Some interesting news here today with zune. To begin, Gizmodo just posted a story regarding the release date and capacities of the Zune Hd. An anonymous tipster sent them some secret documents regarding the zune, revealing(confirming) , it'll be shipping in 16/32 gig capacitys, on September 8th. Accompanied with this leak is a nice promo pic:

Not only this though, but at a microsoft event in Manhattan, some lucky people were able to play with the new zune. Here's a tidbit from an article from GearLog.com .

The hardware itself looks very sleek. The device is a lot slimmer than I had originally suspected. Microsoft is certainly starting to edge in on the iPod in the aesthetics department. Check out another up close picture of the device after the jump.

But check out this new photo, revealing "internet" as an option on the device. Good stuff.

Update: Looks like Engadget took a look at this device as well, and has a gallery of images as well as a video! Check it out here.  Among the photos their are some cool shots of the dock that will be used for HD out.

Episode 24 of the ZuneInsider Podcast(the most recent episode) has officially confirmed Tegra being in the new Zune HD. Matt Akers finally [officialy] spilled the beans on Tegra by saying:

Well, we're going to go ahead and confirm that. Yes, the Zune HD does have the Tegra chip in it. So sick, so much better battery life, graphics acceleration. This thing is like a mini laptop in your hand, right, it's so awesome.

So of course this is great news, as the hardware specs for Zune HD just keep getting Better. Hopefully the zune team still has a few aces up their sleeve, and their'll be more to come soon.

The day has finally come. Chris Stephenson has confirmed the Zune Hd, and has a bit to share before E3. This player will feature an HD radio tuner, internet explorer web browser, an OLED screen, and has HD output. Their will be much more news to come at E3. Zune will be expanding to European markets as well.

(and for anyone who cares, notice how the menu is now lower case, unlike the previous leaked image)

The software maker also said that at next week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles it will announce details on a new Zune-branded video service for the Xbox that will replace the current Xbox Live marketplace for TV and movies. The company didn't announce details or specifically say that content will be playable on both Zunes and the Xbox.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Source: Cnet

Just a few minutes ago I came across an article, Zune Comes to Xbox Live in UK. Plus: ZuneHD to hit US.  Now, I don't know how reliable this website is(I do doubt it's legitimacy), but the writer has said,

Zune, Microsoft's 'end-to-end music and entertainment service' is coming to Xbox Live. Later today the mega-corp will officially announce its plans, which - although intriguing - are substantially less radical than the Zune mobile phone and/or Zune portable games player imagined by internet rumour-mongers over the weekend.

Claiming,

The finer details have not yet been announced, but the basics were revealed to me by Chris Stevenson, Microsoft's General Manager of Consumer Marketing for TV, Video and Music Business."

Basically, he is saying this new update will work to bring zune marketplace to xbox, and allow xbox uses from many other country's to enjoy the zune marketplace. As expected, it will integrate the xbox experience and zune, hopefully drawing millions of xbox users to the zune experience.

Now to the Zune HD, here's what he has to say regarding the specs:

The new model will, as expected, feature a 16:9 widescreen OLED touch display, built-in HD Radio receiver, full-screen internet browser optimised for multi-touch and Wi-Fi functionality. There will also be HD video out capabilities: as the press release explains, "the HD compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback video from the device through a premium HDMI A/V docking station direct to an HDTV in 720p."

And finally, a bit more regarding the Zune HD, as "quoted" by Chris Stevenson

Yes. We've got a tremendous device - this is a fantastic piece of hardware and absolutely it's going right up against iPod Touch; it's hyper competitive against that product. I think in many ways, we look at our consumers and what's really motivated them, and the radio functionality is something that people really talk about - the HD radio receiver, with radio tagging, with track tagging, is a great differentiator for us. It's going to be an interesting and competitive year for us in the market - we think we've got a great product; we are going to compete..."

Obviously, don't take any of this for granted. However, keep an eye out for an announcement tonight, and if by miracle their just happens to be something, then were all in for a treat.

Eh? I almost shut this site down last weekend due to time and lack of desire to blog about Zune after the kidney punch I received from Microsoft last year. I discussed this with a couple guys and they expressed how many people still actually read the blog even after I stopped the rapid fire posting that I got some of you used to.

I decided to let it ride. It would be unfair to the true Zune fans that enjoy the original commentary we share here. Sorry for thinking about that. I will never share what happened publicly, but I think I can move on from it now.

Where'd the forums go?
Not too long ago, we had a stellar day in the forums. The posting was through the roof. One of the biggest days ever. We had over 46,000 posts in one day. The problem is, they were all spam. I didn't have time to clean them, so I shut the forums down. I will get back to that soon. Sorry.

Thanks to Soccerfreak and Adam Stafford for keeping my baby alive!

Microsoft's advertising and display for zune has always been, lackluster at best. The zune is a great product, but Microsoft just hasn't found a way to show the world this and display it in ways that draw people's attention. It appears as though Planned Marketing Solutions International has been quietly working on some new concepts for zune displays, and I must say they look great.

These displays are quite a bit brighter now, and not only do they show the zune but they effectively show it's integration with the xbox, as well as it's cool features such as wireless sync. Hopefully we begin to see this, or something similar very soon.

[Source: SlashGear]

ZuneOriginals has just been updated, now allowing customers to purchase the 120 model in both blue, and red shades.

Being the images of the blue zune 120 had already been found through the zune software, this is no surprise. The question is, where is the white 120 gig?

As if releasing the 3.1 update wasn't enough, Cesar Menendez from ZuneInsider has just announced that both the flash zune's and a few zune accessory's will be receiving price cuts!

Just in time for the holidays: a flash-based device and accessory price cut for the US and Canada. You may have seen some chatter last week about lower priced devices at certain retailers, well we are happy to “officially� announce that the lower prices can be found at Zune Originals and all our major retail partners (all prices listed in USD, and are only suggested prices). Check the list:

And here's a look at the new pricing:

Yeah, so this happened.  My beautiful brown Zune all of the sudden developed what looks like an impact fracture in the screen, even though I know it never sustained any impact.  I left it sitting in my car in a hard-shell case one evening for maybe an hour, and when I came back out  and powered it on, this is what I saw.  The only thing I can think of is that it was kind of cold out (low 40s) and that maybe that had something to do with it.  Just doesn't seem right though.  It still works, press play and it functions, but the screen is clearly done. 

So is there Zune repair out there?  I'm sure it's out of any warranty it ever had.  Are replacement screens available if I wanted to brave a repair attempt myself? 

This makes me sad.  And it WOULD happen to me just as the pretty new games are being released in the 3.1 update. 

*Sigh*