Anyone with Zune HD 4.3 should be able to mosey on over to the Zune Marketplace, where they'll find a few new surprises. Or what would have been surprises, if I wasn't about to totally ruin them right here:

• PGR: Ferrari Edition
• Lucky Lane Bowling
• Vans Sk8
• Piano (it's a piano toy, not strictly a game)
• Audio Surf: Tilt
• Checkers

It's not quite the same as having an open marketplace with a full SDK—presumably Microsoft's actively helping push these things along to keep Zune HD users interested—but it's a start. [HelloFromEurope—Thanks, Korneel!]

So say you're at the airport. You want to rent, I dunno, some movie that wasn't good enough to see in the theater. You just format a spare SD card filled with vacation photos you'd forgotten to back up (it doesn't appear they give you a card, but I could be mistaken), pop it in the machine, select a movie, pay $4 or so, and then have the film loaded on your card, a la ticking time bomb, with DRM.

And what can't you do with an SD card? I mean, it plays in my iPhone...wait...I mean my Blackberry...wait...

Mini SD and Micro SD—those are the cards that most of our mobile devices will take (if they take any at all)! In case no one told you, Blockbuster, we can't play this shit back on our digital cameras.

(Granted, netbook owners and some laptop owners will be able to utilize the standard.)

Ah Blockbuster, you've arrived just in time to ignore the growing popularity of iTunes/Zune Marketplace syncing, 3G streaming and in-flight Wi-Fi all while offering your service on a medium less convenient than DVD. But don't worry, I'm not angry. You're just hurting yourself. [Fast Company]

What surprises me about these facts and figures—apart from iTunes skyrocketing again after the introduction of variable pricing—is the fact that CDs are not completely dead yet. They are clearly going down, but I had this mental image in which all of those round mirrors were destroyed, melting like Dali clocks in a desert of indifference. [Mint]

Update: The firmware upgrade went through just fine on my 32GB Zune HD, and I'm definitely seeing an improvement in the browser's speed. Before, it was mysteriously slow, especially compared to the iPod Touch's browser—there's no reason for that, especially given the Zune HD's speedy Tegra processor. Even with the upgrade, it's slightly slower than Mobile Safari, especially when loading heavy sites like Gizmodo, but it's noticeably faster and not at all irritating anymore.

It's good to see Microsoft offering optimizations, but we're still waiting for a more major firmware upgrade: Social networking, IM, and YouTube should be top priorities. That being said, I still love the Zune HD—it's even wowed the notoriously hard-to-please Brian Lam.

Browser:

•Faster performance in navigating web pages
•Option to render pages as Desktop or Mobile (Option in settings)
•Better Tap-To-Zoom
•Better ability to scroll when typing a message online

Keyboard:

•Predictive Text
•Auto capitilization
•Dedicated Settings Menu
•Wider keyboard in landscape mode

Music:

•Artist bios now contain links to songs, other artists, and other albums
Radio:

•Choice of seek method (presets or seek) in settings
Other

•Apps load slightly faster, and the accuracy of the touchscreen is improved during game play.
•Apps close faster
•The power off says "slide down to power off" instead of just "Power Off"
•Faster Startup (less than 15s)

The download should be available through the Zune software, but some 16GB users are reporting it hasn't been pushed through to them yet. If you can get it, report back with anything else new/better you find. [GDGT, MobileTechWorld, thanks Ubi79!]

Watch it, share it, do what you like. And if you just want the short and sweet, here again are our five featured bits (shot and edited by Mike Short):

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: "It Doesn't Matter What the Critics Say"
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos
Part 5: Ballmer Optimistic About Win 7, But Says Vista Is "Very Popular"

When I asked if he gave an order to make Zune better, he replied:

Sometimes you get it the first time you cook the soup, sometimes it takes till the second time you cook the soup...You get better every time.

Maybe it's not the same as saying the first Zunes sucked, but however you interpret that, it's the closest Ballmer comes to conceding that product improvement was needed, that it wasn't just revision for the sake of the sales cycle.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: "It Doesn't Matter What the Critics Say"

Tweet Tweet

Twitter actually makes the most natural jump to the Xbox. It's a really basic app, with your timeline, search, and trending topics, but it works, largely because the vertical stream is preserved, even if you can only see four (very legible) tweets at a time, so you won't be power-browsing, TweetDeck style, by any means. It's slow, and typing's reeeeeeeally frustrating, like having your eyeballs poked out one pinprick at a time, if you don't have the chatpad (part of thinks this entire update is all a giant conspiracy to sell more Xbox 360 chatpads). Updates can sometimes take forever to hit your Twitter stream, too. Still, it's pretty, and works the best of the new apps.

Facebookin'

Facebook uses the standard Xbox tile UI instead of rolling its interface, like Twitter did. Which is disorienting (and disappointing), since you're browsing through a stream horizontally, one choppily-animated tile at a time. Why is the tile-sliding animation so terrible on a monster console like the Xbox 360? We don't know. Like Twitter, it's basic—focused on Newsfeeds. Your groups are ported over, so you can browse their newsfeeds individually, but you literally have to browse one post at a time, which is agonizing, making you far less inclined to comment on updates.

The interface works much better, and feels way more natural, with photo albums. What's interesting is that, at least in the preview, your friends have to link their Xbox Live and Facebook accounts together themselves in order to show up in the "Xbox Live Friends on Facebook" (and vice versa) pages—you can't manually go in and link Jason Chen's accounts so you'll see them together in your app. That might change though, with the final rollout. (Here's some video of it, from Kotaku.)

