According the folks at ZuneScene, Microsoft is hard at work on the next generation hard drive Zune code-named “Scorpio” which itself is the big brother of “Draco,” a flash-based device. From a “source inside the hallowed halls of Microsoft”:

The source indicated the storage capacity is 80GB for Scorpio. We challenged that and asked if he was sure there would be no 100 or 120 GB Zune. The answer was blunt: “No, it will be 80″. Perhaps the most exciting news is that mass production of Scorpio will begin at the very end of July.

The timeline for launch is thus the 2007 holidays.

Bottom line - if you’ve been holding out for a revision to the Zune, it sounds like you won’t have to wait much longer!

If you were looking forward to the next version of Windows Media Center, I have bad news for you - it looks like the project has been delayed. The update, which is believed to go by the Fiji codename, looks to be stalled according to Chris Lanier:

The beta program, which many of you may have registered for isn’t exactly moving along. The invites that were supposed to be sent out on May 31th have gone no where fast. This leads me to think that the target ship date for Fiji is no where close. 

Chris suggests that Fiji may not see the light of day until late 2008. Ars Technica picked up the story too, and mentioned that DirecTV support, HD-DVD playback, and improved support for CableCARD are all rumored features of the update.

Of course, one should keep in mind that Microsoft has not officially described Fiji as a Media Center-specific update. There seems to be something of a lockdown at Microsoft when it comes to future versions of Windows, so it could very well turn out that Fiji is actually Vista SP1 or something like that.

Either way, it looks like Windows Media Center fans will have to wait a while for new stuff on the software side of things.