31Days_of_the_Dragon

The Windows "Mojave" Experiment [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Jason Dunn — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:29:00 -0500

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9...l?tag=nefd.lede

"After months of searching for ways to defend its oft-maligned Windows operating system, Microsoft may just have found its best weapon: Vista's skeptics. Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista. "Oh wow," said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago. Instead, the operating system got mixed reviews and criticisms for its lack of compatibility and other headaches."

This is nothing short of brilliant. It's often said that perception is reality, and the perception of Windows Vista amongst Joe Consumer tends to be fairly negative - though Joe Consumer would be hard pressed to explain why. I've heard people complain about Vista, but when pressed they admit they have little to no experience with Vista and they "just heard" it wasn't any good. Apple's attack ads are brutally effective at fostering this notion, and Microsoft was naïve to think that the slick, prime-time ads wouldn't have an impact on the general public. I don't pretend to be clever enough to know exactly how Microsoft should have responded, but they needed to do something and they didn't. I'm really looking forward to seeing the video footage from the Mojave experiment - if Microsoft is willing to spend the big bucks to advertise the results on prime-time TV, they could start to reap some significant rewards in terms of consumer perception.

It's also important to note that the demos were done on an HP Pavilion DV2000 notebook with 2 GB of RAM - as in, not a $4000 computer with high-end hardware. The dv2000 is a typical notebook that a consumer would purchase for under $1000 USD - showing that Windows Vista doesn't require massive hardware to run properly.

Are you one of those Windows Vista skeptics?

Bio.Genica Genpets [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:55:38 -0500

Say goodbye to your old virtual pet. Bio.Genica has created Genpets, which are bioengineered genetic animals. They use Zygote Micro Injection to combine DNA, then put it into the little creepy critters. Each “fetus” has a microchip embedded to control and monitor life functions. It comes packed with its own heart monitor and Fresh Strip to better gauge its state while hibernating. Choose between 1 and 3-year models and 7 personality types that learn and adapt at prices starting at € 350 (~$550.00,) if the video doesn’t leave you feeling like you just don’t want to go there. If you do, we suggest you read their FAQs page and that should do the trick.

Jawbone Offers Lawbreakers Discounts [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:39:42 -0500

If you live in one of those states that has a Hands Free Law and have already been busted, Jawbone is offering a $20.00 discount. What a clever promotion! Their theory is that “having a conversation shouldn’t be a crime.” You simply put in the state that caught you and the ticket number and your price is lowered. Available in black or gold, the Jawbone, with NoiseAssassin technology, separates speech from ambient noise. It comes with a wall charger, USB cable, 3 earbuds, and 4 earloops for $109.00 after the discount.

Tags: cell phone (T), discount (T), earpiece (T), headphones (T), jawbone (T), mobile phone (T), ticket (T)

Ion-Audio VCR 2 PC Player [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:28:31 -0500

Time to phase out those old VHS tapes? Ion-Audio’s VCR 2 PC is a clever way to do just that. Hook it up to your USB port and the included EZ VHS Converter software allows you to burn them to DVD, so that you can watch them on your PC, PSP, or iPod. You can also connect your VHS, VHS-C, or 8mm camcorder via the front panel jacks to save anything on them. After you have finished creating your digital library, the VCR 2 PC doubles as a player. You can find them for $249.99.

Tags: converter (T), dvd (T), ion-audio (T), movies (T), software (T), usb (T), vcr 2 pc (T), vhs player (T)

Partake in a Startup Weekend [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:17:40 -0500

Think you have the next idea for a successful startup Internet company? Maybe it’s time to attend a Startup Weekend. This grueling 54 hour event hooks up the most creative to get together and come up with a company, including the product, marketing, and revenue models. There are several scheduled around the U.S. and other locations, such as Boston, NYC, San Francisco, and Hamburg, Germany. Sign up to attend or simply watch the ones that can, do. Check out their site to see their itinerary and what projects have come out of past brainstorming sessions.