Last.fm

This would be would be waaaaaay better if it could play in the background. It can't. Meaning once you link your accounts and all of you stations are nicely and automatically ported over, to listen to Last.fm, you just have to sit there and leave it running, with band pictures floating up to your screen every once in a while. Lame. (You can see it in action on Kotaku.)

Zune Video Marketplace

Not a whole lot to write home about yet besides 1080p streams—it's a video store on Xbox, with movies for rent or purchase, TV shows, trailers—but Zune Video is here and it, um, works. You browse through the standard Xbox interface, like Netflix. We didn't get a chance to use the possible killer feature—Party mode, where you can watch stuff with your friends—yet, but if anything makes the Zune video store really stand out, that could be it. Previews, alas, didn't come in at 1080p, even over FiOS, which clearly has the bandwidth to deliver.

All in all, the new apps, they're interesting, they add something, but with the exception of Zune Video Marketplace, aren't critical. At least for now.

But before I get all bossy about it, it's worth figuring out what this would mean, exactly. Foley goes straight for the most exciting, and by far least likely scenario, in which the gloriously unlimited Zune Pass would be compatible with iPods and iPhones (without hacks, of course):

[The Microsoft rep] noted that with the addition of the ability to stream music from a browser that is part of the new Zune 4.0 experience, Mac and Linux users already can stream music to their systems if they have a Zune Pass subscription. The streaming capability isn't limited to Internet Explorer; it works with any browser, he said.

So what would it mean to take the Zune experience to Apple users? simply make it easier for iPods/iTouch devices to connect to Zune Pass and to run the Zune software? I didn't get any more specifics from Pinero.

Something seems like it's lost in translation here, since getting Zune Pass DRM content onto iPods would entail drastic action on Apple's part as well as Microsoft's. Not likely.

What this probably means—and this is still a pretty big deal—is that Microsoft is open to porting their Zune software over to Mac, meaning that the Zune HD might one day (one day!) be able to natively sync with OS X, and that Mac users will get to use the visually spectacular, surprisingly useful Zune desktop software. But as far as further device support goes, all is not lost:

Zune is a music and video service from Microsoft. Period... Our next step is mobile phones, but we haven't talked about a timeline for when that will happen

Ballmer's been harping on about Zune on other devices, namely mobile for a while, but it's good to know that the dream, such as it is, isn't dead. [ZDNet]

Here, the touch controls are 100% intact; the problem is that the bottom majority of the screen is completely washed out in a bright, white filter.

Study the clip at 28 seconds in. You'll see that the display is working fine before the white mask flashes back in. While OLED engineers in the audience can feel free to correct us, we think there's a strong possibility that the problem is software-based (and thereby firmware-fixable through a patch). But obviously, make Microsoft give you a new Zune right away if you're encountering such an issue.

There've been questions as to whether Courier is a software platform—meaning another manufacturer would make the actual hardware—or whether Microsoft will pull a Zune/Xbox 360. Mary Jo's sources say it's the latter (which makes sense, given that it's supposedly J. Allard's baby). But, Courier did actually start life as a "as a software idea on how one would really build OneNote from scratch if you could for the Tablet form factor. That then morphed into building a tablet."

So far, they're aiming for a "mid-2010" delivery, since it's further along than a Microsoft Research project, but not quite in the commercial pipe yet. Which puts it right in the Apple tablet's purported path. Oh, 2010 is going to rock. [ZDNet]

Of course, as commenters have pointed out, it's possible, if not probable, that Microsoft is using the time-tested tactic of short supply to make sure it sells out everywhere. Until we get some hard numbers, there's no way to tell. In the meantime, here's how it shakes down (notice Microsoft's online store seems to have plenty of units):

Amazon has both the 16GB and 32GB versions backordered, as does Best Buy, while Newegg and Buy.com both have only the 32GB left (and it probably won't last too long). Looks like the place to get it is Microsoft's online store, where both versions are available (and you can get those sweet Zune Originals engravings). Great to see the Zune HD getting the attention it deserves. (Maybe.)

The game, a fun little word puzzler called Wordmonger, is already available on several platforms (iPhone, various desktop OSes) but using the XNA, Foundation 42 was able to port it over to the Zune HD. Now that we know it's not an incredibly difficult process, we've got to question Microsoft's decision to lock the Zune HD to free, first-party apps. Right now, to get Wordmonger onto your Zune HD, you have to download the developer kit and use another piece of software, rather than just heading into the Zune Marketplace and downloading the app.

We hope Microsoft is questioning the decision too—the Zune HD is a really powerful little gadget, and that Tegra chip is capable of some impressive feats. We'd love to see the Zune HD opened up for more developers, and if there's enough buzz Microsoft might eventually do just that. [YouTube via Twitter]

This is especially disappointing not just because the Zune HD is a great device that deserves a great commercial but also because Microsoft is definitely capable of pumping out interesting, memorable advertising. This older Zune ad has great visuals, a killer soundtrack ("Lake Michigan" by Rogue Wave) and a high adorability factor. The new Zune HD ad glosses over the killer design of the device and very prominently (and mysteriously) features "Games," accompanied by a racing game that definitely isn't actually available.

