Zune, Microsoft Corp.’s distant also-ran music and entertainment outfit, has announced some updates ahead of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” special event tomorrow.
According to Microsoft, starting next week, Zune players will offer those who’ve not yet returned Aunt Tilly’s gift mistake for store credit the ability wirelessly download or stream songs from wireless hot spots. Free software and firmware updates will give Zune owners the ability to discover, tag and purchase songs directly from the Zune’s static-prone built-in FM radio, wirelessly access the Zune Marketplace store and its rip-off “points” system, and tap into “personalized music recommendations.” Yawn.
Zune is also expanding its device lineup with 16GB and 120GB capacities as well as “blue-on-silver” and “all-black” colors in the same old 2nd-generation Zune case “designs.” The new features won’t begin rolling out until Sept. 16, 2008, but Microsoft knows that by this time tomorrow, Apple will have debuted their iPod lineup for the holiday shopping season, so Redmond has rushed out yet another press release extolling vapor with the vain hope that they can sell a Zune or two, which would effectively double or triple their current sales total to date.
Zune will finally bring games on the go to the device which is rarely, if ever, seen in public outside of a dusty display case. Two free games, “Hexic” and “Texas Hold ’Em,” will keep all three Zune users entertained. All Zune devices will also feature support for audiobooks this fall. Is this when the “wow” is supposed to start?
The amount Microsoft hopes to charge for Zune Devices (effective Sept. 16):
• 120 GB: $249.99
• 80 GB: $229.99
• 16 GB: $199.00
• 8 GB: $149.99
• 4 GB: $129.99
The fiasco continues… for now.
What, no Solitaire?!?!?
No sale!
MS keeps on innovating!!
Seriously, how do they keep coming up with new and fresh features for their stuff? W O W is right!
This is why I return to MacDailyNews again and again: the even-handed, unbiased journalistic integrity.
But just one question: why is there an MDN Take on MDN’s own reporting? Is the reporting so bad that it requires explanation? (rhetorical question)
SJG take: MDN, stick to quoting and pasting references to other people’s work. It’s funnier.
flying home friday night around me on the airplane was someone listening to his ipod, someone playing a game on her iphone, three of us typing away on our mac notebooks and the guy across the aisle from me playing solitare on his h.p. laptop.
Blue on Silver, just like aunt Tilly’s hair!
ya know man, You just keep on keeping on!!!! woo!!! keep selling them zune’, i like to put that apostrophe to make sound french!
zune is a piece of sh*t. why continue with its missery.
Cupertino, start your copiers – hehehehehehe
Take that MAC dorks! Apple’s yawnfest for September 9 has been brilliantly upstaged by Microsoft. Again. Gotta hand it the the Zune geniuses in Redmond. Are you points-challenged I-Pod lemmings tired of getting your asses kicked by Zune yet? Wake up!
Your potential. Our passion.™
I heard Russian Roulette was a killer game on jello-broken Zunes….
(∙*∙)
//︠ll\\
Zune Tang..cake. Cake is good.
Me like see Zune-like stuff exit my anal orifice every morning when me take a shit.
Now why would anyone want to be seen in public with shit in there hands?
Only Microsoft could be so vane!!!
Here’s to Microshit.
No new Zune hardware? just a software update. Guess the South American, Central American and Canadian Closeout over stock discounters stopped buying Zune lots as they can’t sell the lots that they’ve got. So, MS is stuck with them and will discount them and just apply a software up to them.
This is the end for the Zune… The last feature update before the quit end comes middle (around a June/July time frame) of 2009.
If MS were going to keep the Zune around they would have announced international availability. They didn’t so it’s days are numbered. Minimal update just to say it was updated with new features. MS just looking to squeak out some holiday 2008 sales before they kill the Zune off.
I used to fear, MS. I kept thinking that, with all of their money, MS would pull some incredible move, and bury Apple.
After seeing, VISTA, Zune and their latest TV commercial, I don’t fear them anymore. I actually feel sorry for anyone working for MS.
Talk about a barking dog with no teeth.
Sorry about the last comment by me. I sound like a real ass. I know. I just smoked some killer Grand Daddy Purple. I really can’t bullshit with you guys anymore. I think this is the final act for Microsoft and the beginning of my sobriety.
