Zii Manual and More Pics Dropped By the FCC Confirming Consumer Model

Posted by thetonyweapon in Zii on Aug 5th, 2009 | Comments

The government and their loud mouths. After their little oopsie back when the Zii EGG was listed, they again have dropped a few files onto the FCC server with unreleased information on what appears to be a consumer manual for a Creative branded Zii. Additionally, they have posted some poorly taken images of the inside for us interested. Though they’re difficult to see, it appears that the battery is not removable, but rather replacable by the user like the Vision:M- takes a bit of work and voids your warranty- but looks possible if the shell is cracked.

Of note, the manual was written in March 2009- five months ago! The new Creative seems to have a top-notch secrecy plan in place. The only leak seems to be the bezel, which was mistaken for an iPod one (Caution: Apple fans may bite). The timeline is right- at the end of May, there would have been a good likelihood that a bezel was being sent for manufacturing with a target release at the end of August. Why is a consumer model confirmed? Because the follwing was found in the manual:

There are a few other notables in the manual. One of these is the way the cable output will work. It seems there will be one cable that will output to Component and one that will output to HDMI. Both of these cable appear to have an additional connection to the Zii Universal Adapter, which will allow for simultaneous charging while in playback mode. This is not clarified or confirmed at all, but it seems that you can stream content from your PC through the Zii to HDMI- perhaps a suitable solution for a movie? It’s not confirmed, and it just could be a way to charge while in playback mode, so don’t assume anything.

Something that the ZMS-05 has no doubt enabled is the ability to multitask. While it’s unclear above, the Zii Dock will definitely allow connections to the TV, speakers, and computers simultaneously.

Also of note, the hardware camera button allows doubletap- meaning you can have the camera focus and prepare the shot before you actually take it. This is something (as far as I know) that is not on the Touch. It’s a nifty feature that I use on my cameras almost all the time. It’s frusturating to use the camera on my BlackJack because it doesn’t have this and the shutter delay.

That’s about all that’s in the user manual. It’s certainly not a full fledged announcement on the capabilities of the device, but five months ago, this was where it was at. In five months, there’s no doubt that Creative and ZiiLABS have been adding features and refining the Plaszma OS. I can’t wait for the final release!