Putting an end to all speculation, Microsoft has officially announced the 64GB Zune HD that was leaked a few days back on its site. The device will be

Putting an end to all speculation, Microsoft has officially announced the 64GB Zune HD that was leaked a few days back on its site. The device will be available for $349.99 from April 12 through Zuneoriginals.com, making it about $50 cheaper than the iPod touch with the same storage, while prices for the other two models have also been lowered a bit -- the 16GB is down from $219.99 to $199.99 and the 32GB from $289.99 to $269.99.

It will be available in Platinum, Black, Blue, Red, Green, Purple and Magenta colors with a range of custom back designs as well. With the 64GB model, Microsoft claims you can carry up to 16,000 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 20 hours of high definition video.

Along the updated hardware Microsoft is also planning to release the free Zune 4.5 firmware update sometime "in the next few weeks." The company confirmed this new version will include Smart DJ on Zune HD, Picks on Zune HD, music browsing and streaming from Zune Marketplace on your TV, and expanded video codec support.