I would say that according to the pictures and the website zunehd.net that there is a possibility for removable hard drives.

I am all for it if they've made the browsing and file organization a little more intuitive. I also think their software was somewhat buggy. And it would be great if they finally supported foreign characters--I could never read any of my Chinese, Korean, or Japanese music on the Zune I had...that was one of the major reasons I had to regretfully return it; it was a rather nice device.

is it still not available (easily anyway) outside of the states?

its out in canada. can go to any store now and find it (sorta) DEVICE LOOKS AWSOME. IMA SOLD

Now this is a real reason for me to return my S9!!!! Wow, this device is gonna' take '09 by storm!!!!

im curious about the construction...

@Cody:

Please note that "zunehd.net" does not appear to be a Microsoft site, hence their disclaimer, "We are not associated in any way with Microsoft." The "HD" in their site name refers to "hard drives" not "high definition". They are simply a site that sells aftermarket hard drives that work with the Zune 80 & 120, nothing to do with a ZuneHD.

Wouldn't "personal service via email" be an oxymoron?

I'm looking at the screws at the back and wondering why they haven't mentioned hard drive captivity.
Can you put your own drive in?

@nimicitor:

The supposition is that they are flash-based, with possible capacities of 8GB, 16GB or 32GB. This is aimed at competing with the iPod Touch.

Anybody else notice the "Model 1126" on the back in the photos? That's the model number of the Zune 80 I believe.

I like being able to plug-n-play any mp3 or mp4 player... I have having to install software to transfer mp3's

just saw on generationmp3 that it's only flash.

and if it has an EQ and something more interesting to offer over the sony.. (games and perhaps a better web browser and video experience) then hm...

however the new itouch will be out too so... I may cave and finally get an itouch.

News is that it's only a 3.3 OLED screen. I'll pass, HD video on that tiny screen? What's the point?

http://gizmodo.com/5270945/zune-hd-is-real-has-multitouch-web-browsing-oled-screen-and-hd-video

Guess I'm still without a player at this point. & HD video with only 32GB of storage? Again, what's the point?

I like the idea of HD radio in a Zune. @Tario 3.3 sounds huge to me, being a Fuze owner. But I realize that it really isn't that big.

I realize that in your case this would be a step up, but I've used 4 & 4.3 inch screens for a while now, I just can't go back.

idk but i think just mabey the screws are just for show. and the zune hd may be compareable to the ipod touch for now, but when apple announces the new ipods in september, the ipod will still be better than the zune. just my thought tho

@Zhalfim: if the rumors are true, the zuneHD will be the worldwide debut of the zune (ie it will be available outside the US)

Not a pretty device, but that not what matters.

But after two years of neglecting Europe, I don't think MS is gonna pull a 180 turn. Europe is gonna be a market where they collect cash from their customers and then proceed to ignore them and their complaints.

Surprise surprise, I thought that "HD" Meant high def, I was wrong I see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hd_radio

"The official release is still fuzzy and is said to be “this fall”."

According to Paul Thurrott's SuperSite, he has a ship date of September 5.

http://www.winsupersite.com/zune/zunehd_preview.asp

so pretty....

@Zen - I'll believe it when I see it, the coming of the ZuneHD was more of a lock than seeing an international release (though congrats to Canada for apparently getting access to it finally)

Even though it does look good, I cant help but thinking why you would need something this large (I'm assuming its bigger than most mp3 players) that just does music and video.
IMO you may as well get a smartphone to save pocket space and have a dedicated mp3 player for the gym etc.

For the love of god, Microsoft, please do not make it necessary to use Zune software to transfer files. It is too tedious and annoying to have bloatware on my system when I could just boot up my Linux partition and drag-n-drop from any media player I choose.

We should start a petition and write to Microsoft about this.

Other than that, I'll hold out from buying the S9 for a little longer.

Microsoft Zune HD is already late to market, ipod and iphone have definitely early mover advantage. In this market apple have a very strong image while with old versions of Zune, Microsoft carries a bad image thus it will be really tough to penetrate through the market. Real success will lie in the price of product and value delivered at that price to the ultimate customer.