macnn/electronista
05/03/2007, 8:45am, EDT
Thursday, May 3rdCreative Zen Stone guns after iPod shuffle
Creative today made clear its ambitions by introducing the Zen Stone, its first completely screenless music player and the first aimed at beating the second-generation iPod shuffle. Claiming to be even simpler than the Apple device, the Stone is loaded through drag-and-drop file transfers. It's also more intelligent, Creative says: the device can recognize folders and will let the owner skip between them to limit in-order or random play to a particular album or playlist. Music is supported in MP3, WMA, and WAV as well as Audible audiobooks.
The Stone comes with 1GB of storage and will ship in six different colors by May 14th at a price of $40; it should be followed in July by the TravelSound Zen Stone (also $40), a black- or white-colored portable speaker system which provides stereo music for 20 hours on a pair of AAA batteries. Accessories will include a silicone skin with a built-in clip to match the portability of its iPod rival, a keychain case attachment, and an armband.
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Don't know if they have any patents on that design, though, or if Creative is safe from Apple suits after the whole menu/navigation settlement.
In order to present a valid challenge to the iPod juggernaut, competitors must create a device that is so many leaps and bound ahead of iPod in every respect (and especially in design and ease of use) that it blows it out of the water. As long as every teen talks about iPods and ONLY iPods, no challenger will be of any consequence.
Nice try, though, Creative and good luck with your little device!
then turn in your mouse and go back to the command line. i'd rather have a device that works in a DnD process than required a Windows or Mac OS program to interface with it (iPod or iRiver). Some of us DO use Linux machines.