Up until now the colorful part of the Zune HD has been its striking OLED display; if you wanted any color in your Microsoft PMP then you’d have to resort to a third-party skin or case. That’s set to change tomorrow, however, according to the official Zune store, which has tipped three new colors – Magenta, Red and Purple – as arriving on December 1st.
There’s slim, and then there’s wafer-thin-mint skinny, and it’s obviously the latter that Cube’s new H600HDMI PMP is aspiring to. The 5-inch mediaplayer has an 800 x 480 resolution display, can cope with decoding up to 768p/30Mb media and is capable of outputting 720p/1080i video via its HDMI port, but most strikingly it’s just 6.99mm thick.
When I first was briefed on the Media Center edition of XP by Microsoft, I thought MCE was a pretty bad idea. A lot of my skepticism had to do with the market they claimed they were going after, namely college students in dorm rooms and yuppies living in cramped apartments with no room for both TVs and PCs. Of course, college students mostly buy laptops, and no matter where you live most folks don’t watch TV on a small computer monitor from across the room. The short-term market were enthusiasts who understood the value of a DVR such as a TiVo.
Over time, Microsoft tried a few approaches with MCE – from extenders to allow you to view content on other TVs in the home over your network, to creating extender technology for Xbox (which is already hooked up to a TV set) – as well as working with a host of OEMs to create “living room” form factor home theater PCs. The result of these efforts was less than a stellar success and few vendors actively build home theater PCs; these days, if a consumer uses media center they’re either an enthusiast or they’ve tripped over it by mistake trying to do something else. That’s a shame, as MCE has evolved over time to become a great technology, one that few people even know exist.
Samsung’s original Instinct surprised many when an eager public turned it into one of Sprint’s most successful devices, so it’s little surprise that the carrier are now expecting similarly impressive things from its successor, the Instinct HD. High-Definition is certainly one of the more popular buzzwords around right now, so you can’t argue with Sprint’s branding onus; the big question is whether the device itself lives up to the billing. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
In case you missed something this week, it’s time for another week in review for you to enjoy on a lazy Sunday. Asus quietly let the Eee 1201N Ion netbook slip from the bowels of the netbook kingpin. The machine sports NVIDIA Ion power, it’s nice to see more Ion netbooks coming to market. Acer has its line of smartphones coming in Q4 according to reports early this week. The Acer F1 and the HTC Leo will hit in Q4.
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Microsoft's Xbox 360 WiFi 802.11n adapter, tipped in another leaky FCC filing, will apparently be priced at around $100 when it lands later this year. The WiFi-n adapter will seemingly go on sale alongside, rather than outright replace, the existing version, which will see a discount to $79.99.
Microsoft’s first Zune attempts won it a few dedicated users but a whole lot of criticism. In the face of Apple’s all-conquering iPod touch there was only really one way to go, and that was touchscreen; the Zune HD marks not only the transition to being finger-friendly, but packs the latest OLED display technology, HD radio and by no means least 720p high-definition support. Clean reboot or BSOD? Check out the full SlashGear review to find out.
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If seeing the outside of Microsoft's Zune HD wasn't good enough for you, then Rapid Repair have gone a few steps further and fully dismantled the touchscreen OLED PMP. Their latest teardown delivers no great surprises - unlike the iPod touch 3G, there's no sign of a camera module nook, nor untapped WiFi potential - but the mediaplayer itself is deemed relatively straightforward (though warranty-breaking) to get inside should you need to attempt a DIY fix.
It feels like a long time from the early rumors to devices on shelves, but Microsoft’s latest PMP, the Zune HD, is finally here. Packing WiFi along with a touch-sensitive OLED display, the Zune HD is based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 720p-capable chipset and promises not only music and high-definition video but also Internet access and gaming.
Video unboxing and demo, plus gallery, after the cut
Did you happen to make it into a select few Best Buy stores over the weekend? If so, did you get a chance to stare at/touch/play with a Zune HD? We certainly hope so. But! If you didn’t get that great of an opportunity, then it looks like a video might just have to cut it for now. And why is this video so amazing, other than giving you another look at the sexy piece of gadgetry? It shows off the Marketplace on the device, and then right there, smack-dab in the middle: Apps.
SlashGear Japan
