The iPhone's hardware is equivalent to the Sega Dreamcast, and almost at par with the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox. It's more powerful than the PSP and Nintendo DS. Combined. Not my words. These claims come from id Software's John Carmack. More in the full article.

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!