Okay, before we start, let me just clarify that I'm merely reporting my source's opinion on Zune and iPod, so that means this isn't my, or QJ's opinion on the said topic.

Having that said, let's go on RDM's take on Microsoft's latest gadget, the Zune. For those who aren't in the know, Zune is Microsoft's portable media player, slated for release tomorrow.

As such, it was touted as "iPod's latest killer." However, our source points out that it may not be the case. Why? Let's check out all three reasons.

First off, Apple's winter strategy was to lower the iPod's price, to make it a viable gift for the holidays. Our source reports that most users would consider the iPod as a luxury item for themselves, and because it's branded as such, consumers won't think of it as a feasible gift for the holidays. Apple seems to know that, so to cash in the holiday frenzy, the price of the iPod is slashed during its winter season so that consumers will see it as an affordable gift this Christmas, generating more income for Apple in the long run.

Second, our source points out that the Zune is rather heftier than the iPod, and it being bulky may become a problem, as it is a portable music device.

Lastly, RDM says that the Zune's radio transmitter and rather large screen drains the battery life faster, which may lead to customer complaints. After all, a portable device should have long battery hours, as it is always on the go (and stopping over some place just to charge it is such a hassle).

As said earlier, these are just our source's views on Zune. How about you, what do you think?

Some pretty concrete information on a sixth generation touchscreen iPod, supposedly coming in December, has emerged on the internet today. A journalist was said to have made contact with a well-informed executive 'close to Apple'. As usual, the informant's name cannot be revealed but it has been said that he is a member of the staff for a multinational company that produces iPod products. In this case, the name of the chap in question may not matter; what matters is what he said.

The exec says his company is working on a 6G iPod accessory that will come to the market shortly before the 6G iPod launch in December and will benefit hugely from the new portable media player's screen that will apparently fill the whole side of the device and offer much higher resolution video. He said that Apple were aiming for 480p content but couldn't guarantee it, only saying that it would definitely be of a much greater quality than what you can get on an iPod today. "This is why Jobs isnÂ?t afraid of the Zune," said the exec after explaining this. As long as the 6GB iPods stay away from Windows viruses, it be okay.

We'll be celebrating the iPod's 5th birthday in a week. With that in mind, Newsweek's Steven Levy interviewed Apple CEO Steve Jobs about Apple's much-beloved MP3 player, about how it all began, about Job's outlook on Microsoft's Zune player (reputed to be the next iPod killer), and about Job's outlook towards the near future.

First up. Jobs, when asked about the iPod's success as a player, and how it had succeeded where players before it failed. The secret? "Look at the design of a lot of consumer productsÂ?they're really complicated surfaces. " Jobs said about the designs that had been there before. He further explained that the iPod's forte had always been its simple elegance - it was a very well thought-out system that didn't burden its user with complicated music libraries; that was what iTunes was for.

The other more pressing note, Newsweek inquired what was Job's opinion on the Zune, Microsoft's contender against the iPod. Was he worried? "In a word, no," Jobs said about the Zune, as he explained how the internet vids of Zune users being able track other Zune owners, and its ability to share music had not impressed him. His suggestions for sharing tunes? Share the earphones. Simple, practical, foolproof.

Lastly, he was quizzed regarding his outlook for the iPod as a music player. With features like web books and podcasts now part of the iPod's functions, would the iPod still be a music player? "I think that music faded in importance for a while, and the iPod has helped to bring music back into people's lives in a really meaningful way," he said, implying the iPod's core would always be its music-carrying ability, even as it expanded into uncharted waters.

And with this, we kick off (NOT the iPOD!) the week prior to its birthday.

