Microsoft preps Zune HD for September
by Dean Evans at Friday 26th June, 2009 at 6:44 am [0 comments]
September 8th, to be exact. That’s the date that Microsoft plans to set the Zune HD media player free to ravage Apple’s iPod touch.
Zune HD is the next generation of Microsoft’s own-brand portable media player and it boasts some interesting features:
- An energy-efficient OLED touch screen
- A 16:9 widescreen display with a resolution of 480 x 272 for video playback and gaming
- An HD-compatible output to allow Zuners to play back HD video files from the device in 720p through HDMI
- A full-screen Internet browser designed for multitouch
- Built-in Wi-Fi, allowing for instant music streaming from the 5 million tracks on the Zune music store.
So why should you care? Good question. The original Zune player wasn’t even available outside North America and Microsoft hasn’t said anything about a global launch.
But I’ll argue that wireless-enabled, touchscreen media players like the Zune HD make a great addition to the modern digital home.
Rather than boot up your laptop or desktop computer every time you want to access the Internet, they make great mini web tablets. As do the latest smartphones. See: 6 Wi-Fi smartphones that make great web tablets.
Right now, the iPod touch makes an ideal web tablet - it’s small, instant-on, features a powerful web browser (with multitouch control) and you can use it to play games, watch video, access Twitter and Facebook, even stream catch-up TV.
So we’ll keep an eye out for the Zune HD. Just in case.
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