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Creative Zen Micro Ships Today
SpaFF writes "Today Amazon started shipping the shipping the Zen Micro, Creative's answer to the Ipod-mini and one of several touted 'ipod-killers' due out for the holiday season. Sporting 5GB of space, a form-factor similar to the Ipod-mini, built-in FM radio, and a REMOVABLE battery, the Zen Micro looks quite promising. Does anyone know if this thing will work with Linux?"
that iPods are so powerful is that it's coupled with the Apple music store. The seamless intergration between reasonable prices and DMR and synching with the iPod is hard to beat. Do any of the new iPod killers have comparable connections to music management software/store? My old MP3 player required MusicMatch, which sucked.
Not as bad as the mini Dell DJ, but part of the appeal of the iPod is, the simple and minimal appearance. This thing looks like a sci-fi explosion, like most MP3 players these days.
The battery life is a bit worse, too.
First it was all the viral marketing. Now we're just getting straight up ads? With referral links to benefit the poster? What happened Slashdot?
More importantly, does it work with OggVorbis? Apparently not. :-(
Why is everyone so excited about OGG? Just because it's free? I have never (and likely will never) use OGG but I don't see why every player that is mentioned on Slashdot has to have several comments modded up that mentions the inclusion or lack of OGG support.
Convert the OGG to MP3 or to some other format that the player uses and be done with it. I just can't believe that because the player is missing a basically unused format (for the non-geeks) that it is somehow "bad".
All these different portable players are great, but how do we deal with our libraries? My library is fully managed by iTunes, but is primarily MP3 (I don't import using AAC).
If each of these comes out expecting people to use their software, how is that good? With 30GB of music its worth it to me to NOT mess with moving my library to another software package.
I think choice is great, and I think this looks like a snazzy product, but I think companies have to consider the inertia involved with moving a library, especially if the expectation is to convert it to a new format. What is that worth, and does Apple offer an SDK for iTunes?
This is made to compete with the iPod Mini, which only has 4Gb of storage space...so it's actually larger in terms of storage space. Both products cost $250 and come in similar sizes.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
None of Creative's players work well (or much at all) with Linux. Over the years, there have been a couple of OSS attempts, but none with the help of the folks at Creative.
My emailed pleadings/complaints to Creative have always been answered with something to the effect of "We don't support Linux, we don't care to put in the resources, and we won't share the inner workings with you. Thanks for considering our product."
Needless to say, I no longer consider them a company worth supporting.
'ARRGH! Pirate Designers of the Internet, we be!'
I for one am tired of the pharse "iPod killer". The iPod is entrenched to the point that it is going to take more than a superior product to unseat it. It's going to take a strong marketing campaign, and tight integration with a popular download service. I can't speak to the latter (since I own an iPod and use the iTMS), but I do know that I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or even many print ads for a non iPod music player.
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
Comapred to the Ipod mini it looks like a $5 calculator.
The buttons look like they are those nasty indented clicky bubbles under sticky-back plastic that were all the rage about 10 years ago, and the display looks very basic and uninspired.
The form-factor looks more bulky too.
Is that you can rip out the DRM. I refuse to buy anything that has DRM such that if the company goes under I'm stuck.
I already had one machine die and when I contacted Apple to have it removed they made it sound like it was a big deal to take it off my approved list. Just imagine what will happen in 10 years when this technology is old. Whats going to happen? Will Apple be around?
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Every "iPod killer" has ended up in a ditch at the side of the road. Incremental feature advances just aren't going to do it. The iPod family are a de facto standard, and while some people might get individually excited about another player, whether a Rio, Creative, or Sony, the fact that everything is being compared to the iPod means that Apple is the one who sets the tone, sets the mindshare standard, and racks up the sales.
Something would have to have twice the features at half the price with considerably more 'style' to "kill" the iPod. Everything out there now maxxes out at kicking iPod's shins.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
But all in all, looks to be a very nice device - let's see what the general public thinks.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
It doesn't really matter if you understand why all us crazy geeks like ogg, but if you're a company making portable music devices and want our business, you damn well better know that we do in fact want it.
See, that's the problem. I don't use OGG because it's a worthless format (the same with MP3, etc). I perfer SHN/FLAC. Do I complain that very few players support SHN/FLAC playback? No. Is it my #1 priority when I am looking for a portable music device? No.
Covert between the two.
You can't have all the formats you want and inexpensive pricing. It just doesn't work like that.
did anyone read the fine print at the bottom??