Tags: company (T), internet (T), internet companies (T), startup (T), startup weekend (T)

Optical Solar Messenger Bag [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:51:50 -0500

The Optical Solar Messenger Bag can not only carry your laptop, iPod, cell phone, PDA, or other small devices, it will charge them as you travel. At a size of 13 x 17 x 5-inches and with a weight of about 2 1/2 lbs., the bag contains both inner and outer pockets and stores enough energy for two charges. It comes with adapters for the iPod/iPhone, Samsung, LG, and mini-USB, among others. You can get the solar carrier for $129.99.

Tags: carrier (T), case (T), iphone (T), ipod (T), laptop (T), optical solar messenger bag (T)

Creative ZEN Mozaic [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:35:08 -0500

Creative has launched their new ZEN Mozaic. Features include a 1.8-inch TFT LCD display, a built-in speaker, FM tuner with 32 preset stations, and microphone. The 79.5 x 40 x 12.8 player weighs 43g supports MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM 10 and Audible (Format 4) and JPEG. Each one is has their Creative Centrale application for media management. Choose between several colors and sizes of 2GB for $99.00, 4GB for $129.00, and 8GB $169.00. As usual, the company also has available various accessories to go with the PMP.

Tags: audio (T), creative zen mozaic (T), fm tuner (T), mp3 player (T), music (T), photos (T), pmp (T)

The Windows Mojave experiment results [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

freitasm — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:18:00 -0500

Yesterday I posted about Microsoft Windows Mojave, an experiement in perception.

A set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista during the Mojave Experiment. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave", a new operating system that impressed everyone.

Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.

I have just found out the full "Mojave Experiment" results will be available 29th July on The Mojave Experiment website.

Roundup: Apple still hasn’t cleaned up its MobileMess [last100]

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:08:34 -0500

Not only has it been a rough two weeks since the disastrous introduction of MobileMe July 10-11, it’s been a miserable last three days for Apple and its “Exchange for the rest of us” product.

First, up, the Wall Street Journal

Well-known personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, a big fan of Apple products and services about 99.99 percent of the time, said in his first complete review of MobileMe on Wednesday:

“Unfortunately, after a week of intense testing of the service, I can’t recommend it, at least not in its current state. It’s a great idea, but, as of now, MobileMe has too many flaws to keep its promises.”

Next up, The New York Times

David Pogue, another Apple fan among technology writers, on Thursday chronicled the correspondence he has received from readers over their hassles with MobileMe, which they are calling “ImmobileMe” and “MobileMess.”

“It’s amazing that Apple doesn’t recognize this situation. This is an airplane that’s stuck on the runway for hours with no food or working bathroom. And the pilot doesn’t come on the P.A. system to tell customers what the problem is, what’s being done to fix it, how much longer they might be stuck, and how he empathizes with their plight. Instead, he comes on once every three hours to repeat the same thing: ‘We apologize for the inconvenience.’ “

To round out the week, Fortune and Macworld

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt asks the question, “Who is to blame for MobileMe?” and calling it “Apple’s worst product launch in the 10 years since [CEO Steve] Jobs returned from exile.”

Macworld gets as critical about an Apple product as it usually gets, giving MobileMe three-and-a-half mice out of five — which the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade both received in earlier reviews.

Along the way, Mossberg, Pogue, Fortune, and Macworld — and seemingly most of the Twitterverse and blogosphere — have noted that people are continuing to:

lose email
have sync problems between one or all parts of the iPhone-MobileMe (cloud)-computer data highway
that “push” is more like “shove”, with content updating every 15 minutes or so, not instantaneously as advertised
some if not all of Me.com’s primary Web applications (Mail, contacts, calendar) are losing data, are slower than usual, and are just plain flakey
it’s impossible to reach tech support, and if you do no one seems to know what to do.

(To help people cope with many of these issues, Hawk Wings has assembled an excellent list of MobileMe technotes. And here are plenty of entries at the Apple MobileMe discussion board.)

