A new rendering of Microsoft's in-development Zune HD has surfaced that appears to be authentic, along with potentially dubious claims about hardware features. The new image obtained by WMPowerUser shows both the front and back and suggests a design somewhat influenced by the first-generation iPhone, where the primarily aluminum design has a black strip on the back. It also has an interface reminiscent of Zunes but with a more touchscreen-friendly interface.

While not a photo, sources for Zunited claim that the shot itself is authentic.

Beyond the images, WMPowerUser claims to have early specs for the player and says the Zune HD will, in fact, have HD video playback and related content available on the Zune Marketplace. It also points to as much as 32GB of storage and hears that the device would have a capacitive, OLED touchscreen with multi-touch input that may include a web browser.

Calling the rumor into question, however, are additional claims that the Zune HD will support HD Radio broadcasts and that the company also plans Xbox game compatibility. While the Zune HD may use an NVIDIA Tegra processor and thus support complex 3D, the absence of Xbox-native controls makes playing direct ports unlikely.

These latest reports as well as previous ones suggest Microsoft is likely to introduce the Zune HD in September, as it did with its update last year, and may ship it to countries besides Canada and the US.