More information has emerged about Microsoft's forthcoming Zune music player, thanks to my colleagues at This Week In Consumer Electronics, who always have their ears to the ground on the retail scene. The company has been briefing retailers and TWICE have been prying out morsels of information about Redmond's supposed iPod-killer. Here are the details (I would rather slit my wrists than say deets):

one model only

bigger screen than iPod

30GB hard drive

bookmarks for song sharing

no wireless downloading

PC link for wired downloading...

...from Microsoft's forthcoming music site

three available colors

list price $299

Question yet unanswered: How far will the DRM go or not go? Question yet unasked: How will the thing sound?