As for the Zen touch screen x-fi2, I think some smart people have guessed correctly why it had to be released. It will make sure we will continue to generate sufficient revenue so as to cut losses and possibly break even this holiday season while we prepare for the Zii updates…

Breaking even over this quarter would amount to quite a turnabout for the Singapore company, who has posted losses for several straight quarters. Helping to feed that ambition is $6.1 million in funding from a divestment in QALA Singapore, a local ISP. I’m certainly not an expert in the world of finance, so correct me in the comment section, but this divestment is like pulling an investment from a company that you had previously funded. Creative originally invested $1.6 million, so the net gain is $4.5 million over time, a very smart investment. Qala needs not fear, however, as they were just bought by MobileOne, a major Singapore cell carrier for $10.3 million US. Clearly, this is meant to clear funding for the Zii launch.

Speaking of the Zii launch, Sim also dropped a link to the recently updated ZiiLABS.com events page, which shows when and where ZiiLABS will be demonstrating products over the next couple of months. Here they are:

IBC 2009

Amsterdam
11th – 15th September 2009

Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010)

Las Vegas
7th – 10th January, 2010

World Mobile Congress (Mobile World Congress, misnamed by ZiiLABS)

Barcelona, Spain
15th – 18th, February 2010

I’ll be putting my money, if I had any, on CES as the big announcement, as this is a Creative tradition to announce stuff a couple of days prior to the convention, then having a media blitz over the convention days. The company has garnered three “CES Best in Show” awards in the last decade, and they sure would enjoy a fourth. It’s almost more interesting to see the MWC announcement- perhaps a mobile carrier partner will be lined up by then?

Waited for the touchscreen DAP to be announced? Wait no longer. Creative has announced the X-Fi2, a major update to the ZEN X-Fi. The most important of the new features is the new 3″ touchscreen, which will be a first for a Creative consumer model. The new user input method results in a new revision of the UI, which is evident in several video shots of the player. However, that’s not all that is being updated. There is support for lossless audio in the form of FLAC,  video out via composite video cable, full drag and drop support with both Windows and Mac, and a change to microSD expansion. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) , for those who are unaware, is an open-source audio codec that allows for superb audio quality by an algorithm that results in no loss of audio quality during compression, see Wikipedia for more. The TV out will come via an accessory cable which will not be packaged with the player at the outset, but will be available immediately in the store. Similar to the top-notch Creative ZEN Vision:M and Vision:W, the player will support video up to 640×480 resolution videos. There’s no confirmation if the player will output at those resolutions, but it’s a good bet. The X-Fi2’s screen is 400×240, an upgrade from the original’s 320×240.

Notably absent from the specification list is the Wi-Fi, which I think is a good move. The X-Fi appealed to audio buyers, and the WiFi was half baked. It’s good to see they focused on the selling points of the player rather than trying to disastrously fix it.

Keep reading for the full specs and videos!

Thanks to Sim for the tip!

The bombshell Creative has been holding over us for quite some time was finally dropped today, as the touchscreen ZEN we’ve been waiting for has finally appeared in black and white form, thanks to the ineptness of the US Government (wow long sentence, but it’s that important!). It seems time to bring out a trumpet or two and hearld the entrance of the Zii Egg, the newest device coming out of the little company that could. It definitely has a touchscreen front, plays MP4 files, has a high definition camera on the front (as opposed to its fruity touch competitor), and is powered by the omnipotent Zii chip that has been dragging down Creative’s financials since the buyout of 3DLabs. The exact same Zii chip, mind you, that demonstrated high definition playback and Android OS support. As more information comes to us, we’ll post it here. Stay tuned!

Confirmed:

Touchscreen

High Definition Camera on back

Zii-Powered

Called the “Zii Egg”

Wireless Internet 802.11 b/g

Li-Polymer battery (Lithium Ion methinks)

Bluetooth (see below for confirmation)

Two versions: Creative Zii for consumers and Creative Zii Egg for developers.

