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!]

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!]

Looks like Sony Ericsson borrowed heavily from the Zune HD playbook for this one, but we're not complaining—the Zune HD has the only media UI that's capable of competing with the iPhone's. Let's count the influences: First is the homescreen, which has a layout very similar to the Zune HD's QuickPlay menu. Instead of just giving you a boring list of Artists, Albums, and Snoooore, it shows Favorites (like the Zune HD's Pins), Recently Added and Recently Played, not-so-coincidentally the exact same options in the Zune HD menu. Below that you get two options from PlayNow, a kind of Pandora-like Sony store, including Top 30 and Recommendations. This stuff is super useful for anyone with a large, frequently-updated media collection.

At the bottom of every screen is a crossbar much like the Zune HD's, but that one's legitimate Sony—they pioneered that UI with XMB on PS3 and PSP. It's a great idea, so we're glad it shows up here as well. Other Zune HD influences? How about the art on the artist and album pages? When selecting Kanye West from the artist list, a photo of his smug little chipmunk face shows up on the top of the list of albums, and when selecting his album The College Dropout, the album art pops up above the tracklist—just like on the Zune HD.

Of course, a warning before the video says that this is for conceptual and internal use only (whoops!) so for all we know, Rachael's media playback won't look anything like this. But we hope it does—Android's music playback software is embarrassingly dated and this video shows a level of gloss that frankly blows me away. We could be seeing the first smartphone featuring Rachael very soon, too: Like, four days from now soon. We've got no idea on carrier, price, capacity, or any other hard details quite yet.

In case that was all too long for you? I want this thing. Right now. [SE-Blog via SE-Nse, thanks Scotsboyuk!]

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"

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.

Now, whether that "something" lasts for the long run—especially with a definitive lack of apps–is another thing, but for now Zune HD lovers can head on over to eBay for what amounts to a ludicrous price for a super rare, unreleased color and get their bid in before the auction ends in about two days.

The eBay user conveniently lives in Washington, and said they procured this rare kit from a friend. Now they're selling it for cash and are set to make a small fortune off this Zune HD with a nifty little paint job.

Now, will this model eventually be released en masse to the public at the usual Zune HD price? Sure, it probably will. But, if this wacky series of tubes has taught me anything, it's that there are plenty of people who'd love to win this auction and yell "FIRST!" to the rest of us.

Update: Yeah, this thing is getting all sorts of lame and suspicious. Crazy bidding, sketchy seller—everyone with half a brain proceed with caution. Maybe just watch the insanity take place from afar. [eBay via Anything But iPod via Engadget]

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]