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80GB Second-Gen Zune on the Way?

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

June 27, 2007, 11:48 AM

Often forgotten amid all of the iPhone hype, Microsoft, too, makes a portable music player that is holding its own in the marketplace - at least for a first generation product. The company is now reportedly preparing a second revision called the "Scorpio" with an 80GB hard drive, which will join a new flash memory based Zune dubbed "Draco."

According to Web site ZuneScene, Scorpio will enter production at the end of July, which means consumers could see both new Zunes in time for the holidays. Although it remains fair behind the iPod in market share, Microsoft is happy with Zune sales and expects to sell 1 million devices by the end of the month. According to retail statistics, the pink Zune helped keep sales reasonably high during the spring season.

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By Hollywood__

edited Jun 28, 2007 - 3:32 AM

psst..... MP3 & WMA sounds like crap.

Score: 0

By DaveGB

posted Jun 28, 2007 - 10:20 AM

LOL. WMA sounds great. It's a very efficient codec, that gives you small size OR great sound OR a balance.

MP3 is indeed a very aged codec, but excels in unmatched compatability.

I doubt anyone will be able to tell any difference between a modern lossless audio codec (AAC, WMA, ATRAC, OGG)

Score: 0

By ptksr

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 3:51 PM

If they fixed all the bugs, and make it smaller, I might be interested.

Score: 0

By rsx508

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 12:08 PM

I wish them best of luck.

Score: 0

By walkitalki

edited Jul 16, 2007 - 6:23 PM

Yes, luck is exactly what they need.

Score: 0

By Straspey

edited Jun 28, 2007 - 10:35 AM

Well...

I intend to load all nine Beethoven symphonies, as well as his 32 Piano Sonatas and all the string quartets; along with the operas and madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi.

Then, of course, there are Mozart's 41 Symphonies and all his operas, along with the operas of Handel, the famous "Water Music" and Fireworks Music", the Concerto Grosso Opus 3 & 6 and all 106 symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn.

Additionally, there are the four symphonies of Schumann and Brahms respectively, along with the five symphonies of Mendelssohn and Schubert's nine symphonies (The "Unfinished" being # 8).

When I get tired of all that, there are the tone poems and operas of Richard Strauss, the nine symphonies of both Gustav Mahler & Anton Bruckner, and of course, Wagner's complete "Ring Cycle, along with "Die Meistersinger", "Tristan Und Isolde" and "Parsifal".

After all that, I'm hoping there still might be a little room left for my "Fitty-Cent" retrospective collection.

Score: 0

By Second Shadow

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 9:53 PM

Well ... that depends on how many "fitty-cent" symphonies you're planning on stuffin' in there ...

Score: 0

By Straspey

posted Jun 28, 2007 - 10:36 AM

ROFLMAO !!!

Funny man...

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 12:07 PM

Do we really need more hdd base mp3 player? I mean, how many songs can you listen? Why can they just create someone slim and light when flash memory is getting big storage by days.

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 2:35 PM

I mean, how many songs can you listen?

Not just music i use mine for carrying files around as well.

Score: 0

By Maymne

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 12:50 PM

Well, I filled up the HD on my ihp-120 (20 gig iRiver), and still had boxes of CDs left that I hadn't had the change to put onto it, so then I bought an ihp-140 (40 gig iRiver) and replaced the HD with a MK8007GAH (80 gig Toshiba drive).

Bottom line, people who like music, and lots of it, are their target for the larger music players. If you drive a lot, or have a job where you can listen to music, or just listen to music at home... between radio and the music I like, I'll pick my music, thanks.

Score: 0

By DaveGB

posted Jun 28, 2007 - 10:24 AM

Actually, I prefer radio sometimes. When listening to My Music, I always tend to stick to the same selection of stuff. If I put a radio station on, playing a genre of music I like, I frequently hear stuff I havn't heard in ages, and wander off to find the old dusty CD..

The problem is, in the UK, radio stations suck badly, with 1 single rock music station, and even then only on digital :-( I want Sirius.... I had it in a Hertz rental card in the US a few weeks back, and it was fantastic...

Score: 0

By Maymne

posted Jun 28, 2007 - 3:02 PM

Oddly, my iRiver h140 also has a great FM tuner. So I'm set there as well. :) Though yeah, radio stations here do have some decent variety, and there's several stations I like.

As far as listening to the same music over and over, if you go through alphabetically, through discographies of artists, and as long as you can remember the last album you listened to... once you have 40+ gigs of music, you shouldn't have to feel like music is overly familiar/boring. Part of making it not horrible too is to not skip artists just cause you don't remember liking them... Oh well.

Same basic thing overall, I just skip the reminder phase and jump straight to the dusty CD phase, without actually having to dig into full CD box #5 and go... oh, you're scratched now... great. Now I get to buy you again, for the third time...

Score: 0

By bakura

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 1:01 PM

I have a lot of music too. I've got a 60 GB 5th gen iPod, and I'm just waiting for a new line of iPods to be released with a bigger drive. I love the fact that I can have my entire music collection with me to listen to whatever catches my fancy at the time... not limited to a pre-planned set of music.

I have also grown accustomed to watching TV shows or movies in my iPod while on business trips (it makes airplane flights go quick).

If there were a 60-100 GB flash player, I'd probably get that. But that technology isn't out yet so I'll stick with HD players for now.

Score: 0

By terminalx

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 12:37 PM

They are creating a flash based player as well, its called "draco"

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Jun 27, 2007 - 12:23 PM

Competition is never a bad thing...unless you're anti-choice...

Score: 0

By walkitalki

posted Jul 16, 2007 - 6:39 PM

At walki-talki.com, we are not anti-choice at all. Even though iPods dominate, we distribute our walking tours as mp3 files so that everyone can play them. Of course, if Microsoft were to make a player that more people would choose, we would make instructions specific for the Zune, just as we have made instructions specific for the iPod. :) In that regard, yes, we don't mind a monopoly. Makes it easier on the support department.

Score: 0

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