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Creative Zen Micro Ships Today

Posted by michael on from the rock-garden-optional dept.

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?"

11 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. One of the reasons by Pacifix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:One of the reasons by hackstraw · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The seamless intergration between reasonable prices and DMR and synching with the iPod is hard to beat.

      iPod owners must be very wealthy. From the iTunes store it would cost on order of $1,000 to fill up an iPod mini, $5,000 and $10,000 for the iPod 20 and 40 giggers respectively.

  2. It's kind of ugly.. by mrseigen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. What's up with the ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  4. Zen Xtra works with Linux by severett · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes I know it's not the same product. :)

    I do want to report that my Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox works great with Linux if you use the the gnomad2 program.

    Gnomad might work just as well with this product.

  5. Re:iPod killer? by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!!!
  6. Re:iPod killer? by mccalli · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So it's an iPod killer with, at most, one-third the storage space.

    iPod Mini killer. Minis have 4Gig, this has 5Gig.

    I have an original iPod, the 5Gig model. At the time, it was sold as 1000 songs in your pocket. I can't help noticing that this same device is advertising 2,500 songs. So, err...bit rate? I think they're claiming a little too much for themselves.

    To be fair, at 128kbps MP3 VBR I got more than 1k tracks on mine. But the 1k is realistic if you use 192 MP3 or AAC at 160.

    The Zen thing looks ugly, but it does have an FM radio. I do wish Apple would do that instead of mucking about with photos. It's an audio device first - please concentrate on the audio.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  7. Re:why all the iPod animosity? by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the Creative player's battery is "removable" in the sense that you just pop a little cover open and the battery comes out. The iPod battery is "removable" in the same sense that my internal organs are "removable."

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  8. Re:OggVorbis Support? by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  9. No thanks.... by Monf · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I bought a Nomad Jukebox Zen NX 20 GB Digital Audio Player last Xmas, and the hard drive in it crashed while my kid was flying back to his mom's.

    I checked the FAQ's they had at Creative, and one of the questions was: Can I jog with my Nomad?, and the answer was: No, but you can take long leisurely walks with it.....

    So I got an iPod instead, and except for Job's habit of keeping everything a secret: like the DRM (which Real reversed-engineered - thank god for sleazy companies...), I'm pretty happy with it.

    I know this is going up against the mini-pod, but if this thing is as FRAGILE as the older disk based nomads, i'd stay away... Besides, you can get a a set of headphones with a built-in fm radio for like a buck -http://www.wholesaledirectonline.com/ec215.html uhoh- this poor guys gonna get /.ed now...

    --
    Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
  10. Re:Cant post anything constructive by parkrrrr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, it's "curved to fit." What it fits, well... I think the last time I saw that phrase used to sell something, it was a feminine hygeine commercial.