Still more Zune Speculation
I have been trolling around on iLounge, an iPod fan / news site and they have been scooping up all sorts of interesting details around the Zune.
This is an example of what iLounge has in terms of screenshots:
So we now have an idea as to what the Zune interface might look like. I say might both because this is an unconfirmed leak and because the interface could still be changed even if this is a legit working version of the Zune device. The first screenshot shows an interface that makes sense to me, it chimes in with the blades interface on my Xbox 360. I hope the horizontal bar up top doesn't have too many tabs as the balance between top-exposing features and making it a pain to move between different blades is difficult. I'd imagine that this may be a love hate thing for iPod users but for the Xbox fans, this will be great.
We now also have further speculation on some of the video focused applications of the Zune player. This is covered in detail int he second referenced article. They predict clean integration with Media Center (which will be bundled in two SKUs of Vista, mind you) and videos being bundled with the Zune (confirmed?). I for one am a big fan of Windows Media Center and if I can take my Media Center library and seamlessly (wirelessly!!!) dump it to my PMP, then this would be a huge selling point for me on the Zune. Let's see what happens as more details on the Zune player emerge.
I am becoming more confident in the potential of the Zune. Let's not forget the small flaws in the iPod that Microsoft could be leveraging in its competing strategy:
- Battery Life and unreplacable battery
- Unsupported Video Formats
- Soft Plastic that can be easily scratched
- A bad (lacking) file browser
- Lack of support for Music Sharing
- No Radio Support