An editor from Zune Scene ran into a MS Zune employee 2 days ago on a business trip, and managed to scoop some info about the upcoming Zune 2 and Flash-based Zune.

Referred to as ‘the big one’ and ‘the little one’, they are to be released this year. The hard drive version will be similar to the first generation device, but thinner and with a more capacious hard drive. The flash-based version will be 3×1¼x1/4 inches (7.6×3.1×0.65 cm), will be able to play video and will have a screen that covers about 75% of its front. Also, it will have Wi-Fi and double shot, just like the hard drive model. The new colors weren’t revealed, but there will be several of them. The clamshells are to be harder to open than version 1’s.

The design phase has been completed for both models, and there are some last minute hardware tweaks to be done. When asked about the memory capacity, the MS employee replied “you have to beat the competition you know”. He also said that the flash-based device is filled with memory from top to bottom.

1,6 million flash based units and 800.000 hard drive Zune 2.0’s will be built until the 2007 holiday season.