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Creative hasn’t really been doing much at all for the last year. Except this, apparently: here’s an FCC filing for a Zii touchscreen PMP, which shares a name their mysterious system on a chip from January.
This $US25 mini USB-powered zen garden circulates water around its plastic bamboo shoots, creating relaxing sounds for a peaceful atmosphere in the workplace. That, or it’ll make you want to pee. [Akihabara via CrunchGear]
Japan is the epicenter of Zen, a concept with deep religious roots and a mandate for simplicity of appearance and lifestyle. But when it comes to native gadgetry, Zen is only skin-deep. Japanese mobile phones are sleek on the outside, but once you open the clamshell, the interface is a complete mess. While American-made phones are leaning more and more towards simple interfaces and clean design, Japanese gadgets continue to be plagued with feature overload and nightmarish interfaces that are totally impractical.
This newly discovered patent by Creative, whether actually in production or not, looks like a pretty neat device. Because from what we can make out from the diagrams, it appears to be much more than just a another media player. Internet tablet seems to make sense, with that right oval on the side being a logical (OK, remotely possible) indication of a Wi-Fi antenna. But we’ve seen stuff like this before. Flip it around to the backside, however, and surprise! There’s a camera.
Creative is clearly in some kind of rush to get new media players out into the world: first the X-Fi, then the Krystal and now the Mozaic. It’s a pretty standard offering, with music and video playing function, a 1.8-inch screen, FM radio and voice recorder, but, like the Nokia Prism, it’s the keypad that makes it a teeny bit different. It’s a mosaic-themed one, which you may either think is a tasteful dash of creativity, or a daft way of confusing the controls. In black, silver and pink colours, it’s in either 2, 4 or 8GB versions for US$99, US$129 and $unknown. [NothingbutCreative]
We brought you some leaked info on Creative’s upcoming PMP not long ago, and now it’s official. The credit-card-sized player will come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB versions, and the larger two will support 802.11 b/g wi-fi for wireless syncing of music, video and photos and an IM chat function. It’s got a 2.5-inch, 320 × 240 pixel TFT screen and a SD/SDHC slot, for a max of 32GB of expansion. There’s also an FM radio, some PDA functions, and a built-in speaker to support its alarm clock option. Sound quality is given special treatment with Creative’s own “crystalizer” and “expand” options. Out in Japan at first mid-July for US$166, US$213, US$307 for the 8GB, 16GB and 32GB versions. [AV Watch] galleryPost('zenxfi', 3, '');
New details have been leaked about Creative’s answer to the iPod touch and Zune, a wireless music player with Wi-Fi media sharing capabilities called the Zen X-Fi. Pictures show the device sporting a chrome-and-black plastic look that’s vaguely reminiscent of the iPhone, along with a nine-point directional pad. Besides certain Internet features, X-Fi will also come with an SD card slot and a built-in speaker.
This isn’t a sandbox with a marble in it. Sysyphus V, a kinetic sculpture by Bruce Shapiro looks like a Zen Garden. But instead of a buddhist monk carefully raking gravel, it’s an autonomous steel sphere carefully crawling over and over, making polar geometric shapes that can best be described as iterative lillies or stars. A magnet on an arm on a two axis plotter sites underneath the half-ton set up, and Sisyphus is making its first appearance here, at Maker Faire 2008. An unrelated but cool Interview with Bruce, by Cool Hunting\, after the jump. [TaoMC at Makers]
Looks like the Zune isn’t the only PMP to be getting a colour makeover, Creative’s Zen is in on it too. The new model was spotted at Wal Mart, where it is retailing at US$69.99 for a 2GB unit, with no other capacities listed. As far as we can tell, the pink Zen is ready for immediate shipping, despite the fact it is not available at Creative’s own online store. The new addition has me thinking it is time for a pink gadget in my arsenal; admit it, you want one as well. [Wal Mart via Geek&Hype; Thanks, pickupjojo!]