The ad is so short that I'm sure it's just a teaser, to be upstaged by a legit ad soon, but seriously, Microsoft: The Zune HD has a ton of personality. Show it off. [YouTube via Engadget]

While the Touch and its apps are a multi use pocket computer, the Zune HD is an evolution of the PMP—not a devolution of some smartphone model. Every new feature it has is used to expand the way you absorb media, from the HD video output to the HD radio to the redesigned UI.

Hardware

The Zune HD is not a simple curved rectangle with a screen, like the iPod Touch, but a resolutely industrial, luxurious, angular and slim design. From the angled back to the visible screws to the long and thin home button, the Zune HD is a look all its own.

Constructed of aluminum, rubberized black plastic and glass, the Zune HD feels tough and solid in the hand. The widescreen display offers less space for non-media applications like web browsing, but for media (which, after all, is the Zune HD's raison d'etre), it's a really nice size. It won't quite fit in the change pocket of your jeans, but it'll slip into even the tightest of regular pockets. The iPod Touch may be a hair thinner, but the Zune HD's narrower body makes it feel much smaller.

The gorgeous 3.3-inch capacitive OLED touchscreen takes up the majority of the device's face. More on that below. It's surrounded by three hardware buttons: Underneath the screen on the face is the home button, on the top edge is the power/hold button, and in lieu of a volume rocker the Zune HD has a button on the left side that brings up Quickplay options. These options drift onto the screen and offer volume, track forward/back and play/pause. Quickplay can be enabled to work even while the player is locked.

On the bottom of the device is the proprietary Zune port (the Zune HD will work with all of the surprisingly easy-to-find existing Zune accessories) and the headphone jack. It's rated for 33 hours of audio and 8.5 of video, which is very strong if it's true (especially since previous Zunes were lacking in battery life, to say the least). The Zune HD lacks both a speaker and a camera, though neither is necessarily a mark against it. Still, both options would be welcome.

Screen
One of the first PMPs with an OLED screen (the Sony X-Series being the other major one), the Zune HD theoretically has a sharper picture and deeper blacks compared with LCD screens like the one on the iPod Touch.

The Zune HD's screen is a 3.3-inch multitouch capacitive touchscreen, in a 16:9 (widescreen) ratio running at an ironically non-HD 480x272. The iPod Touch, in comparison, is a 3.5-inch multitouch capacitive LCD, but in 4:3 (fullscreen) ratio running at 480×320, which is more efficient for web browsing but a waste of space for straightforward media playback. They're pretty equal in responsiveness, both being about as accurate a touchscreen as you're likely to find.

The Zune HD's screen is definitely sharper and with truer colors than the iPod Touch, when compared with the same video (a standard-def episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations). The iPod Touch's pixels were clearly visible and the color seemed washed out and weak compared to the Zune HD. However, it's not a perfect win for OLED: The Zune HD's screen is extremely reflective, making it difficult to read in sunlight, while the iPod Touch's LCD was quite easy to read in the same conditions.

Part of this difference is due to technology and part of this is due to UI. The iPod touch uses black text on white for music and video browsing, while the Zune HD is reversed. The Zune HD's black background acts as a mirror, making it difficult to see anything but your own annoyed face.

Video

To take advantage of that premium OLED screen, Microsoft is really pushing high-quality video playback on the Zune HD. iPod comparisons aside, my sample HD clip (a 720p episode of Battlestar Galactica bought from the Zune store) sparkles. Tap the screen while video's playing and "Quickplay controls" bring up every button you need.

Codec support, however, reduces the Zune HD's appeal as a general purpose video player. It plays WMV, MP4, H.264 and DVR-MS (recorded video from Windows Media Center), which means it will play iPod-formatted clips (though of course not DRMed videos). That's missing every codec video pirates care about, most importantly DivX for SD and MKV for HD. If you've got a load of torrented HD video in MKV like I do, you're a bit screwed—I tried several converters (iSquint, Cucusoft, Handbrake) and never managed to transcode MKV to a decent-quality Zune-compatible file. If Microsoft isn't going to include a converter in the software, the Zune HD should at least support DivX (like Samsung's P3).

The thing is, the Zune HD is actually on par with the category leaders (iPod Touch, Sony X-Series) in codec support: All three force you to either get your video directly from the manufacturer's stores or transcode your video into their specific formats. Microsoft could have scored huge with video freaks by supporting DivX and MKV. It's frankly a huge pain in the ass to have to convert every single video I want to watch on my PMP.

If you're really into torrented videos, I'd recommend the Samsung P3, although in just about every other way the Zune HD is a far superior device.

Zune as Media Center
The Zune HD's unparalleled ability to output video in 720p is a major selling point for the device, and let me tell you, it's everything you'd hope it would be. Video is crisp, clear and smooth, looking just as good as the same video played through any bulky media streamer. The interface as a whole actually translates really well to a bigger screen, slightly dumbed down for speed's sake (for example, there's no background artist image on the now playing screen). It's not as full-featured as an HTPC, but for just playing back your media, it does a great job. The screensaver on the now playing screen looks especially awesome on a big HDTV.

But to take advantage of HD content on your television, you'll need to buy the $90 AV dock, which comes with the dock itself (including antenna for radio), a remote, an HDMI cable and a composite cable. Is it worth it? I'd say yes, if you've got an HDTV and plan to buy a lot of HD content from Zune marketplace. If you just want to display some video on a TV, you can buy the last-gen Zune's standard-def AV pack for less than $20, all of which is compatible with the Zune HD. However, if you go the cheapskate route, you'll be missing a major part of what separates the Zune HD from the pack. Not that it's bad to toss a few 128kbps mp3 files on for a bus ride, but you wouldn't really be taking advantage of what the Zune HD can do.

