Creative Zen Vision W Touts 4.3-Inch Screen

By Geoff Duncan Published August 30, 2006

Creative Zen Vision W Touts 4.3-Inch Screen — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fresh off its settlement with Apple Computer, Creative has announced is much-rumored Zen Vison W portable media player, sporting a 4.3-inch 16:9 widescreen portable media player, with a 30 GB capacity and oodles and video, image, and music playback capability. The problem: for now, at least, the unit will only be available in Singapore, and there’s no word when it may reach North American shores.

"We designed the Creative Zen Vision W with a stunning 16:9-format widescreen and 30GB or 60GB capacity to be the most compelling portable video player and photo viewer on the market," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. "With support for a large selection of video formats, subscription and download music services and a built-in Compact Flash slot for direct transfer of photos from many popular digital cameras, the Creative ZEN Vision W is the ultimate travel companion."

Recommended Videos

The Zen Vision W supports MPEG-1/2/4 video, Motion JPEG, and XviD video, and offers up to 4.5 of playback time on a single battery charge. As a photo viewer, the Vision W supports Compact Flash I & II media (plus, owners can use a slot adapter to leverage the CF slot for use with other cards, like SmartMedia, SD, and MMC media), and composite AV output lets users pump images or video to NTSC or PAL televisions. The unit sports headphone and audio output, and can play slideshows along to music.

Oh—right, music. The Vision W supports Windows Media-enabled music subscription services like Napster, Yahoo Music Unlimited, Urge, and MSN Music, as well as download services and spoken word content from Audible.com. Sadly, the fruits of the Apple settlement do not include iTunes compatibility. The units also includes an FM receiver with 32 presets, USB 2.0 connectivity, a built-in mic, an organizer application and clock.

Price: in Singapore, the 30 GB unit will be $649; the 60 GB edition will be available by the end of September for $749.

Creative also announced a 60 GB edition of its Zen Vision:M media player, again for the Singapore market. Expect it to hit stores for $599 by the end of September.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Emerging Tech

ChatGPT Pro replaced Gemini Notebook as my favorite research app, and I didn’t see it coming

Electronics, Phone, Mobile Phone

I've been using Gemini Notebook ever since it launched, and for the longest time, it was my go-to app for just about everything. Whether I was researching a topic, organizing work, or studying something new, it became one of those apps I instinctively opened without thinking. When Google kept adding new features, I genuinely believed it had secured a permanent spot in my workflow.

Then, almost without realizing it, ChatGPT Pro took over. I've been using its Work mode for a while now, and somewhere along the way, it replaced Gemini Notebook. Of course, it wasn't an overnight switch. I kept bouncing between the two for weeks, but I gradually found myself reaching for ChatGPT every single time instead. At some point, I realized I hadn't opened Gemini Notebook in days. Now, I honestly don't use it at all.

Emerging Tech

AI chatbots will happily create fake news articles, and tests show ChatGPT is the worst at it

Electronics, Phone, Mobile Phone

The biggest AI chatbots are supposed to help people find information, not manufacture misinformation. But a new investigation suggests that separating those two jobs isn't as straightforward as many AI companies would like users to believe. A series of tests found that several leading AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Meta AI, could be persuaded to generate fake news stories, fabricated headlines, and even realistic-looking screenshots of well-known media outlets. While every chatbot showed some weaknesses, ChatGPT reportedly performed the worst, producing the most convincing fake content with surprisingly little effort.

The findings come from an investigation by German newsroom CORRECTIV, which tested how the AI assistants responded when asked to create false reports involving sensitive topics such as election fraud, government coups, war, vaccines, climate change, and conspiracy theories.

Emerging Tech

DeepSeek just slashed AI prices again, and China’s AI race is getting even messier

DeepSeek AI chatbot running on an iPhone.

China's AI race has never really been short on competition, but it's increasingly looking like a battle over who can charge the least rather than who can build the best model.

DeepSeek has unveiled its latest open-weight AI model, called V4-Flash, alongside a dramatic price reduction that makes it significantly cheaper for developers to use. The company has cut token pricing by 50% and has also decided against introducing a previously announced dynamic pricing system that would have increased costs during periods of heavy demand. The new changes paint a clear picture: DeepSeek appears more interested in winning over developers and expanding its user base than maximizing revenue in the short term.