Sony on Wednesday unveiled a new Walkman line that appears tailored to compete with and beat the new iPod nano in terms of sheer features. The A840 is not only the first Sony player to be almost as thin as its Apple counterpart, at 0.28 inches thick, but has an even larger 2.8-inch display that uses OLED. The swap gives it better color reproduction than the iPod’s LCD and supplies a long 29 hours of music playback, or nine hours of video.

read more about it on ipodnn.com….

source: ipodnn.com

www.sony.com

Microsoft has finally posted the technical specifications of the Zune HD on the Microsoft Store. The device’s dimensions are 52.7 mm x 102.1 mm x 8.9 mm (w x h x d), with a weight of 2.6 ounces (74 grams). The Zune HD will ship with the following accessories: headphones, Zune Sync Cable, and three pairs of foam earpiece covers. Battery life is cited as up to 24 hours (wireless off) for music and up to four hours for video, but this seemed a little toward the low-end. We e-mailed Microsoft and got back much better numbers: up to 33 hours (wireless off) for music and up to 8.5 hours for video (charge time is three hours when connected to a PC and two hours with A/C adapter), with the following footnote:

more on Ars Technica ….

source: arstechnica.com

* Product weight
* 2.6 ounces
* Inputs
* Connector port

* Product dimensions
* 52.7 mm x 102.1 mm x 8.9 mm (w x h x d)
* HDD size
* Capacity: 32 gigabytes (GB)
Up to 10 hours of high definition video, or 48 hours of standard definition video optimized for device, or 8,000 songs, or 25,000 pictures1
*
o Outputs
o Headphone jack / AV output
o Other
o Battery: Music, up to 24 hours (wireless off); video, up to 4 hours2
Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90 percent

Color: Platinum Silver

Screen Size: 3.3-inch OLED color display, 16:9 aspect ratio
Type: Scratch-resistant glass with Touch input capability
Orientation: Vertical (music) and horizontal (pictures and videos)
Resolution: 480 pixels x 272 pixels

Wireless connectivity: 802.11b/g compatible

Wireless sync: Yes
Connectivity: 802.11b/g compatible
Authentication modes: Open, WEP, WPA, and WPA2
Encryption modes: WEP 64- and 128-bit, TKIP, and AES

Audio Support: Windows Media Audio Standard3 (WMA) (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps; constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) up to 48-kHz sample rate. WMA Pro 2-channel up to 384 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.
WMA Lossless
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov) - .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.
MP3 (.mp3) – Up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.

Picture Support: JPEG – (.jpg)

Video Support: Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync.
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video3– Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync.
H.264 video – Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync.
DVR-MS4 – Zune software will transcode at time of sync.

Audio Output: Optical Digital Audio Out (requires additional dock, sold separately)

Video Output: HDMI or Composite (requires additional dock, sold separately)

Radio: Built-in FM/HD RadioTM

Languages: English, French, Spanish

1Music estimates based on 128 Kbps WMA files with length of 4 minutes each. Pictures transferred to Zune will be optimized for Zune screen size; video estimates based on 500 Kbps WMV files with 128 Kbps WMA audio tracks. 2Battery life was tested by Zune in August 2009 using preproduction hardware and device software. Battery tests are conducted with specific Zune units. Actual results may vary. Audio content used was WMA 128 Kbps. Video content used was 320×240 WMV9 500 Kbps total bit rate. Batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually hold less charge. Battery life and the number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.zune.net/batteries for more information. 3In MP4/M4V container format, Quicktime (.mov) files will transcode at time of sync. 4Standard definition TV recordings from Windows Media Center. HDTV and protected recordings not supported. Must be running Zune Software 4.0 on Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. HD Radioâ„¢ is a proprietary trademark of iBiquity Digital Corp.

Engadget got some time with the new Zune HD.  I’m not sure why they say it “kind of rocks”, it looks pretty weak to me.  Not as slick and modern as an iPod design nor light weight even.  We’ve got a bit of a conversation going on the forums, and you can click over to Engadget to check out some more images.

image source: Engadget