Anticipating Zune
Microsoft’s new music player, Zune, has been unveiled and here are significant points. More than just a music player, it has a social networking component too, with a Marketplace to share music with friends. This could create some excitement in Silicon Valley, creating a cottage industry of suppliers like the one around the iPod.
Here are the basics, as being reported by Engaget and other places:
–Three-inch screen, which is larger than the largest iPod screen of 2.5 inches.
–30 GB Zune will have a built-in FM tuner and wireless 802.11 technology for sharing songs with your friends on their Zune devices, something lacking in the iPod. The shared songs will last three days or three plays, which ever comes first.
–The sharing will take place via Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace store (picture from Engaget) will have a library of “millions of songs” in undisclosed formats, and which you can interact with via your PC.
–The Marketplace will accept “Microsoft Points” so you can purchase without the use of a credit card.
–The Zune software will be able to import both iTunes and Windows Media Player files
–pricing will be “in coming weeks.”
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
