Wouldn’t it be nice if every company that makes PMP’s and other portable entertainment machines gave you the ability to use the device as a MSC (Mass Storage Device Class). Though the Zune 30 can’t by Microsoft’s doing, it can with a little hackory. If you want to know how you will have to click over to the Zunerama Forum, and be warned, it could break your computer. Lets hope that this hack works on all the new Zunes as well.
For more info, click over to the Crunch Gear Website.
To answer the header, I would have to say it is pretty good. It isn’t amazing like the Cowon that can play audio for 60 hrs, but at least it can play audio for up to 30 hrs. It seems though that the video is kind of lacking on all the new Zune’s with only a maximum of 4 hours. It isn’t bad, but on the other hand it isn’t ground breaking. Engadget has more info after the jump.
To jump, go to the Engadget Blog.
Bad news people. The Zune 4 and Zune 8 flashed based PMP players will not feature video out capabilities as first expected. Apparently the only Zune 2.0 that will feature the ‘DVD quality output’ will be the Zune 80. I guess it may be another reason to buy the 3rd gen iPod instead.
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
Though DVD quality isn’t much to talk about these days, with your Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but for a video player that fits in your pocket, it isn’t a bad feature at all. The upcoming Microsoft Zune 2.0 features DVD quality TV-Out. What this means is you go to your friends place, plug you Zune into their TV and watch your favourite Fallout Boy video clips at an almost unpixelated DVD quality output (720×480 at 30fps, or 720×576 at 25fps). Now if only it had a Bluetooth remote, it would be grand.
For more info, wear black and visit Engadget.
So the big news today is that Microsoft have refreshed there series of Zune players, and now bring the series up to 2.0 (or firmware 2.1). The Zune range has now grown huge with now a choice of 4 different players, and even more colours.
The original Zune will stay in the series, but for a first, will get the new firmware and new features and get a name change to Zune 30. The other 3 Zunes are all new and all feature a new way to navigate, called a Zune pad. The Zune pad is basically a four way touch-sensitive d-pad.
The first two of the remaining 3 are flash based players, with the only difference between them being is a 4GB (titled Zune 4 and will sell for $US150) or 8GB (titled Zune 8 and will sell for $US200) option. They both feature a 1.8-inch screen, WiFi and will measure 41.4 x 91.5 x 8.5mm. Both will be available in pink, green, black, and red.
The remaining Zune is titled the “Zune 80″, which as you could guess it is a 80GB HDD based player. It features a very nice big 3.2-inches QVGA screen, “premium” headphones, WiFi and will measure 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9mm. It is only available in black (for now) and will retail for $US250.
Coming with the Zunes is also a rehash of the firmware, which changes the GUI and a few features to boot. New features include native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4, sync video from your Media Center PC, WiFi sync to host computer, Podcasts, 3 day play limit on shared music now removed (still 3 plays though) and the Zune Store is going DRM-free. Now time to list the things missing, which are no wireless music store,no 16GB flash model, no Bluetooth and no memory card slot. I will have to hold judgement until I see the battery lives of the players. Expect an update in November when they ship.
For more info, click over to the Engadget Website.