creativity

It's been well under a week since DAPreview discovered a 16GB version of the Creative Zen V Plus listed on the company's Singapore Web site, and yet the player has already made its way onto the U.S.-based online store--and in this country, it's actually in stock. You can pick up the capacious flash-based MP3 player for $249.99, which is the same price as the 30GB Zen Vision:M. Still, I think it's a small price to pay to get your hands on that roomy flash chip. For those that are counting, that's … Read more

It seems that there is a benefit to running Creative fan site EpiZENter, and that's that you notice sneaky Creative moves before the "other guys" (in this case, me). The astute fellows over at DAPreview have caught sight of a 16GB version of the Zen V Plus over at Creative's Singapore store. We already knew that 16GB flash devices were imminent, but this is the first player that's been officially listed in that capacity. However, the product is currently not in stock, so it may not end up being the first one out the gate. … Read more

The Zen Stone Plus may not have the best battery life, but its supersmall size, built-in FM tuner, and variety of totable accessories make it a perfect companion for the gym. There's even an optional wristband that lets you wear the player like a watch, and--indeed--there's a digital watch screensaver that you can set on the LCD. The Stone Plus even has a stopwatch for timing those intervals on the treadmill. And for frequent fliers, there's the TravelSound Zen Stone, an ultracompact speaker for you to take on the road. To see the Zen Stone Plus and … Read more

Owl Music Search is a cool tool that was spotlighted at a Creative Commons Salon last night. The potentially endangered Pandora and Last.fm recommend which music you'll like by matching text descriptions of albums, artists and songs. But Owl analyzes the actual waveforms of music files and matches them to similar tunes, many of which have Creative Commons licenses.

When I uploaded Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," Owl dug up 44 tracks by Loretta Lynn, Outkast, the Rolling Stones, Marilyn Manson and others, highlighting snippets of their songs that resembled parts of "Hallelujah." Owl has … Read more

I'm a big fan of Creative MP3 players--no surprise there. The Zen line offers cute and colorful designs, customizable user interfaces that are also a snap to navigate, and--my no. 1 requirement--stellar audio quality. For all of these reasons, I have chosen to use Creative's devices for my personal listening the majority of the time. As such, I've spent a lot of hours listening to music on a variety of Zens and there is one thing that remains pretty constant: the shuffle feature on these players sucks (for lack of a better word). And this … Read more

If it were possible for a company to spoil its products rotten, Creative would be one of the guilty parties. We recently saw how it coddled its "Zen Wav" with a cushy dock, and now it's pampering the "Zen Stone Plus" with a portable speaker system.

Just look at the new "TravelSound"--it practically cocoons the MP3 player as it nestles safely in its perfectly sized dock, resting horizontally as if ready to take a nap. The speaker system will go on sale next month for $69, according to Fareastgizmos, though we're … Read more

Bless Creative's soul for offering me some relief from my parched existence in the iPhone desert. Tomorrow, the company will officially announce yet another MP3 player for its already impressive Zen line. The latest family member is an enhancement to the ultrabasic Zen Stone and carries Creative's signature Plus at the end of its name. The Zen Stone Plus looks almost identical to its slightly older sibling, but with one important difference: a small, round OLED screen which sits to the left of the control pad. Sure, it's tiny and only displays in one color (blue, on … Read more

If a phone can have a bed and an iPod a hammock, they why can't an MP3 player have a nice comfy chair?

That, at least, is what the dock for Creative's "Zen Wav" looks like to us. But the youngest in the family is often spoiled, so we're not really surprised. The Wav is the latest of an ever-growing list of siblings from Creative, this one featuring a 1.5-inch color LCD and 2GB of memory in an aluminum case for about $114 on the Singapore market.

Electronista says its built-in speakers, however, are … Read more

The man who claims to have created the famed Electric Slide has backed down from a legal claim against an engineer who posted a YouTube video of people doing the dance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced.

The EFF had represented the engineer, Kyle Machulia, in a lawsuit against the dance's creator, Richard Silver. But on Tuesday, the EFF said Silver had backed down from his claim and his general "online video takedown campaign" and agreed to allow anyone noncommercial use of the dance.

In February, Silver filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice with YouTube demanding … Read more