Cnet recently spent some quality time with the Zune HD, and the initial reaction is good. (As a reminder: We're watching the soon-to-be-released Zune HD pretty closely for the following reasons: 1. We're still looking for a bit of convergence between the Zune and Windows Mobile, hopefully starting with WM7. 2. The browser is based on a "flavor" of IE6 mobile. 3. Tegra processor. 4. OLED screen. 5. It's some very cool poop from Microsoft.)

Let's focus on No. 2 for a second. (Yeah, we just said No. 2 and cool poop in the same post. Go ahead. ... We'll wait.)

Says Donald Bell:

Speaking of Wi-Fi, the Zune's new Web browser smokes. Not since first using the iPhone have I been this impressed with a mobile web browser. There's no branding on the browser, but I was told it was cooked up by Microsoft's Internet Explorer team (makes sense). Page load was snappy, and pinching and reorienting pages work just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. You also get a fast on-screen keyboard with a nice little magnifier effect with each keystroke. The only bad news on the browser is that there's no support for Flash audio and video content. So Pandora and YouTube are out, but I was able to get onto Facebook and Twitter.

Read his full hands-on here. Bell also raves about the quality of the Zune HD as a digital audio player and is quite keen on the screen.

Now we're throwing out some pretty big "ifs" here, especially seeing as how the Zune HD has only been in a few, select hands. But if indeed the browser is that good, and indeed the media side of the device is that good, and indeed Microsoft is melding the Zune with Windows Mobile in some fashion, then we all should have a lot to look forward to.

We hope.

While Engadget just got an up-close and personal look at the upcoming Zune HD, and Paul Thurrott scored some more details.

• There are only three hardware buttons — a rocker for volume, a power button and a home button.
• The browser is a "flavor" of Internet Explorer 6, but it won't look or feel like IE. Definitely not a bad thing.
• The first flood of Xbox integration will surround video. Music will follow later.

More over at Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, and we've got a brief video shot by Gizmodo after the break. Yes, you'll see a big fat link to "Marketplace" in the Zune HD's UI, but we're betting that's going to be for the Zune Marketplace, not Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Calm down, folks.

Do remember (and we have a feeling we'll be repeating this for a while) that while we expect the Zune and Windows Mobile to share some features in upcoming versions, we don't yet know for sure what they are. That's why we'll be keeping a closer eye on our phone-less cousins from now on.

Update: Cnet's Ina Fried got a less-blurry hands-on. Video of that, too, after the break.

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As we just hinted, IE6 on Windows Mobile 6.5 is going to be a sight better than it currently is on the WM6 Sprint Treo Pro. There are plenty of reasons for this. Stuff you likely already knew: it has a better, touch interface and it will be on 6.5, which will only be on devices with plenty of RAM, which will mean that its nigh-insatiable appetite for memory won't be as much of a problem.

But wait! There's more! We caught a couple of nice tidbits from the excellent MIX09 Windows Mobile presentation video featuring Loke Uei Tan (who is currently taking one for the team. Go Lokeuei!). Namely, IE6 on 6.5 is more of a "hybrid" than it is a straight mobile implementation of IE6. First up: it actually supports PNG alpha channel — transparent graphical elements ftw! The other change is that it's using the javascript engine from Internet Explorer 8 — which should add some compatibility and performance to the entire thing.

Of course, that doesn't mean we're happy about the rendering engine. I've personally lost time roughly equal to the Jurrasic period to IE6 compatibility. That movement to get web designers to give up supporting IE6 altogether (thanks Rich!), it didn't spring up out of nowhere. The lack of tabs is also disturbing.  But hey — flash support, right? Right?

Up to now I haven't much cared about rendering fidelity on mobile. As these devices get more pixels, I suspect it will begin to grate more. What say you?

We've (somewhat infamously) laid a bit of hateration on the Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on the Sprint Treo Pro.  Truth be told, if you can set aside or otherwise manage its heavy memory usage, it actually does quite well at rendering pages accurately.  We also have higher-than-you-might-expect hopes for IE6 on Windows Mobile 6.5 (more on that in a later post).

One of the hassles with IE6 on the Sprint Treo Pro is navigation, moving that little pointer around to find links and scroll pages can become quite a chore with the Treo Pro's D-Pad. There's a 'nuclear option' for dealing with that, namely rolling back some of IE6's interface 'improvements' with a registry hack that makes it behave like IE5 Mobile.  That's not really an ideal solution, however, even with the convenient (and clever!) cab file that automatically toggles between the two modes from CodyPPC.  

Lucky for us, Marc has emailed in this non-obvious tip: use the spacebar!  You can hit the spacebar solo to scroll down a full page.  Another option: hit Shift + Space either together or serially to hop down to the next link.  If you're wondering, both spacebar methods also work on the GSM version of the Treo Pro as well.

Sprint Treo Pro owners: How's IE6 Mobile treating you these days?

Thanks for the tip, Marc!

It's no secret that some of us around here are none-to-fond of Microsoft's latest browser IE6, which made its debut with the Sprint Treo Pro.

In short, editing this line in your registry will roll back some of the changes in IE6 to make it more IE5-like, including the old-style navigation (i.e. no cursor) and a better layout. And for those who want the .cab, Codyppc even did that for ya for a quick install. Noyce. (Note: yes, this also disables flash, so no more YouTube!)

HKLM\Security\Internet Explorer\MSHTML=0

While technically this only applies to the Sprint Treo Pro right now, it may be worth remembering this little trick for when those newer devices and/or ROM updates start showing up and you find yourself in the same boat as we, yearning for last year's version ;-)

And if you're lost when we talk about editing the registry, check out Hobbes' excellent registry tutorial.