4 requires microsoft outlook
???? what the hell is that crap??!!
I think it took me all of 10 minutes to change battery in my ipod, using just tools included within replacement kit (from Other World Computing IIRC).
And if I didn't want to do it myself, Apple would've done it happily enough (but would have charged twice as much for bit less powerful battery.. but I digress).
-- pending
I am waiting for a company to have the balls to make a mp3 or ogg or other replacement for my Sony Minidisc recorder or my Sony portable DAT recorder.
I have been through 3 minidisc recorders they can not be beat for ultra portable and covert recording.
Example, I recorded the Tragically Hip concert last holloween. (Yes it was allowed, hell people had camcorders and SLR cameras) and produced a live recording that is 20 times better than anything I could buy. I also record ambient things. The last Michigan/MSU game gave me phenominal crowd recordings.
Why doesn anyone make an iPOD type device that will record in STEREO with manual level adjustment and both line in and mic in?
THAT would be an Ipod Killer.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"I use an iPod and I have spent a good share of money on iTMS but to discount new players because they cannot use iTMS isn't fair let alone brite."
You don't think Apple would let this amazing situation they've worked so hard to create slip through their fingers do you?
Apple only has to flip the switch and open Music Store up to other players, formats and DRM, and the game goes on.
That's the great thing about technology that a lot of people forget...you can do anything.
As for the players themselves, most of the so-called iPod killers are a piece of junk, primarily because they're produced from a set of poorly defined specs faxed over from Albertsons, or whoever wants to put out a player that week.
If it's seen as a dumb USB storage, il will work on linux, regardless of the requirements.
My Finepix camera requires some version of windows, and nevertheless works like a charm with linux out of the box.
So I believe the question stands.
In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
You'll be missing out then. OGG is fine, but I'll be sticking to MP3 and MP3 Pro for the forseeable future. Regardless of what anyone thinks of those formats, they are the defacto standard, supported by everything and offer good compression with good sound quality. Quite frankly, I don't see what's in the hype of OGG's supposedly having better sound quality. In my opinion, MP3's have better sound quality with less tinniness.
whatever the iPod is, it isn't ugly. Design goes a long way toward selling just about everything apple makes. maybe these other companies should think about hiring some decent industrial designers.
Just giving you my personal experience, I've had my iPod for about a year now and have not noticed the battery time being any less than about 5 hours. This doesn't really matter though, because it's rare that I listen to my iPod for 5 hours straight and then don't get a chance to charge it.
I can understand your concerns, but it's really not the huge issue it's made out to be unless you think you're going to use it for 4+ hours at a time without a charge.
Personally, I prefer Ogg Vorbis over MP3 for several reasons.
... And so it comes to this.
"Why waste the time for OggVorbis support? So that the 0.0005% consumers who use it can be happy?"
Ok, go ask 200000 people about their preferred music format, and if even two of them say OGG, you're lying.
The difference between geeks and non-geeks is that the non-geeks will just use stuff that's more popular (iPod, MP3) but geeks actually car about which product is better. Most of the people pleading for Vorbis* support are probably doing so because it sounds better than MP3, especially at low bitrates, which is useful on portable devices.
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
Dude... it's a f***ing music PLAYER, not a music recorder... all you people who whine that it doesn't do some specific recording, etc... go out and buy a device meant to record music with. It's not intentionally crippled, it's just not the main purpose of the iPod... Especially as a musician, I imagine sound quality matters to you, in which case, you'd probably be best off buying a DAT deck or something and a decent microphone. And while I'm on my rant here... why exactly would you say it's "intentionally crippled"? You imply that the Ipod has this amazing recording capability, but some evil, twisted bastard at Apple, while twisting his mustache in a maniacal manner, decided to cripple this amazing feature because... well... you know they have to protect their sales of Apple-branded tape-recorders. How about the player is meant to play music easily... not have 50 features which 1% of the people will use while confusing the rest of the users. get a grip you freakin' idiot....
Lossy compression methods are worthless? I think many disagree with that sentiment.
As for inexpensive pricing with my formats of choice.. Why not?
The source for FLAC and OGG is freely and legally available for download on the web, and I believe it is legal to incorporate it into your product... So the barrier to entry for these things should be pretty low.
Here's the problem with that. Apple gives you files that have been compressed with a lossy compression method. When you burn the files to CD-R and then later rerip them (to say MP3) you end up adding more digital artifacts and losing more data. You don't end up with the same quality as the file you originally downloaded.