User Interface

Using the Zune HD and the iPod Touch together is jarring—they do mostly the same things, but they look vastly different. The Zune HD's UI is everything but an example of Apple minimalism, constantly teetering between digital eye candy and complete ocular over-stimulation. It's a white text on black layout, and has the very cool (and a little ballsy) design choice to zoom in to certain items so much that they're actually cropped out of the screen. For example, on the homescreen, the word "marketplace" is cut off at the penultimate letter. Some will hate the design, but I think it's a really interesting, aggressively artsy choice. Even when the UI feels too cluttered, which it sometimes does, it's still great to look at.

Homescreen
The homescreen is actually two homescreens in one. You've got the standard list of features, in this case "music, videos, pictures, radio, marketplace, social, podcasts, internet, settings," but there's also a Quickplay menu shrunk to the left side of the screen.

The Quickplay menu mirrors the new front page of the Zune software: It shows the album art and song title of the song that's currently playing (if there is one currently playing), but also your "Pins," "History," and "New." Pins are like favorites—you can tap and hold any item (song, podcast, video, photo) and pin it to this top menu. It's great if you're listening to something long like an audiobook or podcast. History is your recently played items, and New shows the most recent items you've synced to the Zune HD. That last is my favorite of all—I've got a huge and always expanding music collection, and tend to forget which albums I've just added to my PMP. It's also great if you use the ZunePass subscription service, since you'll be downloading so much you'll forget what you meant to listen to.

Content Browsing
The Zune HD uses the same grab-and-flick method of touchscreen navigation as the iPod Touch and Sony X-Series, though like the X-Series it doesn't feel quite as fluid or organic as the iPod Touch. Trying to scroll really quickly through a long list of artists feels like it takes longer than it should, which is probably why Microsoft implemented an alphabet system. As you scroll through the lists of artists, albums or whatever, the actual letters are placed in their appropriate spots (on mine, the list of artists will read "Iron and Wine, Islands, J, Jay Reatard, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros). Tap any of these letters to bring up the full alphabet, any letter of which can be tapped to take you right there.

This is a decent method to get around long lists quickly, but I'd have preferred to separate the letters from the lists of actual items. I've accidentally hit a letter when I meant to hit an artist, and that could easily have been solved with a scrolling alphabet bar on the side.

Browsing through artist lists is mostly straightforward—mostly. There's a bit of a continuity issue with the "one step back" function. On the now playing screen, it's a left-pointing arrow in the top left corner, which is extremely obvious. But once you hit it, you're on the song's page (with options like email and rate), but now there's no back button. Instead, there's a word written in huge letters, so huge in fact that they're cut off and not readable. Those letters actually spell out the name of the album, and tapping it functions as a back button, taking you back to the album. This can be fixed with a firmware update—just add a clear "back" icon like on the now playing screen!

Now Playing
The Now Playing screen cleverly finds a photo of the artist and uses that as the wallpaper, and I love the screensaver that slowly scrolls the artist, track name, album name, length and album art. Microsoft nails the advanced design work—what about the obvious? How do I pause, navigate forward and backward, and adjust volume? It's not as easy as it should be.

All of those controls are relegated to another Quickplay menu, activated either by the left side button or by tapping anywhere on the now playing screen that's not another button. I don't want to bring up a sub-menu to do things like pause music or adjust volume when relatively unimportant options like ratings get their own space on the screen.

Again, I get the sense that Microsoft was so enamored with the beauty of the UI (and it is certainly full of eye candy) that they refused to adjust it to insert simple playback controls.

Radio
Surprisingly, FM radio has become a hot topic in PMPs, thanks to Microsoft's announcement that the Zune HD will support HD radio and now Apple's reversal on its long-held aversion to FM with its new iPod Nano. But HD radio is another example of Microsoft expanding the boundaries of the PMP: "So you support FM radio? We're going to support it better."

HD radio allows for both more stations and (hopefully) higher quality broadcasts. The Zune HD's radio will often pick up two simultaneous broadcasts from one station, like San Francisco's KFOG-1 and KFOG-2. The Zune HD's reception is excellent, at least as clear as the iPod Nano, able to pick up a handful of HD stations, all with RDS data (artist, song name). Like the Nano, the Zune HD can pause and cache live radio, a great function, though it also cannot record.

Internet Browser

This is a serious surprise, after seeing the similar Sony X-Series's browser crash, burn, and then explode shards of awful all over me, but the Zune HD's internet browser is solid. The narrower 3.3-inch widescreen isn't as spacious as that of the iPod Touch and pages definitely load a little slower, but besides that it's a full-featured, fast and responsive browser. The accelerometer is very quick (way faster than the iPod Touch), panning is smooth and easy, and the standard multitouch gestures (pinch, drag) work nicely. Unfortunately, the Zune HD does not support YouTube or any other Flash video, which would have been a nice feature for quickly listening to new music.

The soft keyboard is functional (if a little small), built-in Bing search works well, and even an intense site like Gizmodo loads with no problem. Please, Microsoft: Stick this browser in Windows Mobile.

