Good for Creative, coming out an update to its Zen Stone DAP not even two months after its initial announcement. The update, which adds a small OLED screen and doubles the storage capacity to 2GB, has been christened the Zen Stone Plus. Other goodies include a built-in FM tuner and voice recorder. Fun for everyone! Too bad it’s not listed as coming out over here.
I’m sure Creative wants to do battle with the iPod shuffle with this, what with it being sooo small and available in sooo many cool colors, but the clip that makes the shuffle so appealing is nowhere to be found. What am I supposed to put the ZS+ in my pocket while I listen to C + C Music Factory? No thank you. Unless I can clip my DAP—out of the box, mind you—onto my leather vest as I saunter about Chelsea I’m not interested.
Product Page [Creative via epiZENter.net]
I’d much rather have a screen, FM tuner, voice recorder, and $20 in my pocket than a clip.
The “shuffle segment” is probably the smallest slice of the DAP market, but at this point I think we can conclusively say Apple has been blown away in that category. They may have mostly imitators and also-rans competing against the Nano and full iPods, but against offerings from Creative and Sansa (among others) the shuffle is now barely worth considering. And if you don’t have an iTunes leash or an odd clip fetish like Nicholas, it’s not really worth considering at all.
Indeed. Thou needest to lighten up on thine apple bandwagon, as they sayest in thine olden days.
Of course, back then they used to burn you for suggesting that the earth orbitted the sun and the like, so perhaps it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
The first gen shuffle had, indeed, no clip to be seen, but it sold because it was small, simple and cheap. The Creative option is even smaller, cheaper, and with extra features when compared to even the second gen shuffle.
Had I not already purchased a first gen shuffle for the dubious purpose of entertaining myself while I engaged in physical activity with the intent of fitness, I would most definitely purchase this instead of the product that which might get eaten by worms and makes dubious claims about keeping dental hygiene professionals at bay.
If you’re all wondering if this player is going to come out in the states, it’s available for preorder at creative.com already. this player is exactly what i was looking for. I previously owned a Zen Xtra 30gb, but the size was a little too big for me. Since I currently work for a consumer electronics giant unwilling to give a decent amount of hours to a sales person, i have little money to blow on an mp3 player. as far as convenience, creative has a three pack of silicone skins for this player, including a belt clip, for 14.99.this thing looks sweet.
Hmm… Creative hasn’t been allowing their players to work with Macs though. It’s a growing (if still very small) segment of computer owners. You’d think they’d lighten up a bit now that they’re supposedly playing nice with Apple.
I just came across a review on the stone plus player at http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/2433/3457/creative-zen-stone-plus-player.phtml
This player has a bigger capacity 2gb plus there’s a screen, fm radio, voice recorder, stopwatch, clock and even equalizer. What else can one wish for. Can’t wait to bring one along for my workout!!
http://www.gnarfard.com has indepth review on sansa clip and zen stone 2GB