Toshiba to build Zune for Microsoft

It's official, the trolls have found documents on the FCC's application web site and the Zune Insider has confirmed that Toshiba will be manufacturing Zune for Microsoft.

Here is a picture from the external photos document on the FCC's web site. It looks very much like a Pocket PC. There is also a basic user manual which can found here.

Zune will have:

• 1.8" 30 GB hard drive. I would have loved a 60GB, but I am sure Apple sells more 30GB's than 60's, so why not go for the heart of the market first.
• WIFI, one of the key differentiating features of Zune will be its ability to share music, photos and stream music with up to 4 nearby devices. No mention of sharing videos! The devices in a network are called Pyxis and there is mention of Argo members which is probably the associated music site. It does not look like you can sync with a PC using WIFI, hopefully that is not correct, I think it would be a big mistake...
• 3" TFT LCD, this is .5" larger than the current iPod. It does not look like it is a touchscreen, too bad.
• FM receiver, I guess there is a market for that feature.

The biggest item missing from the specifications available on the FCC's web site is Bluetooth. I think this is a big mistake. Bluetooth is coming of age this year. You see more and more folks wearing Bluetooth ear pieces, and there is a good selection of Bluetooth stereo headset available. Here are 2 A2DP stereo headsets I reviewed; the Blueant X5 stereo headset and one for the Motorola HT820 stereo headset. The Bluetooth A2DP stereo profile is being included in more devices. Out of the box Bluetooth headphone support would have been a great wow factor.

I guess this "leak" is all part of the buzz campaign, and when you get the Wall Street Journal's on line edition to report it, I think the buzz is working...