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After what seems like 14 years worth of leaks, rumors, tweets and snotty comments from iPod users, Microsoft has finally officially announced the Zune HD, the newest addition to the Zune media player lineup. The HD refers to HD Radio reception, one of the key new features of the device, cleverly avoiding having to call the thing a ZuneTouch or something similar since after all, the new feature we are ALL looking forward to and are going to be talking about from now till Christmas is THE OLED MULTITOUCH SCREEN..ZUNNNEEEEEE TOUCH SCREEN TOUCH SCREEN OLED YYYYYAAHHHHHHHHH OMFGBBQ.

There…I said it, and I feel better for it.

Going on….

Here are the key new features as listed in the Microsoft press release.

• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
• The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480×272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
• The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

That big multitouch screen utilizing OLED technology and WiFi capability means that a big part of the possible success or failure of the Zune HD will lie in the web browsing. If the browser screams and the screen performs well, this could be a definite hit. I also really like the somewhat angular styling and the physical controls unobtrusively placed on the sides of the device.

No word yet on an official release date (MS is saying a US release will take place this fall, nothing more specific then that, so hope for September and not November) or on capacities, though I can expect we will see the classic 8G/16G and maybe 32G mix…however a 64G model would be REALLY great. I would also really like to see some specs on battery life and supported formats.

We shouldn’t have too long to wait however for some answers and the hands on reports, since Microsoft says it will be showing off the Zune HD and it’s interaction with XBOX Live at E3 next week.

Zealot (468 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).