All the buzz has left the rumored "Zune Contact" to fly under the radar, but it looks like some promo material has surfaced...

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Well, it just looks like Zune may be taking a slightly different turn than some were expecting. Matt Rosoff from Cnet has some knowledge about the zune future plans, and gave us some hints with this little blurb in one of his recent posts.

As iPod fans will no doubt note, 120GB is still short of the 160GB offered by the top-capacity iPod Classic. I can't say much, but I've seen what Microsoft's planning, and befitting its status as a software plus services company, the real advances aren't going to be in the Zune hardware, but in the Zune software and associated services. Apple makes great devices, and so far iTunes has remained ahead of the Zune software, but Apple has sometimes fallen short in the services arena. Microsoft has a huge challenge taking on the iJuggernaut, but they are far from giving up. That's good news for us--competition means better products from all sides.

This obviously still leaves room for speculation, and only time will tell what we end up seeing. In my opinion though, the software always has been the obvious weak point, so putting extra effort into making it better,(and maybe speeding it up a bit..) is quite important. Hopefully we'll have some more news soon.

Thanks to Zac Altman for the tip. He shared a post on I Started Something that shows that a 120gb Zune seems to have passed through the FCC's Doors. Of course this isn't released or even announced and is subject to change as it's not even official, but hey... Zune is moving on up.

Source - FCC

Zune Scene posted some interesting information on a Nokia & Zune partnership so we will have to see if this is a phone solution or just providing access to more users wishing to download from the Marketplace.

Nokia is currently working with the Zune team on integration of Zune Marketplace content according to a well placed source within Microsoft. The joint development is directed at content delivery rather than a hardware device according to the source. It has long been assumed by many tech followers that Zune content and software would find it's way onto Windows Mobile devices, thereby offering competition to the unfortunately popular iPhone. The interesting thing about the Nokia Zune partnership is that Nokia does not support Windows Mobile. It appears Microsoft may be developing a two front war against the iPhone, namely Windows based smart phones and more abundant "non-smart" phones.

[SOURCE:]Zune Scene Nokia Zune Phone - Content Deal in Works

There was a lot of rumor about a Zune phone and now we have heard (thanks to jkOneTheRun) that there are talks of a Zune Phone.  I just wish that Microsoft would create something new rather than competing for already emerging technologies.

Although, I can agree it would be nice to see more multi-touch technology as I see this as the wave of the future.  Every time I see a multi-touch device I think of the interface used by Tom Cruise in the Minority Report.  Hey Microsoft here's a cool idea: Allow me to project onto a wall or into mid-air what I am playing on my Zune device.  Now that's something I haven't seen from any other portable media device...

We have totally unconfirmed information from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous that Microsoft is indeed working on a Zune phone.  This source had information about a meeting this week in Redmond that was planning a Zune phone to compete with the iPhone.  According to this information the Zune phone will be based on a specialized variant of Windows Mobile 7 and key functionality will be centered around WIndows Live Services.  On the hardware side the ZunePhone would be touch-screen based using multi-touch (surprise) but other than that not much is known.

[SOURCE: jkOnTheRun: Zune phone really in the works at Microsoft?]

I can still remember all the news circulating about the Zune guy, and I think he was also planning to legally change his name.  Just a reminder why you don't tattoo names on your body.  I love my Zune and I can share in the frustration of anticipating new things from Microsoft Zune but come on.  You asked for this buddy.

This brings on the other question of whether or not J. Allard is actually contributing to the Zune future or still working on XBox development.  Hmmmm..

Say it ain't so! America's most loyal advocate for Microsoft's Zune is apparently throwing in the towel. Of course, we should warn you that this could very well be a simple ploy for attention, but if the man keeps his word, he will soon be covering his Zune tattoos with... something else. Curiously, he didn't say whether or not he would be playing the traitor card and picking up some sort of iPod, but considering that more people have seen this guy's body art in the wild than actual Zunes, the general public should know soon enough. You fought a good fight, Zune Guy, but consider yourself expelled from The Social.

SOURCE: Zune Guy fed up with Zune, seeks to cover up tattoos

     Today Robbie Bach president of the Entertainment and Devices division for Microsoft stated that there will be no ZunePhone stating “We don't make phones ourselves. We don't have any plans to make phones ourselves.�

He did say that the Zune will eventually have a touch screen “Take the device independent for a second and just assume that over time where there's a screen, touch will be part of it. It's not going to matter what the product line is. You're going to see it be a cornerstone of the work we do.� So it seems that touch will become standard on Zunes when this happens.

Paraphrased from ACE's post on ZuneBoards

It's amazing how much speculation can be pulled from within a single one minute video. A couple weeks ago, a video promo for Microsoft showcasing Live Mesh popped up online. In this video, many noticed that a HTC Touch was featured in the video. This Touch had what many suspect to be WIndows Mobile 7. It's a short clip around the 32 second mark of the video.

Well, that's not why I am posting today. One of the GotZune.com readers, Jaxim, saw something else odd. I noticed the Zune in the video the couple times I watched it, but didn't notice what it appears to be hooked up to. Read on for the video and the screen grabs...

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The folks over at Zunited.net got there hands on some interesting info. It appears as though the zune software contains evidence of a Black-Backed Zune 80, and a black-backed red 4/8. On top of that, the 4/8 seems to have a black touch pad.  Could this be a developer exclusive like the citron zune? We can't be sure now, but no matter they are, they look great. Any thoughts?

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Some interesting screens have been posted in the zuneboards.net forums, thanks to Ricardo Dawkins. These are screen-shots from a video that apparently briefly played over at www.zune.net. The video may have already been taken down, but in an effort to demonstrate the software features, it seems to have revealed some things to come in a hopefully soon to be software update. Possibly this is the reason it was removed so fast.

Marketplace section: "videos" is now there, but where did downloads go?

Artist pages now have an option for "listeners" alongside "artist, bio, videos, related,". The "now playing" status displays album art as well.

The new selection of "Artists Genres Songs" in the default music screen. The album art alongside "now playing" status can be seen here as well.

These few shots definitely do look promising, and I will keep you all updated on any new info found. I don't know about you all, but I believe we need an update, and we need one soon. Feel free to check out the original thread.