Hey guys,
I am currently starting my fall semester at the College for Creative Studies to study product design. I was planning on continuing my postings of “Seoul Updates” but due to prep for college, I have been quite busy recently. Additionally, my laptop’s HDD died while exploring Seoul which resulted in loss of most of the photos I intended on posting. I’ll stay inactive for a month or so while I get used to college and will eventually crawl back to provide more Korean DAP news for you guys. I did mange to save some of the photos which I uploaded into flickr.
Thanks for the interest in my coverage of Seoul!
My Flickr Photostream
Creative has just started shipping out the first batch of Zii EGG orders. Staff member, DaHarder was lucky enough to be among them, and has posted a few pictures of the touchscreen device. The EGG is a Developer’s model so it’s still a bit of a work in progress. Still, from what I’ve seen of the interface, a consumer model may not be too far off. Here are DaHarder’s first impressions of the player:
“The screen on the Zii EGG compares very favorably with the Sony’s OLED (shown above), though the blacks certainly aren’t as intense. It’s shockingly bright, and colors are very vibrant and ‘alive’. The built-in speakers are about on par with those on my Zen X-Fi, though not quite as good as the one’s on my Sony NWZ-S545 (also pictured) - IMO.”
“Remember that the Zii EGG/DE is not a retail/consumer product and is very ‘rough around the edges’, but one thing that I’m really happy about is that the player sounds better than ANY Creative DAP/PMP since the Zen MicroPhoto. I’ll even go so far as to say that it’s the best sounding Creative player I’ve ever heard, and that’s without any EQ/Z-Fi etc.”
So there you have it. This might be Creative’s best sounding player to date, and this comes from someone who probably has every Creative player to date so I’ll take his word on it. Stay tuned for more hands-on impressions. I’d also like to take this time to give DaHarder a warm welcome back after being gone for a few months with an illness.
More pictures can be seen HERE
A few hands-on videos also showed up on youtube, which you can check out after the jump….
On Sunday, while vacationing in D.C., I visited the Best Buy in Pentagon City, VA to get my first glimpse of the Zune HD in person. As mentioned earlier, the preview event took place at various Best Buy locations around the country this past weekend.
Upon entering the store, I was greeted by a few reps from Microsoft who were giving out information cards about the Zune HD, including one about the player’s Nivida Tegra chip. I was directed to the MP3 player section where a table was set up with a few Zune HD units, some reservation cards, and an LCD TV. The first thing I did was snap a picture of that setup (which you see above), after which, I was told by a Zune rep that pictures weren’t allowed. How unfortunate, I was ready to snap a million pictures of the ZHD from every angle, and shoot some video with my Vado HD cam.
So the next thing I did was ask if I could see the player. The same rep then told me they couldn’t hand out the player to anyone, but they’d be happy to do a demonstration for me. What kind of preview is this? I’m not sure if other locations were as strict as this one, but nonetheless I still managed to get a good impression of the player and have some questions answered.
Continue reading to see my initial impressions of the Zune HD
| If you’re dying to get your hands on the Zune HD you don’t have to wait till September. Select Best Buy locations around the country will be providing a preview of the player this weekend. Locations are mostly in major cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and LA.
Click HERE to see the full list of stores (PDF file)
I sure picked a good weekend to not be in NYC. I’ll be in D.C. for a few days, but if I have time I might stop off at the Best Buy in Pentagon City, VA on Sunday to check it out. It’s bound to be less crowded there than in the New York locations right? This could just be a blessing in disguise! For those going, make sure to post your impressions of the player in our comments section. See you all next week! |
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The Cube H600HD! The vibrant box actually looks a lot like a game of Tetris after I’ve played for a minute (in other words, I suck at Tetris). The player inside isn’t too shabby either. The H600HD has a 5.0″ LED touchscreen, can do 1080i TV-out, and plays back all kinds of formats.
Features:
- 5.0″ LED Touchscreen (800 x 480)
- Audio: MP3, WMA, FLAC< Ogg, and APE
- Video: H.264, AVI, MPEG-4, WMV, MKV, FLV, VOB, RM/RMVB
- 1080i TV-out with AC3/DTS decoding and SRT (subtitle) support
- Extras: FM Tuner, USB Host, Voice recorder, exFAT format support
LINK
For the last few months, Andrew (aka Design Fabulous) has been doing a fantastic job of taking us on a virtual tour of Seoul, South Korea. I almost feel like I’m there as I scroll through his collection of photos and read his descriptions of what’s going on around the city. Almost being the key word here; I still can’t go into my local electronics shop and touch up all the latest players that will never make their way to the states. The latest Korean-exclusive is the Atree J200. It’s a sexy mini-PMP in the same vein as the Cowon D2+. It has a 3.0″ touchscreen, a gorgeous flash interface, and plays most popular formats. Full specs below.
