zunes. :X

[macFanDave]

"The Zune HD, which will be available in the fall"

Of what year?

[ChrisLJ]

I'd bet that if this was a new version of the iPod Touch people would be squealing with delight over it's elegant design. But, since it's MicroSoft it sucks.
I like the looks myself. Too bad that performance wise it probably WILL suck.

[dammarin]

Watch out, it'll be just like with Windows and Xbox - they come up with a product similar to someone else's, they learn from their mistakes, they update the product, they dominate the market.
They certainly can afford it.

[macless]

Bet it has cut and paste and a flash player though !

[leicaman]

And it's HD because...
The HD Radio! Yeah, that was my first impression too. NOT.
I think I'll have some Tapioca HD for lunch. And have a cup of coffee HD to wash it down.

[blankbaby]

I'd forgotten about the Red Ring of Death! I haven't experienced it myself but I have a friend who is on his 4th or 5th XBox.

Though I seem to recall that the XBoxs with the HDMI out have a new chipset that lets them run cooler (or something like that, I'm a Mac blogger not an XBox Xpert... I am very funny though.).

[spim]

but .... where's the signature brown ???