Looks like the rumor mongering over Microsoft's Zune project have some truth to them. Here's Engadget:

"Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together."

Sounds to me like they are going to expand out from the Media Center PC and the XBox into portable games and mp3 players. The interesting bit: apparently, the introductory device will be WiFi enabled - which sounds like you could download straight to it, without regard to your location. Now that would be nice - if I travel, I can't really put new stuff on my iPod - it's locked to my Mac Mini as its source. Having a free-standing device that could download anywhere there's WiFi - that would be a very cool feature. Also one that Apple will have to respond to.

Which leads to another question: Apple been pretty quick on the draw lately. Will they get a WiFi enabled iPod out before MS can launch?

Technorati Tags: gadgets, mp3, zune