It's been five years now since the world's known the iPod, and with the Zune expected to be Microsoft's "iPod killer" (the Zune's a hot-sell with Xbox 360 owners, for good reason), we thought it'd be a good time to look back, and see just what one decidedly hardcore iPod fan over at foronceandforall.com thinks has kept Apple's bid to the MP3 wars so survivable. To be taken with a pinch of salt (and humor), here are his reasons:

1. The "Cool" factor
First impressions last, and most people who've seen an iPod of any sort won't forget the smooth, curved lines and white color tones it's become famous for.

2. Fame
Like it or not, the iPod is an unofficial mascot for MP3 players. Back then, there was no central idea for people to think about regarding MP3s, and the iPod's appearance became a example for those wondering what an MP3 player was, kinda like how McDonald's is the poster boy for fast food.

3. Price
Okay, so higher end products like the iPod video are a tad pricey - burn a hole in my wallet, why 'doncha - but the iPod nano and iPod shuffle are decently priced for the cash-conscious buyer keen on owning a high-end player.

More reasons after the jump!

This post is for those who want to know how Microsoft's Zune - often tagged as THE iPod killer - stacks up against Apple's ubiquitous media player, in this case the 80GB model. Judging from the pictures, the Zune is just a bit longer than the iPod, and while the iPod is a bit thinner, the Zune is surprisingly lighter according to the reviewer (no exact figures on the weights though). In terms of screen size, the Zune has the edge with a bigger 3-inch screen. Check out the images below for a sneak peek.

 
 

While we tend to take those "iPod killer" nicknames with a grain of salt these days, Microsoft's Zune probably stands more of a chance than the rest of the field. The prime reason is the fact that Microsoft is building the Live service to envelop every device of theirs. While it may take a bit of time to fine-tune and polish every aspect of it, I'm sure Microsoft has enough moolah to keep everything going just fine.

Computerworld has an article up which talks about how Apple might just be scared of the Zune. While they've "innocently" left out a few things and skewed a few statistics, I still think I'd believe them. When I was thinking about the Zune the other day, one of the few things which I found to be very cool was the fact that I would buy it knowing that it would fit seamlessly with the rest of the Microsoft devices in my home. Now that includes my media center pc, my Xbox 360, and probably a few more things which I might buy in the time to come.

One of the main reason why I'd buy this is the strong integration with Live, and consequently, Xbox Live. You see, the Live service has been one of the greatest things to have ever happened to console gaming. Even though other manufacturers like Sega had tried it with the dreamcast, Microsoft did a helluva job. The result was an unbeatable success. Getting the Zune to "talk" on Live might add a lot of great things. For example, you could probably buy songs from the Zune marketplace on your Xbox 360, play them on it, transfer them to your Zune, and God knows what else. The fact that Microsoft hasn't advertised it right now doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future.

The other great thing about it is that you can share your music over Wifi among your friends. This concept can be great for new bands who want to be heard. There's no better way to get yourself known than the viral way. If it works, then nice bands could be overnight rockstars! The only grudge I have is that if I've received a shared song from my friend, I can't share it to other people. This means that a song can't hit big-time until enough people have bought it and are sharing it with their friends.

I'll probably buy the thing because I'm bored with the music capabilities of my PSP. Let's hope it goes well!

  VS ???

Stephane Dion from the TheTechZone.com thinks that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies are... well, too little, too late. Why? iTunes has movies on its menu - yeah, well Disney and Disney-affiliate movies for now. Soon enough, Dion says, so will Microsoft for its Zune, and with iTV (temporary codename) on its way, there will soon be no reason for movie downloads to not appear on the TV screen.

Which means that when Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies (and their associated players) finally come out in force, they will find a market that has, well, settled for movie downloads, and which actually love them. They will instead find its niche in a small market of tech die-hards with a lot of money in their hands (are you forgetting the Xbox 360 and PS3 people, Stephane?), but it won't become the home movie standard that DVD became.

To sum up why he believes so, Dion lists the five following reasons why digital download will kill the next-gen movie discs:

• Because it's cheap. You don't have to buy an HDTV and an HD player to play any of the iTunes movie stuff, but you'll have to in order to play Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. And the downloads (for now) are cheaper compared to the discs.
  