Syncing

The Zune software has been updated with a few features and slight UI changes to match the Zune HD. It now has a front page similar to the Zune HD's homescreen Quickplay, and puts more of an emphasis on Smart DJ, which is an evolution of Microsoft's Pandora-like recommendation service. If you're not a member of the ZunePass subscription service, it'll recommend music in your own library, and if you are, it'll dig through the ZunePass's massive collection. But it's largely unchanged, which is a good thing.

The Zune HD is, like the other Zunes, Windows only. It can only sync with the Zune software, which is restricted to Windows.

This is, of course, a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. Mac users would be right in the demographic sweet spot to be interested in the Zune HD: Media-loving, style-conscious, with money to burn on gadgets. Hell, the 32GB platinum Zune HD even matches the unibody MacBook Pro models. But with yet another Zune shunning Mac compatibility, it seems certain that Microsoft has given up on converting Apple zealots.

Marketplace
The Zune HD gives you access to the Zune Marketplace, an all-you-can-eat buffet of music downloads. You can download music directly from the device, but this feature seems half-baked: Search is fine, but browsing is limited and recommendations, a strong suit of the Zune software, are nonexistent. Browsing music is restricted to new releases and the bestseller charts, which is pretty lame for discovering new music. I already know about Jay-Z, Zune. Plus there's no way to download new podcasts on the go, which is something I really miss. All in all the on-device Marketplace leaves a lot to be desired.

Apps
Well, there are apps, technically. But Microsoft has stressed that the Zune HD is a media device first and foremost—there's no SDK, so independent development is out for now, and the Zune team seems to have little interest in competing with Apple's App Store. At launch, the Zune HD has seven games and two utilities (calculator and weather) available. The games are just ports of the games from older Zunes, like poker and sudoku. Even further, Microsoft has confirmed that Facebook and Twitter apps will come to the Zune HD, but only around November. For some, this may be the big weakness. The iPod Touch is really a pocket computer with an excellent touch-based music and video app. When you grab a Touch, you're just as likely to play a game or check your email as you are to play some music. Meawhile, Archos and Creative both use Android, a mobile computing OS, to do similar things. The Zune HD doesn't have the benefit of these ecosystems.

The app selection just confirms that the Zune HD is a PMP and not a mobile computer. You can't even move an app to the homescreen; they stay stuck in the "apps" section, way down the list, confined like a grounded child to their bedroom.

However, the XNA team has just released an add-on for XNA Game Studio 3.1 that will allow developers to create apps for the Zune HD. They've demonstrated a multi-touch drawing app as proof, which is very cool, but remember, apps (like music and video) need to be loaded onto the device via the Zune software—and who knows whether Microsoft will allow third-party apps into the marketplace.

Best of Breed

The Zune HD is the best touchscreen PMP on the market. It's got the most unique vision, the most impressive hardware and the most stylish software. It's priced fairly at $220 for 16GB and $290 for 32GB, though I'd call the $90 dock a required accessory.

But I'm not sure that's enough. PMPs like the Zune HD and Sony X-Series try to advance the genre with new and impressive media playback features, but the success of the iPod Touch shows that that media playback alone isn't necessarily enough anymore. People seem to want pocketable computers, either in smartphone or near-smartphone form, or simpler, smaller devices like the iPod Nano and SanDisk's Sansa line. So it's not going to steal sales from the iPod Touch, but it should make some Samsung and Sony executives pretty jealous.

I'm left wishing Microsoft could get its Zune team to work with (read: boss around) the Windows Mobile team to put together a media phone. The Zune HD is a great PMP, but it could have been a jaw-dropping, unbelievable phone.

Flashy and unusual hardware

Excellent software integration

Advanced media features like HD video-out and HD radio

Surprisingly excellent internet browser

Requires $90 accessory to be actually "HD"

UI is beautiful, but sometimes confusing

Capacity restricted to 16GB and 32GB

Disappointing codec support

Apparently the Zune software source files had those four pictures hidden along with their corresponding names: pink, magenta, purple, and atomic. It's anyone's guess what other color options might be lurking in the code. I'm hoping for Burning the Midnight Oil Blue. [Cruel World's Lifestream via Engadget]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but yeah, we're talking about the iPod touch model: It's about platforms. That run apps. That people can develop awesome little programs for. In other words, a good PMP won't just have great codec support and be able to push HD video, it'll get you on Twitter or Facebook or tell you what's good to eat nearby.

Not convinced? Check out the new Archos 5, which dumps the old OS for Android. Or the Creative Zii, also allegedly launching with Android. If you're in the second tier, grabbing a popular app-friendly platform is not a bad way to compete.

Apple itself noted that old-school iPods were on a death march—so the company added a video camera to the nano, to keep it alive for a generation or two more. True, Sony's X-Series appears to be keeping on keeping on, but it feels like an anacrhonism, albeit with a nice screen—no extendability, and a horrible internet browser.

The argument really comes down to the Zune HD, launching this week. It finds itself in an awkward position, essentially because of the effective limbo Microsoft's mobile OS is in—in other words you can't easily develop apps for both Zune HD and Windows Mobile, which Zune's Brian Seitz basically admitted to the Seattle Times: "What we didn't want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn't work together."

So there's no open app store, but in the meantime, Microsoft's providing the apps with a handful of chosen developers, so we're stuck with games, and soon a Twitter and Facebook app. But what is clear is that Zune is a platform that people can develop for. And it seems inevitable that'll be common with the next version of Windows Mobile, or the mysterious project Pink, if that is something else—at least, if Microsoft's actually serious about the Zune having a future.