Features
- Capacity: 4GB plus microSD expansion
- Display: 3.0″ Touchscreen LCD (480 x 272)
- Audio: MP3, WMA, Ogg, FLAC
- Video: AVI, Divx, WMV (with AC3 support)
- DMB Tuner
- FM Tuner and Voice recorder
- Extras: Dictionary, Flash lite, Text, Organizer, calculator
The J200 sells for 198,000 Korean won, which is about $157US. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of it in a future Seoul Update.
LINK
via PMP Today
When I think of iriver, certain words come to mind: Clean, modern, and Korean for starters. Sadly for the last few years, I saw none of that at iriver America. Their website was dark, rarely updated, and was a bit of a mess to navigate around. I just checked this morning, and it looks like they’ve finally got a makeover. It’s nice and bright and fairly similar to their Korean site, though still not as nice.
Before: (courtesy of Archive.org)
Click to Enlarge
After:
Click to Enlarge
Forgive me if I’m terribly late to discover this, as I rarely go to their US site anymore.
iriver USA
Microsoft has finally released official specs for the Zune HD. Most of the information has already been trickled out in small amounts so nothing should come as a shock for those tracking the player since its announcement. Check out the full specs below:
Zune HD Features
- Capacity: 16GB or 32GB
- Display: 3.3″ OLED touchscreen (480 x 272 resolution, also scratch-resistant)
- Audio: MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, and AAC
- Video: WMV, MPEG-4, H.264, MS-DVR (up to 720 x 480 at 30fps
- HD AV out through optional dock (supports HDMI and composite))
- FM tuner and HD Radio
- Digital Audio out through optional dock
- Built-in 802.11b/g WiFi (supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2)
- Full web-browser
- Built-in Accelerometer
- Battery Life: 33 Hours for Audio, 8.5 hours for video
- Dimensions: 52.7 mm x 102.1 mm x 8.9 mm
- Colors: Black (16GB) and Platinum (32GB)
Pretty nice feature-set, as long as you weren’t expecting support for Divx, and FLAC and a custom EQ that is. As discussed previously, the 16GB model will cost $219, and the 32GB $289. So now that you know just about everything there is to know, are you planning on getting one?
You can Pre-order one from a few retailers:
Zune HD at Amazon
Newegg
Microsoft Store
I also got an email from a Press contact telling me there will be a sneak peak of the player on August 21-22nd at Best Buy locations in “Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. areas.”
More colors and Zune Originals coming soon
Microsoft also sent out an email showing off new colors for the Zune HD, as well as some new Zune Originals designs on the back. They’re the same colors found in the flash Zune line including Red, Green, and Blue.
Via Gizmodo
Archos has finally graced the Clipper with its own product page. The shuffle competitor was first announced at Archos’ press conference in June, but no information was known about it. As the name suggests the Clipper doubles as a sailing boat has a built-in clip. There’s nothing really special about it, it comes with 2GB’s, has support for MP3, and WMA, and gets 11 hours of battery life (which ironically is more than the Vision 2).
Since I don’t have much to say about the clipper, I figured I’d provide some highlights from its product page, complete with editor’s commentary!
“The ARCHOS Clipper, is more than just an MP3 player, it’s a must have accessory to take with you“
-So it’s a DAP and an accessory? Amazing!
“Weighing less than 0.5 ounces, the smart black finish and compact design with smooth curves is bang on trend, so small and light you’ll hardly notice it.“
-How does a color become smart again? Are there stupid colors too?
“You now have a fun way to listen to your favourite music and podcasts wherever you go. “
-Before, listening to my music on my previous players wasn’t fun at all. The Clipper will clearly change this.
“Intuitive controls“
Let’s see:
- Play/Pause button
- Skip Forward/backward buttons
- Volume Up/Down buttons
Going to have to agree with Archos here guys.
Well I didn’t say it’d be funny editor’s commentary, so don’t look at me like that. The Archos Clipper will cost 35 Euros, which likely means $35US.
LINK
Many of you have been impatiently waiting for Microsoft to finally give us some info on the price and release date of the Zune HD. Well like everything else on the Internet, word got out early. A Best Buy worker leaked a few inventory screens showing prices ranging from $220 for the 16GB, to $290 for the 32GB model. That’s a full $100 cheaper than the iPod touch, making it a very agressive move. The database also revealed a “Street date” of September 8th.
With the player supposedly coming out in less than a month, why the hell isn’t Microsoft doing more to get the word out? If this was an iPod we’d know every single detail about it by now. Microsoft really needs to drop this whole grassroots/word of mouth approach they’ve taken, and start doing a real marketing campaign.
via Gizmodo
