Yesterday, a 32 GB iPod touch was $399. Today? $279. Yesterday, a 16 GB version was $299. Today? $249. The 8 GB one is now only $189, down from $229. The nanos are falling as well, with the 16 GB version now only $149, and the 8 GB only $129, down from $199 and $149, respectively. The iPod classic has seen a $20 price cut.

These price cuts were, of course, expected, and very likely point to a new 64 GB iPod touch being unveiled tomorrow in the $399 price point. Significantly, this means that the iPod touch is now cheaper than the high-end Zune HD, set to be released next week. The 32 GB Zune HD will be $289.99, roughly $10 more expensive than the 32 GB iPod touch, now.

The 16 GB iPod touch will still apparently be $30 more than the comparable Zune, but for once, Apple can claim a victory on the high-end price point.

Normally, Apple takes down the store to make these changes, but didn’t tonight for whatever reason. Consider it a teaser of what’s to come.

Update: Interestingly enough, at its event today, Apple listed the 8 GB/32 GB/64 GB as $199/$299/$399, so slightly off from the prices in their store. It’s certainly possible that those are the prices for the older 2nd generation iPod touches, while the new ones are for the as yet unannounced iPod touch 3rd gen.

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Let’s end the religious war waging between iPhone and Android fanatics right now and all get our hands on the Fune, Microsoft’s new smart phone. I’m sure the Fapp Store is right around the corner.

This is the latest video from UCBcomedy.com, and it made me laugh out loud.

(Via DutchCowboys)

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A lot of people

Microsoft’s new device sounds great: OLED screen, HD radio, HD video (720p) outputs, powerful Tegra chip, and most importantly a iPod-beating price of $219.99 for the 16 GB variety, and just $289.99 for the 32 GB version. That latter is a $110 savings over the comparable iPod touch, which the Zune HD clearly targets. And now it has a very real release date: About a month from now, September 15.

Are the planets aligning for a hit version of the Zune, finally? Not so fast.

Apple typically takes the first week of September to hold a press event to show off its new iPods. Last year, the event was on Tuesday, September 9. This year, that same second Tuesday is on September 8. Music industry sources tell MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka that Apple is going to hold an event the week of September 7. Bingo.

So yes, it looks very likely that Apple will hold its next iPod press event one week before the launch of the new Zune. And what does that likely mean? Aside from Apple likely talking about the “Cocktail” music format project it has been working on, and quite possibly a new social iTunes 9, also very likely to drop are the new iPod touches. Yes, the device the Zune HD is competing against. Uh oh.

Why uh oh? Well because while the Zune HD looks good compared to the current iPod touch, the new versions will certain be seeing some upgrades. What are the two most likely upgrades? A camera, which the Zune HD doesn’t have. And a price drop. Again, uh oh.

It’s not clear if Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has some inside information here or if he’s just making a prediction, but what he writes today certainly sounds like it could be the case for the new iPod touches:

The Zune HD prices look good compared to today’s iPod Touches, but not so much compared to the new camera-equipped ones Apple is set to announce next month (16/32/64 GB for $199/299/399).

That would make the Zune HD 32 GB only $10 cheaper than the comprable iPod touch. And again, with no camera, and no apps (at least not yet anyway). The Zune HD could still very well hold an edge with an OLED screen (it’s not clear if a new iPod touch would feature that) and the HD-outputs, but would that really be enough to dethrone the dominant player in the market?

Look, the Zune HD does sound very nice, and I’ve said as much many times. But the overall idea of the Zune is still a bit odd to me. It’s Microsoft burning money to compete in a market (MP3 players) that is slowly fading away. Now, there is undoubtedly a plan to get apps on it eventually, and I’m sure games, to turn it into more than an MP3 player. But right now, there is basically no mention of any of that by Microsoft. So that means that when it does happen, it will likely be months from now.

And even with those, the bigger question remains: What’s the end game here for Microsoft, which makes its money off of Windows and Office?.

