Posted by Devin de Gruyl on Sep 14th, 2006
In their never-ending attempt to prove that there is not a single area of consumer technology they do not wish to monopolize, Microsoft announces the release date of their iPod clone, which for reasons that are likely to remain obscure for some time they have dubbed “Zune”:
Articles from [BetaNews] & [Gizmodo]
Admittedly, the stats on the unit don’t sound all that bad. It features a 30GB hard drive, wireless connectivity, and a 3-3.5″ screen (larger than the iPod’s 2.5″). There’s also a built-in FM tuner for those of us that haven’t already given up on terrestrial radio.
But the Microsoft mentality is in full force with this device, as is evidenced with the fact that, although the Zune will be “fully” iTunes compatible… it will not play media purchased through Apple. It also evidently lacks the iPod/iTunes podcast-aggregation features, which will probably raise a few eyebrows. Finally, it utilizes a funky DRM implementation that’s actually incompatible with the DRM used in the main Windows line.
As a closing shot, while doing research for this, I discovered that “Zune” is also the name of a GUI toolkit used in the development of the latest Amiga Research OS (AROS). As much as I’d like to joke that once again MS steals ideas from Amiga, I just can’t anymore…
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