c|net: Microsoft has unveiled the second generation of Zune digital music players and will offer consumers 1 million unprotected songs on its online music store.

Finally some news on new Zune devices! Yes, I’m getting this same off at the same time that you are: the Zune team has been extremely quiet on their latest plans, which is one of the reasons why I bought an iPod nano a couple of weeks ago without shame. How do I hold off buying a new player if I don’t know what’s coming? Now that I do know, is it causing Buyer’s Remorse? Not yet – in fact, I’m eying the 80GB Zune rather than the flash-based Zune models, but I’ll have to get my hands on hardware before feeling anything one way or the other.

I do like how c|net takes features specific to the iPod touch and iPhone and applies them to the whole iPod family – means they get a whole bunch of information wrong.

Yes, there’s an iPod [and iPhone] that use a touch screen, but not all iPods do – judging by the pictures, it looks like all of the new Zune models have a Zune Pad and it sounds like you don’t have to look at the device to use is it, which is a key feature, IMHO. Having had a touch for a couple of days, I found that having to look at the screen to change tracks or volume to be a horrific UX. Especially when driving! Never mind the fact that you can never watch a video on a fingerprint-free screen… you have to touch the screen to start the video.

Yes, there’s an iPod [and iPhone] that have WiFi, but not all iPods do – it sounds like all of the new Zune models do have WiFi. And while Apple offers a wireless music store, according to this article, the Zune allows for wireless sync’ing which is far more important when you take things like podcasts into account. FWIW, this is something that Apple was getting dinged for during their new product introductions.

c|net also seems content to overlook the fact that the features they’ve listed here for the new Zune models outshine what is currently offered for the iPod classic, nano, and shuffle – all of which are also iPods… Yes, the 80GB Zune is the same price as the 80GB iPod classic. – considering that the Zune has a larger screen (3.2” vs 2.5”) and the classic has no WiFi or no built-in FM receiver, I’d call the Zune a better value. If you look at the iPod models that do offer the features they are using in the price comparisons, they cost more: $299-399. Also, while they point out that the new Zune software will work on existing Zune players, they don’t mention that Apple is not making the latest iPod classic software available for older iPods, which sorta sucks.

Either way, it should make for an interesting holiday season.