I like many of you have heard alot of rumors about the Zune HD and unfortnatley the Microsoft Press release (http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/may09/05-26ZuneHDPR.mspx) was either really vague on the details of what the Zune HD will do or it really is not getting much of an upgrade to the current Zunes other than the OLED touch screen, HD radio receiver, Wi-Fi with an internet browser, and the ability to output HD Video with additional Dock. Don't get me wrong all of these options and features looke awesome and would convince me to buy a Zune HD over a standard Zune for the right price, but it would not sway me away from looking into an Ipod touch.
However In Major Nelson's Podcast (http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/05/31/show-321-zune-hd-cellfactor-and-steve-wiebe.aspx) that aired May 31st the Sunday before the 2009 E3 confernece, he interviewed Brian Seitz the group marketing manager for Zune who spoke breifly and vaguely on the Zune HD did say that they would be demoing and going into more details on the Zune HD at the E3 but I have yet to find any details that have emerged other than the the introduction of the Zune Videos to the Xbox 360, which was previously touched on. In an article from ars technica (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/05/inside-the-zune-hd-a-new-hope-for-microsoft.ars) where Nate Anderson interviewed Brian Seitz it states "Microsoft has "nothing to announce" about games at this time, but clearly has plenty of ideas in the works. More details will be forthcoming over the summer." Well I think that if they are plannning something they need to start marketing that information so that those of us ready to invest can have a reason to hold off from jumping on the Apple Bandwagon.
So Microsoft please make available the information on the Zune HD, if there is more let us know what it is if not then let us know and stop hiding behind the guise of the rumors that are out there. I know for me that to sway me from the ipod touch the Zune HD will need to have an Application store that will provide a multitude of additional uses for the Zune HD, and also a major win for me would be to have some sort of gaming capability to where you connect to Xbox Live and use your Gamertag in either new games made just for the Zune HD, reworkings of current XBLA titles, or less likely direct access to current XBLA titles. I also think that it would be awesome to have Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter capabilities make their way ove to the Zune HD.
So enough with the rumors please let us know what you truly have instore for us, so we don't hastily jump onto a bandwagon that we all know is going to lead us straight to the evil powerhouse that is Apple.