My point is that Microsoft has spent the entire lifespan of the Zune chasing Apple’s tail, for what? The first hard drive-based Zunes came years after the iPod, and didn’t sell well. Then it released a Flash memory version well after the first flash iPods, and that too didn’t sell well. Now it has an iPod touch competitor 2 years after the iPod touch was released. On paper, it sounds promising right now, but come September 8, it’s likely to be one-upped by Apple yet again.

It’s not hard to see how this plays out, sometime next year we’ll hear about a new Zune HD that has a camera and has app support. The question is will the Zune HD have made any headway into Apple’s market by then? That is far from a certainty, despite the nice-looking new device.

What I’d really like to know is who plans these events for Microsoft? How on Earth didn’t they not realize that Apple has an iPod event pretty much every year now in the first few days of September? I’m sure it would have been a big pain in the ass, but why not put everything you have into ramping up production earlier and getting it to market before Apple can respond?

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Foley claims that a “trustworthy source” has given her the hardware specs for Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, believed the project Microsoft is calling “Pink.” While it may not be exactly a “ZunePhone” per se, Pink is thought to be a project to build a more iPhone-like mobile device that uses the Zune software mixed with Windows Mobile — though it would likely be built by a third party. Like Google with Android, it’s thought that Microsoft would create an outline of specs it would like to see from hardware vendors, and that’s what this list Foley has is. And it’s very interesting for a few reasons. None bigger than the word, “multi-touch.”

The specs include an ARM processor, at least 256MB of RAM, at least a 800×480 3.5″ display, a 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, WiFi and Micro USB and 3.5mm audio jacks. All of those sound great — the screen in particular sounds nice. But the real key is this line in the core requirements: “Touch: Multi-touch required.”

So that’s not just multi-touch as an option, that’s multi-touch being a central point of the project. Up until now, Apple’s iPhone has been the only mobile device with multi-touch support. But very shortly Palm is set to launch it in the Pre. For those who haven’t been paying attention, this has caused a lot of drama on the web as Apple’s COO Tim Cook made comments many viewed as hostile towards Palm when discussing the fact that Apple would protect its IP — it has several patents on multi-touch for mobile devices.

But Apple doesn’t own all multi-touch patents, and Microsoft of course, already has a multi-touch piece of hardware with its Surface computer. Multi-touch support is also baked into Windows 7, and would appear to be a key part of Microsoft’s strategy going forward. But how that will play out in the mobile realm remains to be seen. Aside from the thinly veiled threats towards Palm, Apple supposedly talked with Google about not including multi-touch support in Android, before the first of those phones launched last year.

Palm coming into the multi-touch world is one thing, but Microsoft entering the realm in the mobile world is something else entirely. I can’t wait for the next Apple earnings call to hear Cook address this one! That is of course, if these specs are legit.

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Update: turns out it was a fake Twitter account, so fortunately Microsoft didn’t link to it on their official website or anything … except, of course, that’s exactly what they accidentally did. Doh.

Right after that one, there was another cryptic one about Zune, of which I’m not entirely sure what it has to do with Office exactly. It read: “June 2009 will be an important month for Zune lovers”, and was followed by another one that asked some people who expressed interest on Twitter that it concerns a ‘new product launch’ and that they should ‘hold off from buying an iPhone or Palm Pre’.

Neowin is considering this to be either a hint for a new (HD) version of Microsoft’s media player (which CrunchGear confirmed was coming this year) to be announced next month at E3 Expo, or the introduction of the much-rumored Zune Phone, a touch-screen multimedia cellphone Microsoft was reportedly working on together with Verizon.

Fact is no one knows for sure what’s coming, but Microsoft has in the past made it abundantly clear that it wasn’t planning on entering the mobile device manufacturing market with a proprietary device, and that it wasn’t building a Zune-specific phone. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually never going to happen, but I wouldn’t put any money on something like that being introduced next month.

