Details are emerging from Creative’s Singapore headquarters this morning about a new touch-screen-based portable media player. The ZEN X-Fi2 will be available in 8GB ($129.99), 16GB ($179.99), and 32GB ($229.99) capacities and can be pre-ordered from Amazon now.
The player looks, well, a lot like an iPod touch–but I suppose that can be said about most touch-screen-based PMPs now. The X-Fi2’s 3-inch TFT LCD will feature 262,000-color support, but no word yet on the screen’s resolution. Codec support seems well thought out, if not overly generous: MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, and Audible4 for music; WMV9, MPEG4-SP, DivX4/5, and XviD for video; and JPEG and BMP for photos. There’s a microSD expansion slot, and 32-preset FM radio, and the ability to display RSS content feeds while offline.
The player will also come preloaded with some music tracks from a variety of artists courtesy of eMusic and James Patterson’s maximum Ride: the Angel Experience, as read by Evan Rachel Wood. And, as always, the X-Fi Crystalizer is loaded onto the player, for those who wish to play around with stereo-enhancing effects.
Not bad, but there seems to be no true Internet support, which puts the player a notch behind the Zune HD and whatever new iPods we see next week. Price, however, could make all the difference. Creative has always made decent players–some of them even excellent. So for the people who care more about music and videos than Web browsing, the ZEN X-Fi2 could be just what they’re looking for–and certainly cheaper than the $220 and $290 16Gb and 32GB Zunes and iPod touches.
Look for a full review at PCMag.com in the coming weeks.
Microsoft is putting all of its eggs into the Zune HD basket. The company has discontinued sales on the current Zune ahead of the scheduled mid-September release of the much-hyped Zune HD. This news comes according to Paul Thurrott over at SuperSite For Windows.
All of the means that, as soon as stores run out of their current stock of non-touchscreen Zunes, those devices will be all but a distant squirting memory.
We know already that the Zune HD, Microsoft’s rather nice-looking iPod Touch competitor, is due in stores September 15th. We also know that it will cost $220 for 16GB and $290 for 32GB, prices which undercut the current iPod Touches (although Apple is likely to change that with its September 9th announcement).
What we didn’t know was that the Zune HD will be the only Zune you will be able to buy. Microsoft has discontinued all other Zunes, and if you want one (hint: you don’t) then buy now before stocks dwindle. Or wait until they show up in some dime-store clearance sale.
It’s hard to work out why this is. On one hand, Apple’s figures show dwindling sales for old-style iPods and increasing adoption of iPod Touches and iPhones. And seeing as Apple sells the majority of MP3 players, this market trend makes sense for Microsoft to get out early, especially as the Zune was not a great success.
On the other hand, Microsoft is again playing catchup. Its obsession with fighting Google is not Gadget Lab subject matter, but that, combined with the Laptop Hunter ads and me-too products like the Zune (and the Xbox) show a company rattled and desperate to keep up.
Also, as commenter Freakyfelt remarks on Paul Thurrrot’s Supersite for Windows: “Well that’s a dumb move. Not everyone wants a touch screen device with all the bells and whistles.”
Microsoft guru Paul Thurrott of SuperSite for Windows fame has read the writing on the wall. According to the reps he spoke with, production has ceased on all Zune models before the upcoming Zune HD. In other words, when supplies run out, Zune 4, 8, 16, 80, and 120 are as good as dead, with only this year’s model left standing. Shed a tear for the old guard, and keep an eye out for what we’re hoping will be some pretty sweet sales as everyone tries to clean out stock.
With TV shows, music video, and video podcasts already proliferating the Zune marketplace, it was really only a matter of time before Microsoft dipped its toes into HD movies — not to mention kind of a logical step since Xbox Live was getting its movie section Zune-branded. BostonPocketPC writer Steven Hughes has uploaded pictures of an alleged pamphlet handed out at Best Buy’s Zune HD showings that, among other things, make reference to finding Zune Marketplace content including HD movies. Ban on HDTV Media Center recordings notwithstanding, things are looking up for Zune 4.0 software. And here we thought Apple was late to the party with its movie service.
We’ve already gotten a glimpse of the Zune HD’s packaging courtesy of Best Buy’s big preview event this past weekend — but what about the contents of said packaging? Therein lies excitement. Excitement like some giant fold-out instructions, a USB cable, and a pair of headphones that seem to be more or less identical to the ones that came with the Zune 120 — oh, and a little thing called the Zune HD. Hit up the link below for a closer look, and a couple more demo videos for those that still can’t get enough of the thing.
