By Richard Menta 9/14/06

Now that we have seen the latest iPods coming from Apple (with an encore possible late October) we get to compare it to the latest MP3 portable garnering hype. Today Microsoft will formally introduce Zune offering up the juicy details for the latest iPod Killer wannabe. So far speculation calls for a player around $300 that is manufactured by Toshiba (good call by Microsoft) and will offer many of the features that iPod fans are drooling for, but did not appear during Apple's Tuesday unveiling. The announcement will also possibly include the introduction of a new Microsoft music store that will potentially introduce a new digital media format to go along with a new digital dock Microsoft has developed. That dock is designed to compete with Apple's proprietary dock, that piece of technology that has done more to cement the iPod's dominance thanks to the overwhelming number of third-party peripherals that use it.