More likely, devices equipped with the latest versions of Windows Mobile will be extended with software that tightly integrates with Zune services (a project code-named ‘Pink’) although Microsoft could also plan the announcement of a major distribution partnership with carrier Verizon, despite rumors that the latter is also in talks with Apple for an iPhone contract when the current deal with AT&T expires.

Or both. Or something else. Or maybe MS says June will be important for Zune just because it has a nice ring to it and they simply really don’t want you to buy a Pre or iPhone.

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That’s a nice feature for the 2 million or so Zune users out there. Most of the 163+ million iPods that have been sold can’t download music from the Internet. If this thing worked on a Mac, I’d start using it as a large-drive player backup to my iPhone. iPhones have saturated the market to the point where consumers looking to differentiate themselves may just be looking for something else to play their music. I don’t think this McDonalds deal is going to be the reason Zune starts to see market share gains, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Zune, or the new Dell Zing, became popular anti-Apple favorites.

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And the most interesting part of the story is that this device may be available in May, a month before the iPhone.

If this all fits together, it looks like MS is working on a mobile WiMax-enabled Zune Phone, which would have download speeds of up to 2Mbps, fast enough for the Xbox-to-Zune streaming we’ve heard about, and fast enough for just about anything else the Zune Phone might be used for.

The first real news is that we can expect to hear an announcement from Redmond about it before March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, at which time we should learn the name of the device. At the same time, we should also learn other launch specifics, and here’s where it gets incredibly juicy; our source says that, pending FCC approval, the specter-like Zune Phone will hit the streets sometime in May, a full month before the iPhone.

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I don’t think it’s a big deal. Not at all. Some people are concerned that it’s a slippery slope and that every big music publisher could demand $20 per device soon. I think the market will prevent that – a “Zune tax” will either stay within an acceptable range for consumers or it won’t.

A number of countries around the world have tried levying an “iPod tax” to compensate the music business for all the unpaid for music on iPods. In Canada “anti-piracy” taxes have raised the price of some iPods by $25 – Canadian courts ruled that such a tax was invalid, the music companies were ordered to return the proceeds to Apple and Apple offered to compensate consumers for the taxes they had paid. In this case it’s probably fairly voluntary between Microsoft and Universal and that’s good. Universal is rumored to have demanded some sort of compensation in order to license their music for the Zune, but they aren’t obligated to license their music to anyone. Asking for a chunk of the hardware sales revenue seems like a fair request to me. Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing here, but I don’t think this is something to get up in arms about.

Other writers highlight the possibility that Apple could lose favor with the music publishers if it doesn’t offer a similar kind of deal. Isn’t that a logical function of the market as well? If you believe studies that find that only a small percentage of music on iPods has been purchased at iTunes (and how could you not believe that?) then the impact of this on the iTunes music store is not of much importance either.

Someone has to come up with some sort of new business model for music. We’ve written about Universal’s partnership with startup SpiralFrog, a Napster-esque subscription service that will let users download music for free as long as they regularly check in with the company’s website and watch ads. That’s awful. We’ve written about Amie Street, a very cool model that prices music based on demand. Someone needs to come up with some way to compensate the artists and the industry for their work. I like the idea that music should be free and I’ll pay for added value goods and services. I am also happy to pay more when I purchase hardware if a significant portion is going to artists or will shut up all the claptrap about piracy.

Some people say this is a case of customers being presumed guilty, but I say take money from me at the point of hardware purchase or don’t take it at all.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to believe that any new model is being offered in good faith by the music industry. Big music corporations rank right down there with telcos and companies that dump toxic waste next to childrens’ playgrounds as far as many people are concerned. So much of the discussion around so called piracy has been disingenuous that it’s hard to believe that any proposed remedy will be sufficient for the big players in the music industry. (See Weird Al for more on this.) I don’t think anyone is of the belief that $1 per device is going to end the battles over file sharing. I would gladly pay a healthy chunk of money per device if I could access any high quality MP3 I want, for free and without DRM, without getting hassled about it.