At Best Buy’s Zune HD preview today a certain Matthew Arkin on Qik was able to shoot footage of the “Apps” item that resides within the “Marketplace” section on the device. It’s still incredibly unclear what Microsoft’s plans are for that functionality — they’ve long admitted its existence, but have waffled on the name and have been reticent to show it off in meetings with us. Microsoft so far has only promised to have applications on par with the games currently available for Zune, but there’s obviously a lot of implied competition with Apple’s App Store that the word “Apps” on a touchscreen device conjures up. On video (embedded after the break) the rep is asked if there’s an SDK, and apparently Matthew got a “yes” offscreen, but we’re not really sure of the veracity of that statement, or what it means for developers at the moment — hopefully good, freedom-ey things.
According to one tipster, the Zune HD was a no-show today at both of his Houston-area Best Buys, so hopefully this little tidbit can make it up to that loneliest of all Zune fans. According to CrazyphoneGuy of Twitter and his prodigious Twitpic account, the picture above is of the Zune HD’s new box. It looks quite a bit like existing Zune boxes, but that’s certainly no slight. Anyone else track down the Zune HD at a Best Buy today, or was NVIDIA just fooling with us?
Now that NVIDIA is totally free to chat up its Tegra involvement in the Zune HD, it’s wasted little time in publishing a list of Zune HD preview locations where you can witness the magic for yourself this weekend. The tour is fairly limited to the big urban hubs, but peep the PDF and see if your friendly neighborhood Best Buy is represented.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Warning: PDF link]
Each day I get a little bit sadder that Billy Mays is no longer with us. Good thing there are so many spokeassholes vying for position in the marketing pantheon.
UPDATE: Looks like there was a late entry to our list of current top spokesassholes: Miss Julia Allison has just signed a yearlong deal to peddle Sony’s wares. About time that her attention-whoring went global! [Sony Insider via Gawker]
Some of us were near tears when T-Mobile decided to drop Zeta-Jones as their official spokesasshole, but the good news is that she’s back. The bad news is that as soon as we heard her nerve-grinding accent, we remembered that those were tears of joy.
It was difficult to deem Sir Richard Branson as a spokesasshole. He is such a nice man and only wants innovative technology to reach those from “all walks of life”—assuming that they make $40 million annually, of course.
Lisa, Lauren, and Giampaolo are the biggest spokesassholes in the Laptop Hunters commercials. Lisa shatters eardrums with her exclamation of “WhaaaaAAAAaat?!?!”, Lauren followed the ads up with claims that they were unscripted, and Giampaolo is just plain smarmy.
Maybe one day he’ll button up the shirt and put on some sunglasses that don’t look like they’re his girlfriend’s. I hope he didn’t quit his day job (waiter? male prostitute?) when he landed this gig, because it won’t last long.
Verizon Probably Only Merged With Alltel To Get Rid of Chad
Verizon and Alltel may have merged, but we’ve still seen Chad’s picture looming around Alltel’s website. With his spiky blonde hair, laid back walk, and inability to take a hint, he’s a true menagerie of what this gallery represents.
Zune Spokesasshole Wes Moss nearly broke our douche point scale. If you can stand watching this Zune spot, after those Laptop Hunter ads, you’ll see why.
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are two ridiculously wealthy guys who decide, in their spare time, to become even more wealthy by peddling some overpriced headphones. Even if you ignore the fact that they’re distributed by Monster, and even if you admit that the headphones aren’t that bad—there’s no way the duo can’t escape the spokesasshole brand.
It’s not much of a secret that some of us here are Apple fans, but not even that stopped us from pronouncing Apple’s “I’m a Mac” guy and his smug attitude and thinly veiled disdain for PC as spokesasshole material.
Tamara Hope in the Return of the Stoner Commercials
The Palm Pre commercials started off terribly and only got worse until we stepped in with a remix. Though since it seems that Palm was really giving a nod to Ellen Feiss of Mac Switcher fame with these creepy “What is she on and where can I get some?” commercials, we’ll only rate actress Tamara Hope as half a spokesasshole.
We can forgive Michael Bay for not sharing video footage of Megan Fox washing his car, since he at least had her show a bit of skin in Transformers 2. What we can’t forgive him for his display of spokesassholery in this pitch for Verizon FiOS. By the fifth “AWESOME!” things turn from funny to “Please walk into the next exploding building, Michael.”
You’ve got to hand it to Kutcher. The man with a million Twitter sheep has risen from underwear model to annoying spokesasshole and GI Jane toy-boy. Though we can’t help but see Kelso every time he’s fumbling around on screen.
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