Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"See it, shoot it, and share it - all in high definition. Creative's third generation Vado HD Pocket Video Camera makes it easier than ever to record outstanding videos in 720p high-definition quality. Featuring a new, ultra-stylish design, the Vado HD (3rd Gen) is slim enough to fit in your pocket, yet its 4GB memory capacity holds up to 120 minutes of widescreen HD-quality videos or 7,000 HD quality stills. With instant one-touch recording and built-in software, you'll be watching, sharing, and editing outstanding videos with ease."

Creative have released the 3rd generation of it's pocket video camera, the Vadro HD. There only seems to be a few differences between the 2nd generation and this new one that I can see from the specs. The major differences seem to be the addition of touch sensitive buttons to the new look case, and it now records in mp4 (H.264, AAC) format compared with AVI (H.264, AAC) on the 2nd gen version, which allows you to upload to more sites without converting. It has the same 4GB of memory as the 2nd generation, the same screen resolution, the same battery life and the same price of $179. If you're looking for a cheap HD video recorder that fits in your pocket for those on the spur moments such as parties, then it could be worth a look.

"Looks like Creative has been busy cooking up some other players aside from the Zii EGG. The Zen X-Fi 2 is a touch screen second edition of their last Zen X-Fi. Models will come in 8/16/32GB and sell for $130/$180/$230."

While no release date has been set, the X-Fi 2 will probably be available in time to make them stocking stuffers for your kids. anythingbutipod provides a list of all the X-Fi 2 has to offer, along with some videos. Short of phone capabilities, it looks like the wee player packs a fair bit of stuff such as a speaker, PDA like features, including synchronization, an FM tuner and support for the major video codecs it looks like Creative tried to pack as much as they could into the X-Fi 2. A camera is notably missing, and I question the output of the speaker, but there is a lot to like. The upcoming release of the Zune HD and the wide offerings from Apple, the PMP market has very stiff competition and it looks like Creative is going the functionality route to compete.

"Creative started shipping the dev edition of the Zii EGG. From a few hours of browsing though the OS is feels like it is a long way from the consumer market. In fact recently the SDK roadmap outlining the various functionality of the Zii EGG appeared on Engadget showing a few months ahead. Below is a few photos of the video preview of the hardware and a quick and dirty look at the Plaszma OS. I stress this several times in the video that this is a developer edition so you cannot judge the OS yet- it is very rough."

My pal Grahm Skee got his hot little hands on the new Creative Zii - a device based around a surprisingly powerful little chipset. This is a very early developer preview, not a finalized product, but it looks promising! I'm not convinced though that Creative won't find a way to completely screw up though - that company drops more balls than a drunk juggling clown.

Creative's VADO HD is a small, portable video camera - essentially Creative's answer to the Flip HD. $229 USD MSRP, captures video in 720p, and has 8 GB of internal storage, which is about 2 hours of HD video or four hours of VGA-resolution video. I only got a bit of hands-on time with it, but it it's very light - but also kind of flimsy feeling. I'm not sure how well this product will stack up against the Flip HD and the Kodak Zi6.

"Zen fans have been looking forward to the next big thing from Creative. These fans clamored for a Zen Vision:M replacement which is, in my opinion, the best blend of MP3 players and PMPs to date. Creative’s last biggest release, the Zen, didn’t seem to hush this cry for something new, because it couldn’t yet natively play high resolution XviD/DivX files, failed at integrating the SD slot, and had cost-prohibitive 30GB+ capacities. The brand new Zen X-Fi is basically a refreshed version of the Zen, but with added wireless features and X-Fi sound enhancement. Will this be enough, though, to satisfy the Zen fans who have been patiently waiting for Creative’s latest addition to the family?"

If you have any interest in Creative's latest version of the Zen, check out the detailed look at the linked article. If that's not enough for you, you can look at the full disassembly they did afterwards.

"New details have been leaked about Creative's answer to the iPod touch and Zune, a wireless music player with Wi-Fi media sharing capabilities called the Zen X-Fi. Pictures show the device sporting a chrome-and-black plastic look that's vaguely reminiscent of the iPhone, along with a nine-point directional pad. Besides certain internet features, X-Fi will also come with an SD card slot and a built-in speaker."

The only internet feature I see mentioned is the ability to be used for IM, which is not really a big deal to me, but will probably be killer for a subset of users. I really liked the fact that they included a built in speaker though. This is one thing I would like to see more of. Combined with a clock/alarm, it makes a great addition to the travel functionality of the device.

"A couple of years ago I reviewed the Creative HN-700 noise cancelling headphones, which proved to be revolutionary. It wasn't the active noise cancelling that was revolutionary, rather the fact that Creative had brought the technology to market at a fraction of the price asked by its competitors. The sound quality wasn't outstanding, but these headphones did a great job of blocking out the drone of the engines on a plane, or the rumble of a train without costing the earth. This time Creative isn't going for the value market, and its Aurvana X-Fi noise cancelling headphones are up against some stiff competition from the likes of the Panasonic RP-HC500E-S and the Sennheiser PXC 450 sets."

I'm not a fan of over the ear headphones, but these appear to fill the bill quite well. Comfortable, good noise cancelling, and good fidelity. For my money, I'd rather get a good set of earbuds, preferably custom molded. Course, I wear a hearing aid, so I experience fidelity the rest of you will never know.