Creative Zen Portable Media Center
Creative beats rivals with Zen Media center – In what is a world coup, Singaporeans will be first to buy device
REVOLUTIONISING THE MOVIE WORLD: The Zen Portable Media, which was designed from scratch in Singapore, is the first handheld gadget to play movies and music on Microsoft’s “iPod killer” software. It can play and store up to 85 hours of video, 9,000 songs and tens of thousands of photos on it 20GB hard drive. It also automatically converts files and supports 10 formats such as mp3.
Singapore – Home-Grown Creative Technology has stolen a march on its rivals and has launched its rivals and has launched its Zen Portable Media Center (PMC).
This makes it the first handheld gadget to play music and movies on Microsoft’s “iPod killer” software, beating the likes of South Korean brands Samsung and iRiver to launch the device on the worldwide market.
In a nod to Singapore, Creative chief executive Sim Wong Hoo will let Singaporeans have the first chance to see, touch and yes, buy the Zen PMC at the Comex Fair, which will be held at the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center, Suntec City, from today until Sunday.
Microsoft has been working with a host of manufacturing partners to develop PMC devices, but it was Creative that stole the show at the Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, where it got the vote of Microsoft chief Bill Gates as well as capturing the Best of CES Award in the portable audio and video category.
Since then, buyers have been eagerly anticipating the Zen PMC. In an interview with The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Sim said the “tens of thousands” of devices produced for the launch will “barely scratch the surface” of the pent-up demand.
Mr Sim has a happy problem in hand: Buyers from United States, Europe and Asia are putting down orders for the device – which Mr Sim fondly calls his new baby – and he has to decide who gets is first.
His enthusiasm is evident as he explains the specification of the Zen PMC, which was designed from scratch in Singapore.
It can play and store up to 85 hours of video, 9,000 songs and tens of thousands of photos on its 20 GB hard drive. It automatically converts files and supports 10 formats – so you can safely port wma, mp3, mpeg, wav and avi files.
Said Mr Sim: “I am the sort who wants to watch the movies on the big screen, but the response has surprised even me. People want to store their music, their photos.
Best of all, he said, even skeptics are converted.
“Once I tell my non-techie friends you can put your photos in it and take it to your mother-in-law’s place, the decision to buy is made!” he chuckled.
While the launch of the Zen PMC is a coup for Creative and Singapore, the bigger picture is the PMCs herald a bigger revolution in the movie industry.
With movie players in everyone’s hands, like the now ubiquitous MP3 player, the idea is you can download moves from the Net, just as has happened in the music industry.
Of course, the movie will have to be in a highly compressed form, so it doesn’t take hours to download, and there has to be political will from the big boys in the movie world.
But there are positive signs. For instance, Mr Sim said he has to fill thousands of orders from the movie studios – indicating strong interest on their part as to how best to use PMCs to get more people to buy movies.
“It’s a brand new way to reach consumers, and if they don’t maximize it, people will find a way to rip movies and put them into the players. It will happen. We give people the convenience, and they will want the content to go with that.”
With the Zen PMC, Creative has marked its territory in the digital entertainment market. It already has a slew of personal music players, and soon “whenever someone thinks digital entertainment, they are going to think Creative. We will be No. 1”.
And no, this is not marketing-speak, insisted Mr Sim. Putting his money where his mouth is, he is spending on both audio and graphic technologies, including a graphics card that can run at 1,000 times the computing power of a Pentium chip.
As he put it: “The PC world, you name it – Dell, HP, Microsoft – are all aiming to bring the OC into the living room. The PC will bring digital entertainment that can be downloaded or you can make home movies. It’s not going to be this work tool in the study any more. And we are the ones who will provide the ammo for these tech big boys for them to start this invasion.”
Retail price of Zen PMC S$999
Comex visitors enjoy privilege price of S$899
---------------------------------------------------------------
Man this device rocks! Imagine you are on the train, sitting down with your friends and chilling and watching a movie together like all brothers would! And 85 hours is like: “Wow! How many movies can you watch at one go?”
9,000 songs isn’t joking stuff either. Think of the abundance of songs you can have all stored up here and saving space in your PC for games? And it supports all the common formats, which is an added advantage for everybody who downloads songs regularly.
And for those who like to take photos, this device will allow you have save your photos anywhere, anytime! You don’t have to worry about not having enough space to save your photos when you are out with your little digital camera because Zen PMC have 20GB…I repeat 20GB memory space! That’s like a mini PC storage space.
Ya it isn’t as small as MP3 players but it isn’t intended to take over MP3 players. It is rather another step forward for the entertainment industry. It is really revolutionizing the world. And soon the movies will come in such compressed form it won’t take hours to download movies with the movies studios expressing interest in our little Zen PMC!
Well..to end it off, this is definitely a must buy if you are into gadgets.
The price is pretty good for a new gadget like this
Now..if any of you guys could sponsor me with the money to get this gadget, I will really really be very grateful….