In other words, it's startlingly clear now that the traditional PMP is history, replaced by PMPs powered by mobile platforms. They're smartphones without the "phone," and even lacking that major element, they're surprisingly valuable, more pocket computer—with internet and apps—than glorified video player.

We're working on the full review as I type this, but while you wait:
• Zune HD Hands On: Photos and Video Tour
• Zune HD TV Interface Walkthrough
• Microsoft Says No Zune HD Outside the U.S (For Now)

New features in the Zune 4.0 software include quickplay, smart DJ, mini mode, mixview, and the Zune Marketplace with apps and games. Microsoft says it plans Twitter and Facebook apps later this year, and some of the first 3D games for the Nvidia Tegra-powered player will be Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition, Vans Sk8: Pool Service, and Audiosurf Tilt. (Meanwhile, older Zunes can update to software 3.2)

And as you can see below, Xbox 360 streaming is on the way... [Zune.net and PRNewsWire]

Microsoft told Ars that:

"For the time being the Zune HD device will remain US only. Right now we are focused on deploying an exciting service in the form of Zune Video to 18 markets. We are looking at potential future hardware experiences for these markets, but do not have anything to announce right now."

So that doesn't say never, it just looks like they're focusing on the U.S. first. The original Zune 30GB hit the U.S in November 2006, and it took until June 2008 for it to reach Canada. But given Apple's ho-hum updates, something tells me that the Zune HD could roll out overseas much quicker than that. [ArsTechnica via Engadget]

He also throws out one other tip: If you're choosy about colors, don't pre-order, because you'll be stuck with black for the 16GB model or platinum for the 32GB one. If you wait until Sept. 15, when you can pick the color of your poison. Kind of a sad day—if Zune is killing off the giant capacity model to exclusively go the HD route, it makes it seem just slightly more likely that the iPod classic could be getting the axe too next Wednesday. [WinSuperSite via ZuneSpring]

Indeed, while our tipster could see the Apps menu beckoning them to smudge the screen with an eager fingerprint, their attempt to access the secrets within were met with disabled wifi and a definitive no-go. We kind of know games will reside there already, but an overall App Store-esque experience wouldn't surprise anyone should that be what lies beyond the top level Zune HD Apps menu.

More images and video at Engadget, where there was apparently an unconfirmed mention of a Zune HD SDK. Intriguing! [Thanks, Jarnet]

GDGT picks up the thread by bugging Microsoft yet again, laying out why Zune HD is going to be in demand for Mac users. So please, let's do it. We'll buy your Zune HDs if you bring Mac support.

If you go ahead and make a Zune phone, we'll go and buy that even faster. [GDGT]

UPDATE: Looks like there was a late entry to our list of current top spokesassholes: Miss Julia Allison has just signed a yearlong deal to peddle Sony's wares. About time that her attention-whoring went global! [Sony Insider via Gawker]

Thanks, Rob B. for the inspiration!

Catherine Zeta-Jones: Back and Worse Than Ever

Some of us were near tears when T-Mobile decided to drop Zeta-Jones as their official spokesasshole, but the good news is that she's back. The bad news is that as soon as we heard her nerve-grinding accent, we remembered that those were tears of joy.

Sir Richard Branson, Kind-Hearted Snob

It was difficult to deem Sir Richard Branson as a spokesasshole. He is such a nice man and only wants innovative technology to reach those from "all walks of life"—assuming that they make $40 million annually, of course.

Laptop Hunters Lauren, Giampaolo and Lisa

Lisa, Lauren, and Giampaolo are the biggest spokesassholes in the Laptop Hunters commercials. Lisa shatters eardrums with her exclamation of "WhaaaaAAAAaat?!?!", Lauren followed the ads up with claims that they were unscripted, and Giampaolo is just plain smarmy.

Acer Timeline's Metrosexual Model

It isn't the first time Acer has made questionable advertising decisions, but did they really have to hire Giampaolo's brother to model for the Acer Timeline?

Maybe one day he'll button up the shirt and put on some sunglasses that don't look like they're his girlfriend's. I hope he didn't quit his day job (waiter? male prostitute?) when he landed this gig, because it won't last long.

Verizon Probably Only Merged With Alltel To Get Rid of Chad

Verizon and Alltel may have merged, but we've still seen Chad's picture looming around Alltel's website. With his spiky blonde hair, laid back walk, and inability to take a hint, he's a true menagerie of what this gallery represents.

Wes Moss? Why, Microsoft? Why?

Zune Spokesasshole Wes Moss nearly broke our douche point scale. If you can stand watching this Zune spot, after those Laptop Hunter ads, you'll see why.

Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's Monster Mess

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are two ridiculously wealthy guys who decide, in their spare time, to become even more wealthy by peddling some overpriced headphones. Even if you ignore the fact that they're distributed by Monster, and even if you admit that the headphones aren't that bad—there's no way the duo can't escape the spokesasshole brand.

Photo by jakeludington

Hi, I'm Justin Long, Spokesasshole Extraordinaire

It's not much of a secret that some of us here are Apple fans, but not even that stopped us from pronouncing Apple's "I'm a Mac" guy and his smug attitude and thinly veiled disdain for PC as spokesasshole material.