Your potential. Our Blunder.™
The sad part about all this is that MS will not give up with the Zune. They can afford to keep losing money till they win.
I’m surprised MS ID’s the Zune models by capacity instead of name.
I.e. “Microsoft Zune Home Basic Blue-On-Silver”, etc.
the comments on this website are just too hilarious…i can’t take it no mo
@the REAL Zune Tang – Great one!
@the FAKE Zune Tang – Lame one – way to embarrass yourself
Texas Hold ‘Em game? Maybe Apple should put out their own version real quick!
How about Zune Remote?
Has Zune Tang finally come to his senses?
“Do you remember those white, non-biodegradable, city dump-fillers diapers of us?”
“Well… the WOW starts today!
We have, for immediate availability, coast to coast, for all our customers…
The new black-and-silver and all-black models!!!!!!”
Da-daaa….
Shit happens!
Still never seen one in the wild.
$199 for a 16gb iPod nano would be great.
I guess Microsoft is betting that Apple won’t match their prices. By announcing first, their hope is that people will be disappointed should the iPods come in above those amounts.
Face it, Zune is already dead!
Poor Zune Tang…
Three? I switched to iPod a while ago….
he new zune colors are the old unsold ones with a new paint and swapped storage.
Competition IS a good thing……even if it is competition with Microsloth and the Doomed, er, I mean, Zune player.
MDN,
Seriously, stick to reporting the news. I am an Apple Fan boy and this report is really embarrassing.
The addition of a buy over the air feature while listening to an FM song, if done correctly and reliably, is actually quite an admirable thing.
Please give credit to the competition once in a while.
Rickw.
No doubt, Microsoft will have to lower prices once Apple announces lower pricing and new models tomorrow.
Didn’t MS get burned before announcing Zune prices just before Apple announced lower prices on same storage size iPods?
I’m expecting another MS press release on September 10th announcing Zune price cuts.
Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn!
God those M$ boys have been busy innovating… (not)
And no one cares
Give MS around another 5 years, the Zune will be about ready to compete with San disk-the #2 seller of pmp’s.
In 10 years-they will be competing with todays’s iPods.
Since Apple pulled the iPhone fart-joke app, Microsoft now has more room to maneuver in that market niche.
Zune Tang is legendary at MDN.
He/She/It also seems to be suffering from some sort of multiple personality disorder.
Poor Zuney. Vista Service Pack 2 will make it AAAALLLLLL better!
“The addition of a buy over the air feature while listening to an FM song, if done correctly and reliably, is actually quite an admirable thing.”
Aye, there’s the rub.
If done correctly, but Microsoft has a history of screwing things up, even when it has been made correctly by another company.
Example, Vista, Zune (The name!), Music store(points!) Why not cash based!, and now their commercials- what is up with that?
They will get better, but only when they learn to think different- no pun intended.
Zune helps affirm the message in the new Gates/Seinfeld ad where Seinfeld asks if the PCs will be cake they can eat.
As the MS empire crumbles all around him, Gates says “Let them eat cake!”
Wait…since when do they play music on FM radio? I thought that spectrum switched to all-commercials-all-the-time back in 1996. Did I miss a memo?
“This is why I return to MacDailyNews again and again: the even-handed, unbiased journalistic integrity.”
There’s your first mistake, thinking that any media at all is supposed to be an unbiased public service.
Guess what? This is a Mac site for Mac fans. They have no obligation to be unbiased, in any way. Making fun of the sad pathetic attempts to steal the thunder of Apple events is just part of what they do here. They have never made any attempt to appear neutral.
The choice is simple. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
iPod touch already tags FM songs with over the air purchase with Shazam. It even tells you what song is playing. This is the eve of the end of Zune. Tomorrow should be the last nail in the coffin.
The “extra” Zune Tang® posts is why Zune Tang needs to register with MDN.
To the fake Zune Tang, posting someone else’s name here is really uncool!
AKA Zune Tang®
Sorry about the last comment by me. I sound like a real ass user. I know. I just smoked some killer Grand Daddy Purple and almost went out to buy a fecal colored brown zune. I really can’t bullshit with you guys anymore. I think this is the final act for Microsoft and the beginning of my sobriety.