------clement
CFX
Creative beats rivals with Zen Media center – In what is a world coup, Singaporeans will be first to buy device
REVOLUTIONISING THE MOVIE WORLD: The Zen Portable Media, which was designed from scratch in Singapore, is the first handheld gadget to play movies and music on Microsoft’s “iPod killer” software. It can play and store up to 85 hours of video, 9,000 songs and tens of thousands of photos on it 20GB hard drive. It also automatically converts files and supports 10 formats such as mp3.
Singapore – Home-Grown Creative Technology has stolen a march on its rivals and has launched its rivals and has launched its Zen Portable Media Center (PMC).
This makes it the first handheld gadget to play music and movies on Microsoft’s “iPod killer” software, beating the likes of South Korean brands Samsung and iRiver to launch the device on the worldwide market.
In a nod to Singapore, Creative chief executive Sim Wong Hoo will let Singaporeans have the first chance to see, touch and yes, buy the Zen PMC at the Comex Fair, which will be held at the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center, Suntec City, from today until Sunday.
Microsoft has been working with a host of manufacturing partners to develop PMC devices, but it was Creative that stole the show at the Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, where it got the vote of Microsoft chief Bill Gates as well as capturing the Best of CES Award in the portable audio and video category.
Since then, buyers have been eagerly anticipating the Zen PMC. In an interview with The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Sim said the “tens of thousands” of devices produced for the launch will “barely scratch the surface” of the pent-up demand.
Mr Sim has a happy problem in hand: Buyers from United States, Europe and Asia are putting down orders for the device – which Mr Sim fondly calls his new baby – and he has to decide who gets is first.
His enthusiasm is evident as he explains the specification of the Zen PMC, which was designed from scratch in Singapore.
It can play and store up to 85 hours of video, 9,000 songs and tens of thousands of photos on its 20 GB hard drive. It automatically converts files and supports 10 formats – so you can safely port wma, mp3, mpeg, wav and avi files.
Said Mr Sim: “I am the sort who wants to watch the movies on the big screen, but the response has surprised even me. People want to store their music, their photos.
Best of all, he said, even skeptics are converted.
“Once I tell my non-techie friends you can put your photos in it and take it to your mother-in-law’s place, the decision to buy is made!” he chuckled.
While the launch of the Zen PMC is a coup for Creative and Singapore, the bigger picture is the PMCs herald a bigger revolution in the movie industry.
With movie players in everyone’s hands, like the now ubiquitous MP3 player, the idea is you can download moves from the Net, just as has happened in the music industry.
Of course, the movie will have to be in a highly compressed form, so it doesn’t take hours to download, and there has to be political will from the big boys in the movie world.
But there are positive signs. For instance, Mr Sim said he has to fill thousands of orders from the movie studios – indicating strong interest on their part as to how best to use PMCs to get more people to buy movies.
“It’s a brand new way to reach consumers, and if they don’t maximize it, people will find a way to rip movies and put them into the players. It will happen. We give people the convenience, and they will want the content to go with that.”
With the Zen PMC, Creative has marked its territory in the digital entertainment market. It already has a slew of personal music players, and soon “whenever someone thinks digital entertainment, they are going to think Creative. We will be No. 1”.
And no, this is not marketing-speak, insisted Mr Sim. Putting his money where his mouth is, he is spending on both audio and graphic technologies, including a graphics card that can run at 1,000 times the computing power of a Pentium chip.
As he put it: “The PC world, you name it – Dell, HP, Microsoft – are all aiming to bring the OC into the living room. The PC will bring digital entertainment that can be downloaded or you can make home movies. It’s not going to be this work tool in the study any more. And we are the ones who will provide the ammo for these tech big boys for them to start this invasion.”
Retail price of Zen PMC S$999
Comex visitors enjoy privilege price of S$899
---------------------------------------------------------------
Man this device rocks! Imagine you are on the train, sitting down with your friends and chilling and watching a movie together like all brothers would! And 85 hours is like: “Wow! How many movies can you watch at one go?”
9,000 songs isn’t joking stuff either. Think of the abundance of songs you can have all stored up here and saving space in your PC for games? And it supports all the common formats, which is an added advantage for everybody who downloads songs regularly.
And for those who like to take photos, this device will allow you have save your photos anywhere, anytime! You don’t have to worry about not having enough space to save your photos when you are out with your little digital camera because Zen PMC have 20GB…I repeat 20GB memory space! That’s like a mini PC storage space.
Ya it isn’t as small as MP3 players but it isn’t intended to take over MP3 players. It is rather another step forward for the entertainment industry. It is really revolutionizing the world. And soon the movies will come in such compressed form it won’t take hours to download movies with the movies studios expressing interest in our little Zen PMC!
Well..to end it off, this is definitely a must buy if you are into gadgets.
The price is pretty good for a new gadget like this
Now..if any of you guys could sponsor me with the money to get this gadget, I will really really be very grateful….
------clement
CFX