Tamara Hope in the Return of the Stoner Commercials

The Palm Pre commercials started off terribly and only got worse until we stepped in with a remix. Though since it seems that Palm was really giving a nod to Ellen Feiss of Mac Switcher fame with these creepy "What is she on and where can I get some?" commercials, we'll only rate actress Tamara Hope as half a spokesasshole.

Michael "AWESOME" Bay and Verizon FiOS

We can forgive Michael Bay for not sharing video footage of Megan Fox washing his car, since he at least had her show a bit of skin in Transformers 2. What we can't forgive him for his display of spokesassholery in this pitch for Verizon FiOS. By the fifth "AWESOME!" things turn from funny to "Please walk into the next exploding building, Michael."

Ashton Kutcher, Nikon's Smooth Operator

You've got to hand it to Kutcher. The man with a million Twitter sheep has risen from underwear model to annoying spokesasshole and GI Jane toy-boy. Though we can't help but see Kelso every time he's fumbling around on screen.

I was trying to figure out what it was about the Zune HD's TV interface that I was enjoying so much, and then I realized: Unlike every other device of its size and capacity, this thing is a true portable media center. It's not as fast as a fully fledged PC running Windows Media Center, but it is zippy as hell for a pocketable, portable player.

Zune HD goes dark when it's docked, like you see in the gallery. This isn't like an iPod—once docked, it's invisible, the power behind what you watch or listen to. The remote is the key. I bopped around, browsing music, scanning for radio stations (that HD has a few meanings, including an HD radio receiver, so you can see the "what's playing" data and everything) and even watching a short full-screen video on this 60-inch Samsung. The demo Zune only had the one video—I can't wait to see what it's like to fill a 32GB one with great movies and TV episodes.

The only noticeable thing missing from the interface was any online connectivity—you can't download movies to a Zune without a PC anyway, but docked, I am not even sure you can stream music (as you can when carrying a Zune in a Wi-Fi environment). More on that when we review it, naturally.

As we showed you months ago, the player itself takes the PMP user interface to a new level. When you select something, all the screen elements move at different vectors, creating at times a 3D effect, as you can catch up close in the video below. (Pardon the glare, but that's one hazard—for better or worse, it's a shiny shiny screen.)

I don't want to say more—this is not a review, and I won't be the reviewer when we do pass judgment—but let me say that, as someone who's never been terribly excited by past Zunes, this one took me pleasantly by surprise.

[Full Zune HD Coverage on Gizmodo]

To be fair to Microsoft, iPod video format support is pretty horribly limited, but wide codec compatibility would've been something of a coup for the the Zune HD. As it stands, here's what it can handle:

Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync.
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video3– Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync.
H.264 video – Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync. DVR-MS4 – Zune software will transcode at time of sync.

720p playback will only come by means of an external dock connector—not that the 480 x 272 screen could display it anyway, or that it would matter on a device this size. In any case, this is fine—transcoding video is something we're used to for portable devices, and past Zune software has been serviceable. About that battery life, though:

Music, up to 24 hours (wireless off); video, up to 4 hours* (They've since changed this—see below)

24 hours is plenty for music playback, though it's well under the iPod Touch's (admittedly inflated) 36h claim, and we'll have to see how well the battery holds up during radio playback and, most importantly, web browsing. The video figure is concerning though, not just because it's kinda low, but because that asterisk points down to "320 x 240 WMV9 500 Kbps" video—well below that maximum possible playback quality. Is Tegra a little bit of a battery hog?

UPDATE: Microsoft has come out and said their spec page was incorrect—the real figures are 33 hours of music playback and 8.5 hours of video—better than the iPod Touch on both fronts. As you were! [Microsoft via Engadget]

Zune HD AV Dock

• $89.99
This all-in-one package enables your Zune HD player to charge sync and play supported 720p HD videos on your HDTV. Send music and HD Radio reception to your home audio system and control it all via a wireless remote.

Includes dock, three inserts (one for each Zune model), wireless remote, AC adapter, HDMI cable, and AV output cable. Zune HD player sold separately.

Compatible with: Zune HD (32 & 16), Zune 120, Zune 80, Zune 16, Zune 8, and Zune 4.

Zune HD AV & Power Pack

• $49.99
Connect your AV cable to your docked Zune HD to play music, HD Radio, and audio podcasts through your home audio system. The HDMI cable connects your docked Zune HD to HDTVs to view movies and videos. (Zune HD player required for HD video and HD Radio reception; sold separately. Zune HD AV Dock sold separately.)

Includes AC adapter, HDMI cable, and AV output cable.

Compatible with: Zune HD (32 & 16), Zune 120, Zune 80, Zune 16, Zune 8, Zune 4.

So, just like we knew already, the Zune HD will be released September 15th in 16/32GB flavors, at a cost of $220 and $290, respectively. If you pre-order, you'll be able to nab the 16GB in black and the 32GB in platinum, but upon release, there'll be five different colors with 10 new engravings on Zune Originals. Based on the Zune's past, we'd bet those other colors are red, blue, and green (probably no return of the brown, unfortunately). UPDATE: Colors options are listed are here.

Microsoft isn't releasing the price of the accessories, like that HD-outputting dock we're all going to want, but luckily the rest of the current Zune lineup's accessories will also work with the Zune HD. The only other new detail is that select Best Buy outlets will have Zune HDs to play with on August 22nd and 23rd, which is good news if you haven't gotten to play with one yet.