I’ve experienced all of this first-hand, and I’m so $#%%&! confused I don’t know what is what.

Where’s my complete contact list — on the Powerbook, the Air, the iPhone, or in the Me cloud? I get sync errors hourly. Calendar items are seemingly complete on one device, partial on another, and absent on a third.

And I’ll add to the list. Syncing and transferring files between computers and MobileMe is just as painfully slow as it was with iDisk and .Mac.

These horror stories make me wonder: What harm is being done to MobileMe? Is the luster and promise gone? Will non-Apple diehards even give it a chance now? Is personal cloud computing — ahem — just a pie-in-the-sky dream?

I remind myself and all of us: We are at the outset of personal cloud computing. There are bound to be failures, false starts, glitches, hiccups, but probably none as public as MobileMess.

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Related Articles at last100:

Down Time for Server This Weekend [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Jason Dunn — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:24:00 -0500

Just a quick FYI: we need to do some optimizations on our server this weekend (for greater speed and uptime) that will result in us having to take the Web sites offline Saturday morning 6 AM to 8 AM EST. That's a rough estimate of course, but if all goes well they'll be back up before 9 AM. Thanks for your patience as we work to smooth things out.

Apple beta testing iPhone 2.1 firmware, adding more GPS features [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:40:32 -0500

We just got word that Apple has released a beta version of iPhone OS 2.1 to developers. Along with the 2.1 firmware, a new version of the iPhone SDK has been seeded as well, but the new SDK can’t be used for submitting applications to the App Store at the moment.

A few new things we are seeing in this version of the software is the addition of a bunch of Core Location features that track the direction you are heading, and the speed you are traveling. Looks like we might see a turn-by-turn GPS app after all on the iPhone 3G.

Tags: adslice (T), app store (T), apple (T), beta (T), core location (T), gps (T), iphone (T), iphone 2.1 (T), iphone 3g (T), iphone firmware (T), iphone os 2.1 (T), iphone sdk (T), sidefeatured (T), software (T)

Yahoo! Music Pulls Plug On Store And DRM Servers [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Ed Hansberry — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0500

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...ys-with-it.html

"The bad dream of DRM continues. Yahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good—and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. Sure, it's bad news and yet another example of the sheer lobotomized brain-deadness that has characterized music DRM, but the reaction of most music fans will be: "Yahoo had an online music store?" "

I had Yahoo! Music a few years ago and really liked it until my licenses would no longer update, and after 3-4 email exchanges, uinstall/reinstalls, I demanded a partial refund and that was the last time I'd ever deal with DRM like that again. If you have Yahoo! Music, you have about 60 days to burn what you want to CD and re-rip it unprotected so you can listen to what you purchased. And for your music needs, see Amazon's MP3 store. Everything there is unlocked.

Kensington Ci75m Wireless Notebook Mouse [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Chris Gohlke — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:00:00 -0500

I'd recently been shopping around for a wireless optical mouse when I stumbled upon the most wonderful little mouse on a clearance rack at Target. I had been looking at the Logitech VX Nano [Affiliate] which seemed to be an outstanding little mouse, but at over $50, I'd been holding off. That is when I found the Kensington Ci75m for under $20.

Let me show you around and let you see why I think this thing rocks.

To start of, this mouse has the standard features you'd expect of a cordless mouse, optical sensor, scroll wheel, yada, yada, yada... It is also thin at approximate 0.65" thick.

Figure 1: Side view.

Now here is where it starts to get interesting. Like most travel mice, the receiver pops into the base of the mouse for storage. On this one, popping the receiver into the base covers the optical sensor for protection and automatically powers off the mouse to save battery power.

Figure 2: Bottom view.

Here is the really neat part. Not that it happens frequently, but chances are the batteries in your mouse will go dead at the absolute worst time. With this mouse, no problem. Pop off the magnetically attached cover and unwind the built in USB cable and plug it into the receiver dongle: instant wired mouse. This feature is also useful on airplanes when you can't technically use wireless.

