Captain ØdegÃ¥rd created this Creative Zen Stone out of pine, although he seems to have accidentally scaled up the dimensions to a huge 8.25″ x 5.5″ x 2″. Check out a video of it in use after the jump.
The Creative Zen V Plus was bumped from 8GB to 16GB, making it the first to have that much Flash. Singapore only, for now. [Creative via Electronista]
Weighing much less than a stone, the Zen Stone Plus updates the Zen Stone with twice as much storage (2GB vs. 1GB), a blue OLED screen (cheers at being able to see), more format compatibility, FM Tuner, and half an hour less battery life.
It’s only been a month and a half since Creative introduced the Zen Stone, so we know either the first version wasn’t selling well, or the second version wasn’t ready in time to get out the door by May. Why they didn’t just wait until now to do things right is anyone’s guess. – Jason Chen
galleryPost('zenstoneplus2', 4, 'Zen Stone Plus');
Product Page [Creative via EpiZENter]
Still interested in that low-end speaker-enabled Creative Zen Wav even though its features are only mediocre at best? Then check out this video of it playing back Enya’s greatest hits. Although in our opinion, her old stuff was a lot better. She totally sold out man. Sold OUT. – Jason Chen
First Look: Creative Zen Wav [TechEBlog]
Remember that leaked Zen Wav we told you about? It’s official. Officially meh, that is.
The player has two built-in speakers, a 1.5-inch screen, 2GB storage, 30 hours of battery life, MP3/WMA/WAV playback, and Transcoded AVI support. There’s not much else going on with this player, but as far as we know it’s only in Singapore for now. Check out their site if you want a closer look. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Creative]
This is the first time we’ve seen the Creative Zen MicroPhoto 8GB for less than $100. Now you can get it brand new in any color for $99.99. Sure, the model is a couple of years old, but this is still a great deal for a player that originally retailed for $250. – Charlie White
Product Page [Creative]Thanks, Mario!
When the $39.99 Zen Stone was first unearthed, there was some discussion as to whether it was larger or smaller than a $79 iPod shuffle. As you’ll be able to see in the gallery after the jump, it’s noticeably larger than the shuffle, and that’s without the $9.99 add-on clip. However, you should also be able to tell that it’s a non-issue. The Zen Stone rests tiny and almost weightless in the palm of my hand, and I’m far from NBA material. Until the flash memory and processor are in the earbuds and you wear the whole thing like some freaky necklace, the size/weight concern is pretty much moot.
Follow the jump for some hands-on reviewy nuggets and 12 red-hot pictures.
Still curious about Creative’s new Zen Stone player? The folks at GenerationMP3 put the tiny player behind the camera for a thorough unboxing/review. It looks a little chunky when they compare it to the nano (although its real competition is the shuffle, which it also beats in size). Still, $39 for a 1GB player ain’t bad, although personally I refuse to buy an MP3 player without a screen. PS: You might wanna lower the volume and skip the piano soundtrack. – Louis Ramirez
Over the weekend, we teased you with a rumor that had been floating around, that Creative would introduce a tiny, flash-based audio player for under $50. Well, it happened, and it’s actually under $40. (I mean “under” in the TV-announcer sense of the word.)
Creative’s $39.99 1GB Zen Stone will be out this month, in six colors: black, white, red, blue, pink and green. Follow the jump for details, plus some very sweet photos you may not see anywhere else.
No pictures yet, but EpiZENter claims to have some details on the upcoming Creative player being released in may. Supposedly, it’s called the Zen Stone and have a very small form factor—think iPod Shuffle sized. It’s going to come in five different colors, be priced at less than $50, and have a simple user interface.
Our gut reaction is this Stone is going to be shaped somewhat like the MOTO PEBL—you know, like a stone—and have playback buttons on the front and a minimal screen. Or maybe even no screen, if they’re going up against the Shuffle. – Jason Chen
New Zen coming Next Month? [EpiZENter]
