Take a closer look at the mobile Web browser offered on Microsoft's Zune HD portable media player.
Donald Bell
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
Here we have the Zune HD's mobile Web browser, which we're told was engineered by Microsoft's Internet Explorer team. The browser displays Web pages in a similar fashion as Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, using pinching and flipping gestures to zoom and scroll through content. Pages also reorient themselves based on the position of the device, flipping from landscape to portrait view depending on the tilt of the screen.
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The Zune HD's mobile Web browser can also bookmark frequently visited pages, which they call "Favorites" to keep in theme with other favorite content handled by the device.
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Flipping the Zune HD sideways will reorient pages into a landscape view, making it easier to read and view content. Across the bottom of the screen are three simple buttons for back, bookmark (aka "favorites"), and search (Bing).
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The Zune HD's onscreen keyboard works in both landscape and portrait views. Here we see it being used for a Web search in landscape mode. You can see the "search with Bing" branding in query box. Also, notice how the letters of the keyboard bulge out when pressed, giving an indication of the key you're pressing while your finger is obscuring it.
In our brief time with a preview unit of the device, we found the keyboard to be just as speedy and precise as the iPhone, but we'll hold our final judgment until we have more time with the final unit.