Figure 3: Mouse guts view.

I've only been using this mouse for a few days, but so far I'm finding it pretty cool. If you think it might be an interesting addition to your travel arsenal, you can pick one up from Amazon [Affiliate] starting at $17.15 depending on the color you choose.

Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.

Windows Mobile Roadmap session at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008 [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

teched — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:57:00 -0500

I have just received the confirmation I will be running the Windows Mobile Roadmap session (UNC117) at Tech Ed New Zealand 2008.

At this stage I don't know the exact date/time but it's all go.

See you there!

... (more in the full post)

E3 2008: Sony Media Briefing Highlights [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:32:21 -0500

Add To Your Site:

During E3 2008, we hit up the Sony Media Briefing to get a look at all announcements related to the PS3, PS2, and PSP. We bring you the best of the best in this episode, showing off games like Resistance 2, MAG, LittleBigPlanet, DC Universe Online, and others for the PLAYSTATION 3. Of course, there is also a bunch of portable PSP goodness, and even some PS2 love as well. Hit the video for all the details.

Also, if you want all the notes, we’ve got the Sony E3 2008 Media Briefing live coverage, and even a full photo gallery of the highlights as well.

iRiver T7 (Should be Thrown in a) Volcano [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Chris Gohlke — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:00:00 -0500

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/arch...o-t7-review.php

"I really don't have too many nice things to say about the iriver T7. Even if you were to ignore the fact that it has more bugs than any other player I've seen (something that might after all be fixed in firmware updates), it's still so ridiculously slow that you can take a nap between the time you press a button and the thing actually responds. The battery draining issue is another thing, if that's not just my player then iriver has a serious problem. With the exception of the USB plug/MSC mode combo, the player has very little going for it. It has basically the exact same specs as any other small player like this and when a set of players cost the same and have the same features, there is no room whatsoever for a poorly designed competitor like this. So is the player worth your consideration? No."

Looks like iRiver dropped the ball here. I'll go on record that I liked the brown Zune, but this player is pretty ugly. The one redeeming characteristic is the built in USB connector, but certainly not enough to offset the rest.

New Zealand company wins FileMaker Award [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:52:00 -0500

Local software developer Digital Fusion Ltd has won the FileMaker Excellence Award for Solution Of The Year at the international FileMaker Developers Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

You interview: Telecom New Zealand CEO Dr Paul Reynolds [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:47:00 -0500

You can post your questions to Dr Paul Reynolds in our forums.

Guitar Hero World Tour track list leaked? [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:32:38 -0500

Very interesting - word on the street is that the Guitar Hero World Tour set list has been leaked onto the interwebs. If the list is to be believed, then World Tour is gonna have 87 tracks (14 of them being bonus tracks, 7 of them being sample songs), along with a few guitar battles that will make you go one-on-one with the likes of Sting and Ted Nugent. Obviously, no confirmation or anything on the validity of the list, but we certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if it turned out to be true. Check the full list after the break.

Continue reading Guitar Hero World Tour track list leaked? Tags:

You interview the CEO: Telecom NZ Dr Paul Reynolds waiting your questions [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

freitasm — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:19:00 -0500

It took some time, but it happened. We now have a discussion open in our Telecom New Zealand forum, waiting for your questions to CEO Dr Paul Reynolds.

The idea is simple: people can post their questions in the thread, and after a week I will be forwarding these to get his answers. I will then post the answers on Geekzone.

We have done this before with other major telcos in New Zealand - check the answers for Orcon, TelstraClear, and WorldxChange.

Thanks to the Telecom folks who helped us get there!

In the clouds is not always safe... [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

freitasm — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:57:00 -0500

How well companies that offer something for "free" can do with a subscription option?

When there are so many "free" things on the web, one has to wonder how companies can keep their products up and running (or even if they can manage to get out of beta).

