Though Apple is the undisputed king of portable media players today, we can\'t discount the numerous competitors that are all seeking to steal some of its glory. Microsoft is one of the biggest among them, and has for several years now been trying to make the Zune a better buy than the iPod. They haven\'t achieved that yet, but will be getting a leg up later on this year when they launch the Zune HD.

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I had a 120gb zune and filled it up. I hope MS will make a larger version of the HD

omg please try to be a bit less biased and do a bit more reading on the subject before writing articles like this.

Many people believe the current Zune and other PMPs are already a better buy than the iPod - myself included.

Microsoft does not expect used to view HD content on the Zune itself (the 480x272 widescreen OLED display obviously wouldn't support it), the HD moniker comes from the fact that it has an included HD Radio receiver and can also output 720p video over HDMI.

For once I totally agree with a guest. Sorry Techspot, but you dropped the ball on this one. Fail.

LOL. I found it hilarious that we are being called Apple biased. That said, I will take the criticism due to how the story was written. I think Justin mixed two very different ideas in the intro: 1) Apple dominates the PMP market, and 2) Apple makes the better players.

The second one could go either way I guess.

Apple is King and so is Michael Jackson, rest in peace man! M$ and Zune step aside.

the new zune coupled with nvidia tegra seems quite promising

Why isn't the Michael Jackson story on Techspot? it has a technical issue with his death as well, read this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8120324.stm

any word on what kind of apps and games it will have?

I wasn't trying to imply that the iPod is better in terms of technical prowess - I was only referring to it from a sales standpoint. I am definitely not Apple-biased, and if you look at previous things I've written, I tend not to favor Apple. I only give them credit where credit is due, and the iPod currently is the king of mp3 players.

I should not have to read your earlier articles to figure out what you are implying here. If you mean to state it as a sales issue, say that in the article. The obvious implied thought would be technical on a site named Techspot. Not sure how you missed the correct HD usage unless you think that's what MS was implying (on a screen that small).

Resolution aside, the Zune HD is being sold as having VD Video "Out" - implying that the content is still sourced from the device itself. 32GB is way too small for that sort of content.

This is straight from the MS ad at their own site:


How much HD content can you lug around with sizes of 16GB or 32GB? I carry that much around in music alone, with my mp3 player (a 60GB unit) having 31GB in just music. A single 30-minute 720p TV episode will consume a lot of space on that.

MS fanboys/girls:
Please, please, please stop making the Apple fanboys/girls look good. You owe to us (for listening to you rant) and to yourselves (self respect). Justin said the ipod is the top seller in portable music players. and...?
Windows is the top selling OS. and...? The Zune HD has an iddy biddy hard drive. This should be pointed out, like every time Apple short changes the specs on their computers without just cause. If you don't like MS acting like Apple, grow some and tell Microsoft. Justin let you know what they plan to do wrong. Tell MS to show some fan loyalty and stop shooting the messenger. He has the right to say what people are donig without everything being taken so far out of context.
-Him ThatIs

I wish HD files where not too big, and HD tvs did not cost so much. But who cares what I think.

I watched the tennis today on the BBC HD channel on a 1080P TV. SAW no difference even when it was switched to the SD bbc channel and back again.

I bought a zune player a couple years back so can’t remember which one I’m sorry. But it failed spectacularly I have to have it change 3 times in the end I gave up on it and joined Sony Ericson they are uber reliable and amazing I never will touch iPod (as I fix them for people) so I know who UNRELIABLE they are.

Maybe its your service or the quality of the tv, I also watched wimbledon on my 1080p, my friends did as well as we talk about the matches afterwards. There's definately a difference, if there wasnt, why would so many hdtv's be flying off the shelves in the last 5 years, and still increasing.

There is a huge difference in SD and HD. I just got a 1680 x 1050 monitor and the difference is astounding.

I have both and my personal choice is the Zune of the two. And I for one am looking forward to the new Zune, better competition is always nice. But I do agree that those sizes are rather limiting especially for HD content. We can only hope they will have larger sizes in the future. Maybe even some XBLA content :-) .

perhaps Microsoft is leaning more towards online streaming rather than having to store such large files on such a small device. or perhaps they will have an external wireless hardrive device that you can keep on your home network and access through the internet. with the 360 having access to netflix i wouldn't be surprised to see it also on the zune.

I've had both the zune 30 and the zune 80 and they are awesome. I've also had some early RIO models and an ipod. the zunes have yet to break. The problem is that no one owns one.