• Because it's cool. Like music downloading is cool. It's easy, it's accessible, and your neighbor's probably doing it as well. So why not movies?
• Because downloading's readily available from the production side. All those movie studios have to do - once they get over their movie-downloading fears and jump in the bandwagon - is upload the digital movie into a server. No need to print up new cases and discs!
• Because music downloading killed the CD. Like, "Video killed the radio star..."
• Finally, because high-speed broadband is bigger business than HDTV, especially when it comes to digital video and audio media - movies and music.
  

For us, only time - and the rest of Hollywood jumping in on the movie downloading wagon - will tell if iTunes (and its present and future competitors) will become the next generation's DVD, or if HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be accepted as the norm. Dion may make a compelling case for the former, sure, but this industry is constantly changing and evolving. Besides, from where we're sitting, it's not like the CD or DVD's entirely dead, either, even given iTunes and less legitimate movie downloading sites.

Who knows? Even Stephane asks: "When are we able to download a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD movie?" Now he's talking.

Our article, "The Foundations of Fortress iTunes", covered what the entertainment industry sees as the challengers to Apple's dominance in the digital media download market: SpiralFrog, Zune, PSP and Connect, MP3 cell phones, MySpace and MTV Urge. We forgot to include one possible candidate: Sirius. As in the satellite radio. And just like the other upstars we covered in Part 1, a Wired.com reporter speculated that Sirius is looking like an assault on Fortress iTunes, too.

Remember Sirius' Stiletto 100 portable satellite radio and MP3 player that we featured last month? The company also announced an online subscription - "satellite-free" - service called Sirius Internet Radio (SIR). As mentioned in Part 1, iPod and iTunes were the perfect partners to capture an entire market for Apple. Yeah, well SIR isn't iTunes. The latter is an online media store. SIR's an internet radio service that streams CD-quality music and selected talk channels.

Enter Yahoo! Music, one of the partners of Stiletto's manufacturer, Zing. Stiletto 100 will reportedly work in conjunction with SIR and Yahoo! Music so that listeners can choose to purchase-download the song they're listening to. As announced by Bob Law, senior VP of Sirius, "The market for digital audio on-the-go is exploding. We are working with Zing to expand the availability of Sirius content on new platforms and bring the best in satellite radio programming to an increasingly mobile audience."

In other words, they're making Sirius and the Stiletto into an iTunes-iPod teamup of sorts.


And there's more after the jump: guess where the CEO of the Stiletto's manufacturer worked before.

While promoting their new Bluetooth-based DEH car sound system, Pioneer spokesman Michael Broadhurst touched upon the subject of using iPods with their new sound system. After pointing out that people will need an adapter to run an iPod on the Pioneer DEH system, Broadhurst said that Apple will bring out a Bluetooth adapter that will allow iPod to make a wireless connection, then play directly through the DEH's audio system.

Rumors about Apple and Bluetooth and iPods have been running rampant throughout the internet for years, but if such a thing is true, then this may turn out to be Apple's  first step in combatting the Wi-Fi-enabled Zune.

Razer Pro Solutions announced its upcoming USB multimedia computer keyboard with an integrated iPod dock. The Pro|Type Multimedia Keyboard, dubbed by the  company as the world's most intelligent keyboard (after beating other keyboards in a Braniac Olympiad, we guess), will have the following features:

• 32kb of onboard memory
• Specialized keys for programs such as iTunes
• 10 programmable hot keys for storing macros and keystrokes
• Ergonomic design
• Two USB Ports
• Line-out ports for other devices

We heard Razer will release a version for MicrosoftÂ?s upcoming Zune player. But we didn't see that on the company's website  so we'll treat that as a rumor for now. Meanwhile, the very real Razer Pro Multimedia Keyboard with iPod Dock's pricing and availability is not yet available at this time.