Your potential. Our Passion.™
Sorry about the last comment by me. I sound like a real ass user. I know. I just smoked some killer Grand Daddy Purple and almost went out to buy a fecal colored zune. I really can’t bullshit with you guys anymore. I think this is the final act for Microsoft and the beginning of my sobriety.
Your potential. Our Passion.™
It’s great that Apple can get Microsoft so scared that they divulge their pricing before Apple’s prices are announced.
The truth is that most of these Zunes will end up selling for $69 at a close out sale.
who gives a Zune?
Flushed
What were they thinking when they designed ehm instant coffeed that thing. Looking at it makes me think of old wooden 1940’s radios.
Will it sink or will it float…what a turd…
These ‘prices’ are insane.
Zunes sell for $39.99 here in Canada at HMV music store.
Its too soon to close the Zune dept. at Microsoft because they havent wasted enough money yet.
Its hard to believe that large co. could be so incredibly USELESS at making stuff and selling it.
As for the FM listen and downl;oad crap – you dont really think it will actually WORK do you?
If so, I have a bridge I can sell you……
It’s amusing to me that MS even copied Apple with Texas Hold ‘Em!
Wow!
Read as “They still make ’em?”
— OFFICIAL MICROSOFT PRESS RELEASE —
Our popular Zune music player will now come with a FREE toilet roll.
We at Microsoft think that this handy accessory will be very popular amongst our Zune user base.
End.
I work at Zune… and I am embarassed
MS should scrap that embarrassing device, the zuner the better.
MDN, for years, has written and posted their own news articles here. I’ve always enjoyed them and hope they continue.
However……… I do agree it’s a bit odd to write a take on your own article.
They don’t still make Zunes, do they?
This is soooo desperate. MS leapfrogs Apple with Zune updates. BFD. Like, who cares? Truly delusional. On a par with the Gates and Seinfeld shoe store ad. It’s lead in the water. It has to be. Their minds have been destroyed.
:-Q*************
Ballmer to stockholders:
“Yeah, I know we’re not doing that well in the stock price department. I put my best men on it and we’ve come up with a solution: Zune updates.
“We know you’re all fed up with Apple taking away our OS marketshare piece by piece. The iPhone is wiping Windows Mobile’s ass. The iPod is ubiquitous. We made a few errors with the Zune. But we’ve cleaned all of that up. All of it! OK? The Zune, this time, for real, is going to kick Apple’s ass for a change.
“We’ve timed the release to beat Apple’s new iPod announcements to the punch. They’re going to really hate us. The new Zune updates will get everyone’s attention and keep it, while Apple gets ignored by the press. This is our moment. Feel it.
“No, no questions at this time please. Please! I said NO QUESTIONS! OK? Jeezus. What do I have to do to shut you people up anyway? I mean it’s not like we aren’t working our asses off up here. Look at me sweat! You think I make this happen by sheer will power?! This is me working! Hard! Seriously folks. Give us a break, would ya?
“OK, so call my Secretary! That’s it folks. (David, get me out of here. Fast).”
Matching up the new Zune prices with the new iPod prices.
iPod Touch 32GB $399
iPod Touch 16GB $299
Zune 120GB: $249.99 99¢ more than iPod Classic 120GB
Zune 80GB: $229.99 99¢ more than iPod Touch 8GB
Zune 16GB: $199.00 same price as iPod Nano 16GB
Zune 8GB: $149.99 99¢ more than iPod Nano 8GB
Zune 4GB: $129.99
iPod shuffle 2GB $69
iPod shuffle 1GB $49
Looks like Microsoft got the price per GB right this time. So people will be choosing based on features.
Who cares about the Zune now. I bet MS will pre-announce stuff that won’t even exist for the next few months when its their turn to announce. Just to try and steal thunder…. except only about 10 people will care. LOL
Lets see, after the latest Apple event, Zune prices the same as Apple and WAY less songs, TV, movies…… etc. OH yes, NO TOUCH, iPhone, etc.
Microsoft, a day late, a dollar short, and we make sure its your dollar that we short. LOL
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Just a thought.
en