Creative Releases Concept Shots Of Zii Phone, All It Needs Is Manufacturers.

By Benedict Wee

Gizmodo's got the scoop on the Zii Phone by Singaporean tech company Creative as they display Zii hardware concept shots to hardware licensors in China today.

A pretty ambitious project, the Zii Phone -called the Trinity- hopes to run dual mobile operating systems (Google's Android and Creative's own Plszama platform), full 1080p HD video playback over HDMI, OpenGL 2.0 (the one the iPhone 3GS uses) for better graphics rendering and a 1GHz processor, which would make it the 3rd Android phone we currently know of that will run at that speed. The other two being the Acer Liquid A1 and Sony Ericcson's Xperia X10.

The pictures taken of the Trinity make the mobile seem a tad bland design-wise right now as it looks a whole lot like Creative's Android multimedia player: the Zii Egg. But like the Egg, Creative is hoping for hardware manufacturers to adopt the concept of the Zii Phone and put their own personal touch to their product.

Their approach to marketing the Zii-brand is confusing as I wonder why they don't just manufacture the gadgets themselves and cut out the middle man like they've done with the rest of Creative's products. The Zii Egg has been in stuck in developer hands for awhile now and there's no sign of a consumer version on the horizon and looking for a manufacturer would just take up loads of time, causing them (and us) to miss out on buying what seems to be very a promising line of next-generation gadgets.

On the bright side however is that at least Android's penetration seems to be gaining a lot of momentum and more developers are willing to give Google's OS a shot. Could 2010 be the year they beat the iPhone/iPod Touch?

Source:

Gizmodo - Zii Lives: First Look at the 1080 Android Powered Trinity Phone.

Creative Launches Nex-Gen Vado Pocket Camcorder.

By Benedict Wee

The current Vados have decent enough specs to compete in the pocket camcorder market right now but Creative's newly announced 3rd generation model might prove to be one of the better portable video-recording gadgets this holiday season.

The Vado HD one ups its previous predecessor with the follow improvements:

• Better quality video in low light or brightly lit conditions
• Manual exposure adjustments
• External stereo microphone support for better audio recording
• Headphone output for private listening
• Motion Detection Mode - camera only records when motion is detected
• Out-of-the box Mac and PC compatibility
• Still Photo Capture Mode

The slight downside of the next-gen model is that its internal storage space has gone down to 4GB from its previous 8GB, but Creative was sensible enough to sell it at a lower price of US$180/NZ$248, which is a good deal.

The Vado HD will be in retail stores in the US come mid-December so here's hoping that it'll be available to us somewhere around the Christmas period.

Source:

Engadget - Creative rolls out third gen Vado HD pocket camcorder

Zii Egg: Developer's Edition Videos

By Benedict Wee

With Apple releasing its next-gen iPod Touch sans camera I've decided to look to other power packed PMPs to purchase this year and since Microsoft has decided to only sell their Zune HD in the US, the only other viable option is Creative's Zii Egg.

I've talked about the player before and its specs are pretty decent: dual cameras, 1080p HD output, SDHC card slot, GPS and the ability to run Android make the Zii Egg an awesome device to own. Unfortunately for now the PMP remains in its "Developer's Edition" form which means it isn't meant to be sold to the general public but if you've been holding out for a next-gen device then there's nothing really stopping you from buying it online.

Here are some videos of the Zii Egg in action:

The Zii Egg (32GB) comes free when you purchase a Plasma SDK Starter Kit for US$399/NZ$559 online here.

Creative's New Personal Media Player Is An Explosion Of Copycat Ideas

By Benedict Wee

Creative is known for their great line of media players, running up second only to Apple and although they do not have the massive following the iPod maker does, they do have a decent fan base out there which allows them to survive.

Unfortunately they do not posses the style and branding their competitor has, relying more on being able to squeeze tones of functionality into the tiniest piece of equipment. Their marketing and design of the product is usually a cut and paste affair of different popular gadgets out there.

Case in point, their newest player: The Zii Egg. If the iPod Touch is an iPhone without the "phone" bit, then the Zii Egg is more of an Android phone without the "phone". Let me explain.

The Zii Egg runs Google's Android but it is a media player like the iPod Touch. Unlike Apple's portable player however, the Zii Egg has extra features like GPS, Dual cameras (VGA in front and HD behind), a microphone with text to speech functions, 1080p HD output and a SD(HC) card slot which supports up to 32GB worth of storage space.

It's pretty amazing the way Creative has practically created a PDA, though they prefer to call it a handheld computer. But who uses a PDA these days?

Besides copying most of the functionality of the iPod Touch, the Zii name is an obvious "inspiration" of Nintendo's widely popular Wii console and like the other mobile developers out there, runs an OS developed by Creative: Plaszma which has its own application store. Plaszma will be an alternate and optional OS to Android but we all know which one we'll prefer to use should we purchase the player (Hint: Android).

I like the idea of the Zii Egg. Its extra functions provide a cheaper alternative to getting an Android phone (the base set without storage capacity is said to retail at US$199/NZ$303) and it's better than the HTC Magic in many aspects but what concerns me most about the gadget is the timing.

Good luck trying to incorporate the plaszma logo into your Personal Media Players

Currently the Zii Egg (with an inbuilt storage space of 32GB) is available to developers along with the Plaszma SDK developing kit for US$399/NZ$607 which means that it will be awhile before we see it on store shelves. By then the new camera iPod Touches will have been released and they would have to face tough competition with Apple. If I were Creative I'd just scrap the silly Plaszma OS and release the players with Android now.

Source:

Zii Website

Gizmodo - Creative Zii Egg Plaszma: Android Wielding iPod Touch