Have You Met Zune?

So Microsoft finally announced their contender in the MP3 player market, with the hope of challenging Apple's market-dominating iPod. I've been following the progress of this thing from the concept stage. If you haven't already dear readers, meet the Zune:



The Zune has not hit the market yet, but Microsoft plans for it to be available this holiday season, which means they need to get on the ball. I for one would love to be an early adopter for the Zune. I think there are some really interesting features available for it such as wi-fi, file sharing (this includes pictures and music), customizable wallpaper, and a number of others. The downside is, as with many tech products, especially those made by Microsoft, the first gen model will probably have some bugs to be worked out, while Apple has smoothed most kinks in the now 6th gen iPods. I'd be willing to bet that the second and third gen Zunes (if they do well enough to last that long) will be really top notch. Plus, by that time the Zune Marketplace (Microsoft's answer to iTunes...which also sounds cool) will have grown quite a bit I imagine.

If you want to know more about the Zune, I've done a lot of the work for you. Below you find a chart with spec comparisons (Courtesy of ZuneInfo.com) and a host of links to sites with info.

Zune Insider
Zunester
ZuneGuy

Those three are Microsoft employees who have inside info on Zune. They are blogging about the development of Zune with Microsoft's knowledge, so they aren't really spilling the beans on anything they aren't' allowed to, but they all have pretty good info about the Zune. The rest of the links are tech review or music sites.

Stereogum's Sneak Peak at Zune
Tech2
Zune Scene
Zunerama
ZuneGroove
ZuneInfo
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