New Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen

I went to download the latest drivers for my sound card, and saw that this was just announced today. First impressions it looks pretty cool. Based on its size, (width 75.9mm) it looks like it uses a laptop hard drive. 20GB... pretty cool... Now I really can't wait to see what they roll out of Cambridge

Interesting except for a couple of points:

In reply to:

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(from the specs page)

Size: W x H x D (mm) - 75.9 x 112.6 x 24.5 mm
Weight: 9.5 oz (268g) with built-in Li-ion battery

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iPod this ain't!

I hope the guys in Cambridge can do better than this.

But: I do like the USB *and* Firewire support (even if the USB is only USB 1 and not USB 2.0), I also like the fact it can recharge over the USB port as well - no more chargers to carry around with you everywhere.
And it has some (PC based?) software to let you up/download (non-music) files to it.

What can I say... I'm a sucker for the blue screen. It matches my phone (Kyocera 2235) Besides... what is 3oz??

Rob, please tell me you guys are coming out with one of these.

Well Rob did say a while back [shortly before the Rio 10S and 30S were announced], that they had done with flash-RAM based mp3 players for a while.

[and were therefore moving on to other kinds of audio devices for SonicBlue].

Rob, wouldn't say anymore, but I can guess we can safely assume they are working on a new hard disk player to replace/supplement the Riot.

I must say, barring looking at the UI and usability, the Nomad Zen does look pretty neat, esp. when compared to the 10+ months old Riot -
The Zen is pretty pocketable - no edgy corners to stick out, the Riot not so pocketable.

So, yes its high time SB revamped the Riot.
I only hope I don't have to wait until Jan next year to see one!

Just found the Press Release for the Jukbox Zen... MSRP of $659...

Yup... me thinks IPod....

http://www.americas.creative.com/shop/shopcategory.asp?Category=2 has it for $299 w/ rebate.

If we were working on something like that I'm sure we could do a better job. I'm not sure why anyone would choose that product in preference to an iPod..

Rob

I'm not sure why anyone would choose that product in preference to an iPod..

Price most likely. Just as so many people without hands on experience with the empeg-car could so easially choose a cheeper alternative.

Is it much cheaper than the iPod? I saw some conflicting information.

Rob

The link posted above shows a price of $350, with a $50 rebate. And thats directly off of Creatives web store.

Not sure why the MSRP was quoted so high though...

Not sure why the MSRP was quoted so high though...

To make people think the quality is comparable to an iPod, and that they are getting a killer discount?

Akiba has it as always.

asia.creative.com - maybe it was in Hong Kong/Taiwanese/whatever dollars?

Actually, not HK$, that'd be a huge amount

Hugo