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The device will retail for $249. The full specs are below, but the Zune has a 320×240 pixel 3 inch screen (a little bigger than the 2.5 inch screen on the current iPod Video), 4/14 hour battery life for video/music, and 802.11 b/g connectivity.

We will have a lot of coverage of the Zune device and service in the next ten days or so here on TechCrunch, as well as our gadget blog CrunchGear. Our previous Zune coverage is here.

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I like that it’s black, and the screen is large, much bigger than my iPod video. But other than that, it seems sort of…uninspired. More on Gizmodo, which found the picture.

The news about Zune broke last week in a Billboard article where Chris Stephenson, Microsoft’s new GM of marketing for MSN Entertainment Business, said Zune will be an umbrella brand for what he says is “a family of hardware and software products” targeting various digital entertainment services. The somewhat creepy-yet-strangely-soothing “comingzune” site launched as well, with no real information whatsoever.

On July 25 Microsft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about Zune at a Retail Vision Summit in Seattle:

it’s all about how do multiple groups of people, friends, interact together in various entertainment experiences, whether it’s watching the British Open, whether it’s enjoying movies, and music, and other video entertainment, whether it is involved in an interactive gaming session, a lot of the IQ we’re putting into is how you view community and entertainment together.

On July 27, Robbie Bach, President, Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft gave a presentation to financial analysts. He says:

And then the third secret I’ll say is looking at Zune as part of our broader picture. You know, in the case of Apple, they have certainly an iMac business, they have their iPod business, and they’ve sold a few things in the home that compete with Media Center, although the numbers there are actually quite small. Look at our business: We have a burgeoning IPTV business that we think is going to grow and be successful in the home. We have Media Center in over 14 million units and growing around the world. We have Xbox 360 in place and growing around the world. We have Xbox Live, MSN, and our Windows Live initiatives expanding. Put all of those things together, and then take Zune and put it in the context of that. It enables us to complete the picture. It enables us to have the full entertainment and connected entertainment experience that we want to have. And so that’s why Zune is important, and it is a way we’re going to differentiate ourselves, because the experience of having Zune in that connected environment is going to be a dramatically better experience than you get just from having a portable music player.

And today more news broke on Engadget, which release specs for the product and announced a launch date of November 14, 2006. Zune will include a 30 GB hard drive (I expect a 60 GB version as well), multiple color options, an FM tuner, lots of accessories and a 3.75 inch screen, which is 50% bigger than the iPod video.

There are also rumors that the device will have built-in wifi and possibly also phone capabilities.

The picture is becoming clearer - Zune looks to be an iPod-type device that will show the full spectrum of audio and video content, as well as social networking (which Microsoft is doing an excellent job of with XBOX Live). Microsoft is clearly messaging that they see this as an integral part of the Xbox/Media Center consumer offering. The fact that it has wifi means it will be an independent device from a core computer, able to download files, streaming content and other data directly.

If they do this right, it will be one hell of a cool product.

A lot of the best news on Zune is coming from ZuneInsider, a blog set up specifically to cover the product. Om Malik and Engadget are also covering it closely.

Zune is clearly aimed at Apple’s iTunes/iPod dominance. In an interview with Billboard, Chris Stephenson, Microsoft’s new GM of marketing for MSN Entertainment Business, said Zune will be an umbrella brand for what he says is “a family of hardware and software products” targeting various digital entertainment services.

It’s an ambitious project that some critics are already saying goes too far outside Microsoft’s core strengths and could end up joining other media projects on the junk heap of tech history. Perhaps after seeing how successful Robert Scoble was in making Microsoft lovable again, two company employees working on Zune are also blogging about the project. Cesar Menendez is writing ZuneInsider.com, just launched today, and Richard Winn is writing blog called Madison and Pine. The company has also set up a site to collect emails for further information at ComingZune.com.

It will be interesting to see if the company can take a position of real innovation or whether Zune will just be a case of playing catch up – at the risk of feature overload.