The Zune 2 Arrives

Posted By: Larry Larsen | Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 12:28 PM

Yes, the Zune 2 is real. While Laura Foy makes her way over to Bear Creek to talk to Cesar from the Zune team, let me tell you a little more. There will be two models, a 80GB hard drive based one, and a slimmer Flash based version that comes in 4GB and 8GB sizes. You'll now be able to sync your Zune over the air rather than connecting it to a dock - very nice. I'm looking forward to the new Zune button, which is touch sensitive as well as directional. The new Zunes support lossless Windows Media Audio and have glass screens rather than plastic.

My favorite feature has to be the integration with Media Center, so your episodes of the Jetsons can now be dumped to your portable device for watching on the road. And the Zune Social is getting some legs, a new feature called the Zune Card will allow you to have a gadget that shows others what you're listening to on your Zune (remember the wireless feature) at any given time, they will even be able to click on this gadget to listen to the same song. There are future plans for including this on social networks.

And finally in a move that has made a lot of people very happy, the new software features for the new Zune will be available in a firmware patch for the old Zune.

Plenty more to read on TechMeme, and watch for Laura's interview with Cesar coming tomorrow.

Tags: Media Center, music, Zune

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Comments (9)

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Googleman81

YES! oh so very yes! i want the firmware update now!

n4cer

Great job Zune team!

Concerning the switch to a glass screen, I wonder if there will be a slight hit to durability. I know no one plans on dropping devices such as these, and I'd still buy one without hesitation, but the glass screen evokes images of the cracked screens on devices from at least one of your competitors.

If possible, could Laura ask about this, and/or could someone on the Zune team address it?

USArcher

In reply to Googleman81

#Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 1:01 PM

There are many much needed improvements here. And I'm very happy about the improved Media Center support as well. The Zune team obviously spent much of this year working on new hardware and rewriting software. With that behind them, I imagine next year we will see more advancement of the the software/firmware . With any luck they'll get back to a regular update schedule thats on par with XBox...Spring/Fall updates.

GedByrne

Any ideas when these may or may not be rolled out across Europe - or more specifically the UK?

USArcher

Googleman81

In reply to GedByrne

#Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 3:38 PM

well last year the word was that the zune would be tested for one year before the decision would be made to go international with it or not, so i as a non intern would say "soon", but even if not you can still buy one if you know how, because it charges with an usb cable so no need for any special plug converters or anything. i bought mine 11 month ago online on an internet auction website...

Trix.rox

In reply to Googleman81

#Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 1:01 PM

I want the firmware update now too Sad

Could we please have this sooner than later?

Arztek

That's great news! I can't say that I like the new styling, but the firmware improvements alone more than make up for that. The big question I still have is can I use it as a portable hard drive, or is Microsoft still determined to keep the memory locked?

Googleman81

In reply to Arztek

#Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 10:26 PM

there is a little hack thats been out for nearly as long as the zune and i cant say it works, because of course i haven´t tried it... but in case you want to give it a shot:

http://www.zune-online.com/news/zune/use-zune-as-usb-storage-disk.html