Microsoft Zune Player and Service Announced

UPDATE: All is announced. Here is our story about the Zune player and its accompanying music service.

And we've also got details about the Nintendo Wii game console, expected to go on sale Nov. 19, priced at $250. Enjoy!

Well, the blogosphere is alive with chatter about an official announcement from Microsoft skedded for today about its worst kept recent secret, the Zune media player. We expect details on the device to be announced very soon.

The Zune, of course, is Microsoft's answer to the Apple iPod. You can see photo that purports to show what the Zune looks like in this Digital World blog entry from August 17.

Nina Shapiro of the Seattle Weekly has a story up with a lot of detail that we hear will be fully confirmed or denied today .

For instance, Shapiro's story says the Zune's screen will be 50 percent larger than the current full-size iPod's.

PC World does know that Toshiba will build the device. In a regulatory filing, Toshiba said so and included a Zune "user's manual," which stated that the device will include 30 gigabytes of storage, wireless capabilities, and an FM radio tuner.

The wireless capabilities are supposed to allow users to search for other Zune devices within range and share music, photos, playlists, and other media content with those devices, according to the manual.

So stay Zuned, I mean tuned. We're still poking around.