Microsoft Zune HD confirmed

“She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…” At least that is what it feels like with the Microsoft Zune HD ever since rumors of it started flying around the Internet. Microsoft has just confirmed that the Zune will make its metamorphosis from caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly with the Zune HD - a new piece of hardware that will bring unprecedented levels of enjoyment for your portable listening and viewing experiences, and with it, hope that will place it in a viable position to at least threaten the iPod’s dominant position in the portable media player market.

What’s new with the Zune HD, you ask? Well, it will feature an integrated HD Radio receiver that enables users to tune in to higher-quality sound compared to traditional radio on the go. Users can also help themselves to the extra song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations in addition to extra channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you find that not according to your liking, there is always the option to switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.

Hardware-wise, you will get a spanking new bright OLED touchscreen display that allows you to flip through music, movies and other stored content with relative ease, where the 480 x 272 resolution on its 16:9 widescreen display works perfectly well to convey visual stimuli without being a pain to your eyes in the long run. A HD-compatible output also allows you to playback supported HD video files from the Zune HD courtesy of a premium HDMI audiovisial docking station straight onto a HDTV in 720p resolution - although this will require you to fork out more dough as the HDMI audiovisual docking station is sold separately. A full-screen Internet browser with multitouch support and Wi-Fi connectivity completes the list of features.

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