Some companies just don't. They close the service and tell the customers to get out of here:

Personal Media: Bluestring, Xdrive and AOL Pictures will be sunset. These consumer storage products haven't gained sufficient traction in the marketplace or the monetization levels necessary to offset the high cost of their operation. We have found that building media management applications within the context of a social experience is a more rapid and effective way to grow the business. For example, today the Bebo audience is uploading over three million photos per day. To effectively grow the XDrive online storage business we would need to focus on subscription revenues vs. monetizing through advertising revenue, and this business model is not in strategic alignment with our company's goals. We are exploring plans to migrate our users assets to ensure the best possible transition experience.

This is part of the memo AOL sent out to staff explaning the end of some of their services - including Xdrive an on-line storage service that offered 5 GB of storage free to anyone.

There's a reason why people buy external drives for home or buy Windows Home Server or NAS boxes. First broadband speed sucks around the world. Then the services don't work as expected or not as easily (Xdrive is only one that I know that could be mounted as a drive on your OS so you could just copy things from and to instead of having to open a browser window). And even so it was very unstable.

Which leads me to the next one: the on-line service businesses seem to be quite unreliable - unless they are a subscription service with a SLA, not a freebie. But even so sith happens.

When there are lots of free things, some won't last long.

Star Wars Clone Wars Movie Trailer [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:16:53 -0500

Here’s what we are thinking. Not to like Star Wars is practically like being anti-American. But the thing that is best about the series is how the fantasy is made better by turning it into a reality. But in this new movie, even Yoda is a bit too creepy. If you haven’t yet seen the trailer for Clone Wars, take a peek, and decide for yourself if it is worth paying outrageous ticket and popcorn prices to see on its August 15 debut. We think we may wait for the video to come out and catch another screening of Wall-E.

Tags: animation (T), cgi (T), clone wars (T), movie (T), star wars (T), wall-e (T)

Netflix Terminates Red Envelope [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:00:33 -0500

Apparently Netflix is closing down their Red Envelope Entertainment division. It had invested in more than 100 films including “John Waters: This Filthy World,” “Sherry Baby,” and “The Giant Buddhas” (which we just saw and highly recommend.) Over 75 employees will lose their jobs because of the change. One of the reasons we dig Netflix is because they feature Indy films, so maybe we can deluge the company with e-mails and save them.

Tags: independent movies (T), indy film (T), movies (T), netflix (T), red envelope entertainment (T)

Update Windows Live Mobile or not? [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

freitasm — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:51:00 -0500

This week we got the news Microsoft has released an update for Windows Live Mobile. No, don't go updating your Windows Mobile Pocket PC yet. Read on.

First the good news: this update enhances Windows Live on your Windows Mobile. Great. But if you have Windows Live Messenger on your device (installed by an OEM), don't install this update yet. Read more.

Windows Live Mobile is really cool - it enables push e-mail for your Windows Live accounts (this includes Hotmail and even the Geekzonemail accounts).

Here is the bad news: Microsoft stopped providing Windows Live Messenger with Windows Live Mobile - a departure from earlier versions. And if you have an old Windows Live Mobile version with Windows Live Messenger, installing this new version will disable the Messenger component.

The Windows Live Messenger files are still in the system, but the program won't start at all. Uninstalling the "update" will automatically revert to the previous version and enable Windows Live Messenger again.

What is really annoying is that Microsoft makes Windows Live Messenger available for RIM BlackBerry users, but leave Windows Mobile users in the cold, waiting for operators to release their software (which we all know ain't gonna happen any time soon).

If you don't have Windows Live Mobile on your device (some OEMs don't include it), then you can download it now - and use a third party software for communicating with friends on Windows Live Messenger. Try one of the following:

- Fring (free, multiple IM systems, Skype, SIP, Twitter)
- Pocket MSN
- MSN Messenger Force

Neoneco iPod Swing Speaker [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:45:49 -0500

We love our iPod, but cannot find a decent pair of earbuds that are comfortable, functional, and affordable. Now that many companies are creating speakers, they are finally being priced less. The Korean company Neoneco has launched its Swing Speaker. For use with 3 different iPods, the battery powered add-on will run for about 10 hours. Choose between styles for nano ($29.00,) classic ($32.00,) and touch ($36.00.)