So, not much new here, but it's good to see Microsoft is keeping up with the very cool Zune Originals store. Who else is going to have a hard time waiting a whole month? [Zune]

REDMOND, Wash. – Aug. 13, 2009 – Zune HD, the next generation of Microsoft Corp.'s portable digital media player, is available now for pre-order and is set to hit store shelves on Sept. 15. The player, available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, is the first touch-screen Zune and includes powerful playback technology to give you a different way to experience media on the go. Combined with unparalleled PC software and online services such as Zune Pass, Zune provides a rich and meaningful connection to music, videos, podcasts and more.

Pre-order Zune HD in 16GB Black and 32GB Platinum through http://www.zune.net/zunehd from Amazon.com, Best Buy,Walmart and Microsoft. Beginning September 15, at http://www.ZuneOriginals.net, both 16GB and 32GB capacities of Zune HD will be available in five different colors with the option to customize your player with one of 10 new engravings designed by guest artists.

WHAT: With a sleek and stylish design, Zune HD is the first to combine these features:

• Built-in HD Radio™ receiver. Allows you to listen to higher-quality sound than is available from traditional radio channels, as well as access additional programming through HD2 and HD3 multicast channels from many of your favorite local FM radio stations at no extra cost.

• HD video output capabilities. Supports HD video playback from the device through a premium HDMI A/V docking station (sold separately) directly to an HD TV in 720p, making it easy to enjoy better-than-DVD-quality video on your own big screen at home.

• OLED touch screen. Allows you to easily flip through music, movies and other content. The 3.3-inch glass screen and 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offer a premium viewing experience.

• Built-in Wi-Fi. Allows for browsing, streaming or downloading new music from Zune Marketplace.

• Internet browser. Full-screen Web browsing, optimized for the multi-touch screen with zoom-in and zoom-out gestures.

• Accessories, at home and on the road. Zune HD and AV Dock charges and syncs players while playing supported 720p HD videos on HDTVs. Play HD Radio, music and podcasts from your Zune HD device through your car stereo using the Zune Premium Car Pack.

WHY: Pre-order now to be one of the first to experience the new Zune HD's advanced design,innovative technology and rich multimedia capabilities powered by the NVIDIA Tegra™ chip ultra low-power HD processor.

PRICING: Zune HD 16GB: $219.99 (estimated retail price); Zune HD 32GB: $289.99 (estimated retail price)

WHEN: Pre-order starting Thursday, Aug. 13. Purchase in stores on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

WHERE ONLINE: http://www.zune.net/zunehd

WHERE IN STORE: Place a pre-order in person at Best Buy beginning August 16. If you want to sneak a peek, visit select stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas on August 22 and 23.

Not a major leap in logic, perhaps—it is a Microsoft device with a browser designed by the Internet Explorer team—but still new info on a player that we've come to learn a lot about recently, including likely pricing: 16GB ($220), 32GB ($290).

In the photo above you can see how the on-screen keyboard letters will bulge when pressed, and CNet also has pics of the browser showing Favorites (bookmarks), and running Facebook in landscape mode. [CNet]

It also backs up the previously rumored launch date, Sept. 8.

Those prices look dirt cheap compared to the current iPod touch pricing, making the Zune HD seem super competitive now, but you gotta figure the touch's prices are gonna get re-aligned shortly after the Zune HD's launch, so it might look a little different then. Still, things look good so far for the Zune HD. [Thanks tipster!]

Seriously. This thing looks so damn good that I'm actually pissed off with Microsoft for not making it a cellphone. [T03 via Engadget]

The iPhone and iPod-related lawsuit, filed Wednesday, also includes Microsoft (Zune), Cowon (Curve), iRiver LG, high end speaker firm Bang & Olufsen, Philips and even iPhone clone manufacturer Meizu. There are 20 defendants named in all.

The lawsuit states that all 20 defendants have in one form or another abused a 2003 patent (left vague in the lawsuit) that "recognizes different swipe movements on a touchpad without having to provide visual feedback or to look at the player to understand what's taking place."

Tsera says it wants plain old money and "enhanced damages" from Apple for misuse of the patent. Good luck with that. [Apple Insider]

What you do is set up Orb on a Windows machine to transcode, on the fly, your already downloaded Zune songs. This way you can listen to your music (your entire music library, not just 16GB or 32GB worth) wherever you have an internet connection. It works over 3G as well as Wi-Fi, but EDGE is a little too slow for full-quality music.

Head over to Gear Live for a walkthrough. [Gear Live]

From Adweek:

The Office shift follows a pitch for a new Microsoft mobile offering won by McCann's T.A.G. unit, said sources. JWT, McCann and fellow roster shop Crispin, Porter + Bogusky competed for that assignment, for which the client used the code-name Pink.

It's a nice confirmation of previous rumors that Microsoft was shopping the project around, and that's about the end of the new information. But a quick trip to the McCann T.A.G. site reveals a portfolio that contains three videos for the Zune, including two ads and a trade reel. Zune? Pink? Zunephone! Pinkphone! Pink Zune! Pink Zune phone! And so on.

Now, these ads are nestled among a fair number of Xbox promotional materials, so it's clear that this is one of Microsoft's go-to teams for advertising in general. But hell, since we still haven't seen any kind of confirmation that the Pink phone's alleged specs and Windows Mobile 7 rumors are real, that Pink is a hardware device, or that the project even still exists, we'll take what we can get. [Adweek via Slashgear]