X

Creative Zii touch-screen player outed by FCC

The first glimpses of the Creative Zii touch-screen media player are seen in an FCC filing.

Donald Bell Senior Editor / How To
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
Donald Bell

FCC illustration of Creative Zii touch-screen media players.
Meet the backs of the Creative Zii and the developer-edition Zii Egg. FCC

A filing with the FCC offers some evidence that Creative has a new touch-screen portable media player in the works. Named after the system-on-a-chip processor Creative showed off during CES 2009, the Zii (and the developer-only Zii EGG) include music and video playback capabilities, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and an HD camera on the back.

Little else about the player is revealed in the FCC filing, but it's pretty easy to connect the dots and see that Creative is playing catchup with Apple's iPod Touch. Creative is no stranger to playing second fiddle to Apple, but the company has no precedent when it comes to working with developers to create mobile applications (as the developer-edition Zii EGG model suggests).

Some speculate that the Zii will run on Google's Android OS, taking advantage of an established developer community. If so, Android seems to be iPod-killer OS of choice these days, as Sony has also announced plans to use Android in future versions of their Walkman line.

(Via EpiZENter)