Tags: classic (T), ipod (T), music (T), nano (T), neoneco ipod swing speaker (T), speakers (T), touch (T)

Internet Voted Greatest Invention [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:28:04 -0500

In a survey of more than 5000 by News.com.au and Timesonline, 40% said that the Internet is the greatest invention since sliced bread. Coming in second was penicillin with a vote of 19.6%, while the TV remote captured 10.2%. On the other side of the survey, 40.8% of the voters said that reality TV was the worst thing to come out, followed by loud TV ads at 15.6% and Crocs (the shoes, we presume) with a vote of 15.3%. Oddly enough, Sudoku made both lists. Check out the complete survey.

Tags: australia (T), crocs (T), internet (T), inventions (T), poll (T), survey (T), times online (T)

Yahoo! Zimbra desktop launches [Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:22:00 -0500

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop makes Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail

available offline.

The Simpsons Limited Edition Apple iPod nano [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:14:48 -0500

If you love the Simpsons, you have to love the limited edition iPod nano that holds 8GB. Only 2000 are available and each is numbered and personalized by laser for up to 30 characters. The music player lets you watch your favorite episodes, movies, podcasts, and music. The nano comes with earphones, a USB 2.0 cable Dock adapter, and stand at a price of $269.00. Other styles/sizes are also available.

Tags: apple (T), ipod nano (T), limited edition (T), music (T), television (T), the simpsons (T), tv (T)

JVC HP-SX505 Neodymium Earphones [Gear Live]

Andru Edwards — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:52:26 -0500

JVC has a new pair of Neodymium in-ear canal headphones with a frequency response of 8Hz to 22,000Hz, a 104 dB/mW at 1 kHz sensitivity, a maximum power input of 200mW, and a 10ohm driver diameter. Similar to the company’s HA-SX500, the brass ring on the HP-SX505 supposedly reduces vibration and energy loss. Look for the dynamic earbuds with their 0.8m cable to make their debut in August with a price of €80 (~$125.00.)

Tags: audio (T), earbuds (T), headphones (T), hp-sx505 neodymium earphones (T), jvc (T), music (T)

Read More | Geek Stuff 4U via Akihabara News

Creative ZEN Mozaic [Digital Home Thoughts.com]

Chris Gohlke — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:00:00 -0500

http://sg.creative.com/corporate/pr...e.asp?pid=12970

"Creative Technology Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, today introduced the Creative ZEN® Mozaic portable media player for music, photos and video. Inspired by the artistic expressions of mosaic art, the Creative ZEN Mozaic, available in vivid pink, chic black or cool silver colour, is a bold design statement that reflects the user's sense of fashion and individual style. Attractively priced at S$99.00 for a 2GB model (for up to 1,000 songs*) and S$129.00 for a 4GB model (for up to 2,000 songs*), the Creative ZEN Mozaic lets users flaunt their style, while grooving to their favourite tunes, or enjoying their photos and music videos anytime, anywhere. The Creative ZEN Mozaic comes complete with an impressive built-in speaker, vibrant 1.8-inch LCD colour screen, FM radio and voice recorder. Weighing just 43g and measuring 79.5mm x 40mm x 12.8mm, the super compact Creative ZEN Mozaic provides up to 32 hours of audio playback with a single charge of the battery. Also available at a later date are 8GB and 16GB models."

I'm not sure what I think of the design. I'm betting reactions will be polarized between love it and hate it. I really like the built in speaker, but think that the memory sizes are a bit small. When I looked at the pictures before reading the press release, I thought Creative was actually releasing a phone as the placement of the buttons made me think instantly of a keypad. If your interested in seeing beyond the press release, check out the World Exclusive First Look.