Rejoice Zune Nation, Zune 4.0 is here. We are happy to be able to ‘dish’ on greatness in store. There are significant updates occurring to the the software, hardware, website and Xbox. Without further ado, below is a list of what is changing and new to the Zune for fall 2009. We may retread on some previously reported items but it well help present a more full picture of the changes going on across the Zune ecosystem. Stay tuned as we update this list and populate it with pictures.

 

Device

• Zune HD
  • Available in two Capacities
    • 16GB Black
    • 32GB Platinum
    • Blue, Green, & Red via Zune Originals in addition to Black and Platinum (Picture)
      • New etching option include new artist designs, Major League Soccer team logos, and Xbox Game titles
      • “You make it you”
  • Featuring Nvidia’s Tegra APX2600
    • ARM11 MPCore CPU
      • 64KB L1 Cache (32KB for instructions, 32KB for data)
      • 256KB L2 Cache (unified)
      • Up to a 600MHz clock speed
    • Ultra-low Power GPU
      • OpenGL-ES 2.0 Support
      • 47M Triangles /sec (peak)
      • 24M Drawn Triangles /sec (peak)
      • 600M Pixels /sec (peak)
      • 240M Textured Pixels /sec (peak)
      • Programmable pixel shader
      • Programmable vertex and lighting
      • Support for CSAA (Coverage Sampling Anti-Aliasing)
    • HD Audio/Video Processor
      • Web-based flash video is hardware-accelerated (flash playback currently not supported by the Zune HD)
    • ARM7 Core (for supplemental audio and video processing)
    • Fabricated with TSMC’s 65nm process
    • 12mmx12mm in size
  • Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Screen
    • 3.3”
    • 480x272 resolution
    • 16:9 aspect ratio
    • Multi-touch
  • HD Radio
    • Higher quality FM radio that features substations of genre-specific music. This is similar to the way some over the air digital TV stations have content-specific sub channels
  • Internet browser
    • tap-to-zoom capable
    • multi-touch gesture capable
    • no flash support
    • QWERTY keyboard
  • Unicode Support
  • Return of the equalizer
  • Rental and Download-to-Own Movie Capable
    • Rentals are roughly the same approach as current Xbox Live movie rentals. 14 days to play the movie. Unlimited plays within a 24-hour period once the rented title is played.
  • Most navigational elements in the new user interface are touchable. What this means is that if you see text, you can touch it to navigate through the user interface.
  • The artist pictures of the Now Playing screen, as seen in Zune 3.0 now moves to the device. This present a more engaging experience than simply liner notes alone, as you are able to read an artists biography and check out similar artists all from your device. This now playing experience is extended to the TV when the Zune HD is plugged into the new HD & A/V dock.
  • 720p HD output capable when using the the new A/V dock
  • Apps
    • New marketplace section on device
    • New Games
      • Space Battle 2
      • And more
    • Utility apps included too
      • Weather
      • Calculator
      • Twitter & Facebook coming soon
    • More apps will be coming shortly after release.
  • Quickplay Menu
    • Easily customizable
    • Allows access to the most recent items added to your device as well as you recent play history
    • You can also ‘Pin’ items to your Quickplay Menu
  • US only release
• All models prior to the Zune HD have been discontinued.
  • As necessary, older devices will be updated. However, some features present in the Zune HD will not trickle down to the the v2 and v1 Zunes
    • No Unicode Support
    • No Movie rental support
    • No UI enhancements (i.e. no Quickplay Menu)
    • No Web browser
    • No equalizer for v2 devices
  • All official apps moving forward will be for Zune HD only
    • XNA side-loading of games for all devices will still be possible, it’s just up to the developer to support the v1 and v2 Zunes
  • Older Zunes will be able to playback download to own movies

Software

• Quickplay Menu (picture) 
  • Same functionality as on the new Zune HD, this menu gives you easy access to your recently played tracks as well as newly added music to your collection. As on the device, what appears in your Quickplay menu is customizable with the a few simple clicks.
• Apps Marketplace (picture) 
  • New tab in the Zune software
  • At this time there is no 3rd party access to the app marketplace. However, side loading apps using XNA Game Studio is still possible.
• Updated Zune Pass Functionality (picture)
• Now the software tells you when your 10 monthly picks will expire.
• Picks (picture)
• A new selection algorithm allows for more relevant musical selections. Also you now have the ability to tell the software to ‘pick’ something else for you if you are unsatisfied with its current selection.
• Mini-mode (picture) 
  • Finally a way to keep Zune small but keep it beautiful while you work on other tasks with your PC
• Support for Windows 7
  • Jumplists (picture)
  • Snap-to-resize the window support (picture)
  • Taskbar-centric play controls (picture)
• Improved library management (picture) 
  • Now you can sort your collection my Zune Pass and Non-Zune Pass music
• Movie Marketplace (picture) 
  • As part of the connected entertainment strategy you are now able to buy a movie on a PC and choose whether to have it waiting for you on your Xbox or Zune. If you purchase the movie on your Zune, you can watch the video on your Xbox, Zune or PC without having to repurchase the movie. Buy once, play anywhere.
  • No Netflix support ;-)
  • Depending on where you watch the movie, the file will be optimized for the screen upon which you are viewing it.
  • Watch movie trailers within the software (picture)
• Smart DJ
  • Now you can create music playlists based on what you have in your collection. Smart DJ can pull tracks from the marketplace for Zune Pass users to supplement the tracks you have stored locally. For non-Zune Pass users there is an option to turn off this feature and only create playlist with tracks in your collection. This playlists can also be saved for playback on any Zune device.
  • Think Genius, but done correctly from the beginning
• Improved video playback support with a new full screen mode

Social

• Streaming Zune Pass (Picture)
  • Stream tracks from the Zune marketplace over the internet with any Silverlight capable browser. This includes OS X-based implementations of Silverlight.
  • Create Smart DJ playlists is available online as well
  • Includes a pop-out web player to allow for uninterrupted browsing (Picture)
• Stream Video Podcasts too
• Watch movie trailers online (Picture)
  • Stream them online (Picture) or click the ‘download’ them to your PC
  • Share a trailer with a friend
  • Write a review for a trailer
• Rent or Purchase movies and TV shows online for viewing on another screen later on. (e.g. Buy a movie at work, and have it waiting for you on your Xbox when you get home.)
• Zune Arts is officially shut-down
• Now using Silverlight to power the ‘My Social’ pages. Hopefully this means faster load times. (Picture)
• The My Social Page will now displays concerts in your area (picture). Your area is determined by what you typed into your bio, under your personal profile. You can change your location simply clicking on the ‘change location’ option under the “Tour Dates” header.

There are probably a few more updates that will be wedged into one of these general categories as we pour over the device, hardware, and software over the next few days. Also, be sure to keep an eye our for some potential in-depth feature looks in the next few days.