Microsoft’s Zune is apt to ease the iPhone envy

Mark Baard from the Boston Globe writes:

A young hipster should be able to keep his chin up around campus this fall even if he is not sporting an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

For that you can thank Microsoft, which made its shiny Zune HD media player available for preorder last week.

The Zune HD, despite rumors that it would double as a gaming or apps platform, is clearly designed to be seen primarily as a music device - in this case, an HD radio receiver and MP3 player.

But as a rival to the iPod Touch, at least, the Zune HD has almost the whole package, including built-in WiFi and a Web browser.

The Zune HD’s looks alone should spark jealousy from iPodders. The thin device, available in black or platinum, has few controls that are not on its 3.3-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) glass touch screen.

Similar to the screen on the iPod Touch, the Zune HD’s screen is multitouch. That means you can use more than one finger at a time to flip through the Zune HD’s media libraries and use specific hand gestures with its Web browser.

The built-in accelerometer (one reason for the gaming rumors) causes the picture on the screen to reorient to the way you are holding the device.

As a mobile TV, the Zune’s HD’s 19:9 wide screen and 480x272 resolution are adequate. But with its optional HDMI cradle, you can do even better: The Zune HD has the storage capacity (up to 32GB) and the processing power to deliver 720p HD movies to your HD television screen.

Prices for the 16GB version, which comes in black, start at $220. The 32GB Zune HD, available in platinum, will set you back about $290.

You can pack five hours of HD video into the 16GB device - or 22 hours of video “optimized’’ for playback on the Zune HD, or 4,000 songs, according to Microsoft.

Taken as an HD radio tuner alone, the Zune HD appears to be a good deal.

The HD Digital Radio website (www.hdradio.com) lists more than 40 alternative AM and FM broadcasts in the Boston market, including several from Emerson College and WGBH.

To change the station, just tilt this clever little cube

Cambridge Consultants has helped to devise a clever little cube that takes the aggravation out of tuning in an Internet radio station. Called the Q2 Cube, the radio looks like one of the candy-colored dorm-room microwave ovens that Sharp used to sell.

You tune the Q2 Cube simply by flipping the device onto one of its faces, each of which is programmed to connect to an Internet radio network you have preselected. (The radio has four faces for the presets.)

Another side of the cube contains the Q2’s speaker. By tilting that side of the cube up or down, you can adjust its volume.

Cambridge Consultants (you can find them at www.cambridgeconsultants.com), which has offices in the United Kingdom and in Massachusetts, developed the Q2 Cube with the electronics maker Armour Group (www.armourgroup.uk.com).

The Q2 Cube will be exhibited at a design show in Germany this fall and will be in stores before Christmas.