It’s been just over a month since Microsoft announced the mysterious Zune product line. The company has intentionally kept the Zune shrouded in secrecy in hopes that a viral buzz will build prior to the official product release. With almost nothing of substance to report Microsoft’s own Zune Insider seems to spend most of his time denying “rumor and speculation”.
Given all of the secrecy surrounding Zune it’s really surprising to see Zune’s guts spilled out all over the FCC’s website.
My best guess is that, because Zune is a wireless device it requires FCC approval before going to market. As a result, there’s a rather extensive filing on the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology site.
We first saw this story on Engadget where they are reporting the device is actually a Toshiba 1089. That would seem to answer questions about how Microsoft plans to ramp up manufacturing capacity.
In addition to the test lab photos, the filing includes a minimalist product manual that refers to the device as a Zune, reveals a bit more information about wireless capabilities, and includes a strange red box around the Zune reset instructions (it’s always good to highlight the section users will need the most).
The manual also indicates that you can sync your music, movies, and pictures. If accurate, those instructions would seem to indicate the Zune will have video capabilities on release.
Oddly, the manual includes this note:
For more information see: www.pyxis.com
Pyxis is one of the many code names that has been swirling around Zune for a while now. Some have speculated it might be a scaled down flash memory version of the Zune player. However, in this context it appears that Pyxis might be a source of online content. The problem is, Pyxis.com is a website run by CardinalHealth.