Unconfirmed:

HDMI Out: bottom of drawing looks suspicious, and previous ZMS-05 (the processor’s official name) demonstrations of HD output to TV

SD Card: left side of drawing suggest as much

Android operating system

CNET’s MP3 Gurus, Donald Bell and Jasmine France discuss the player for the first few minutes:

Also of note, there’s a question about which social network(s) the survey taker use. There hasn’t been any social networking integration in any Creative devices (the ZEN X-Fi has Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger support), so it’s curious as to why they would ask a question. But several theories with only miniscule facts suggest that it could be part of the touchscreen ZEN that Creative has had brewing for quite some time. While nothing official has been release, there have been several oddities that official Creative sources have dropped- namely Phil O’Shaughnessy (VP of Creative Americas). epiZENter.net asked him about a forthcoming Zii-powered ZEN and he gave a sly “Stay tuned” response. My advice: stay tuned!

Take the survey for yourself at zii.com.

Be the first to hear about the upcoming Zii products- sign up for the Zii newsletter here.

Amazon has the Vado HD at a good price- $179. But to sweeten the deal, they will drop you $50 in store credit within the next 35 days after you purchase this great camera. This makes a great low-cost graduation gift for any graduate as well as a great gift for anyone with any thoughts of making videos.
Buy the Vado HD on sale at Amazon now!

During our post-CES but pre summer gadget swoon, Creative has dropped one notable and one less notable product upon us.

Mozaic EZ2300

Basically just the Mozaic with a little black dress on it. Rather than the checkered style of the current Mozaic, the EZ2300 is completely black. It does keep the same input pad style, so no new news there. On the inside, it’s essentially the same player, except for the changing of a MTP device to a plug and play one. This means that the device acts more like a USB drive than a MP3 player. Same pricing as the Mozaic, $59.99 for 4GB and $79.99 for 8GB. This is still a great deal for a 8GB player, as the screenless (and buttonless) Shuffle 4GB rings up $79 as well.

ZEN Mozaic EZ2300 Product Page

Aurvana Air

Teased by Creative for some time now, they finally got around to unveiling the uber-lightweight Aurvana Air headphones. This is a needed product to fill a gap in the Aurvana line, and they do look like someone has actually decided to design a new product for a change. While these were on display (Nothing But Creative caught em) a while back, it’s the same featherweight design previously shown. According to Creative, they weigh a mere 16 grams. That is really, really light, and they actually do look quite good when being worn, something that couldn’t be said about the rest of the audiophile Aurvana line. The price, however, is no thin and light, at $199 US. That also means that I won’t be reviewing them, unless Creative comes through and loans me a pair.

Aurvana Air Product Page

Product Specs for ZEN Mozaic EZ2300:

Product Specs for the Aurvana Air:

Similar to the LX version of the Mozaic sold at such fine electronics retailers as the Marts of Wall, Creative has found a way to sell a new player without the hassle of having to design a new one! The good news doesn’t stop there. They also didn’t worry about a new name for it, and will simply add the letters MX (apparently for Mostly Xpired) to the newer ZEN model.

The company did, however, strip out the power button (Play button acts as it now), dropped support for AAC, and (most notably) removed native AVI support. Instead of having mpg and avi files playback via drag and drop, the player now only plays .CMV videos, assuming that this is the format the Creative Video Converter outputs videos to. This should save on licensing the AVI, MPG, and AAC filetypes and save almost $5 per player. It’s troubling to see a company cut corners in such a manner.

On the plus side, kingone at epiZENter (newest staff member, congrats!) has noted that some SD features have been added- notably the ability to import music to the library. While it’s a far cry from the industry-standard integration, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The price point is aimed directly at the low end of the spectrum, at 9800 yen for the player, which is expected to not reach United States’ shores. This is about US $99 for 8GB, which isn’t spectacular, but for a new player, it’s unlikely you’ll find any competitor at that price point with the features. Hopefully for Creative diehards, this means that the R&D team is at work on a real player, not a cheaper second generation player.

Creative JP Website (Translation)