Gadget Detective on
Fevzi Turkalp - The Gadget Detective joins Mike Mendoza
On Friday mornings from 3.00 to 4.00am to answer your tech questions
and take a look at the latest from the world of Gadgets and Technology.
Gadget of the Week
Creative Zen Portable Media Centre
Pros
Watch movie clips, listen to your music collection and display your photo collection on one handheld unit
Bright, clear screen
Removable battery means you can carry a spare
Connects to PC via USB 2.0
Well made
Good value compared to an audio only Apple iPod
Cons
No ability to record media, they have to be transferred from a computer
Battery life is not great; unsurprising given inclusion of a hard drive and large backlit screen
Would have been nice to have a 40GB hard drive rather than the 20GB drive utilised
Not as small as audio only devices
Not a cheap gadget
Price: Estimated c £400 inc. VAT (UK Launch Mid September)
Star Rating: 8.5 Stars lots of fun, well implemented device for early adopters. Look forward to cheaper, smaller, more capacious devices next year.
Features
Watch up to 85 hours of Movies, Recorded TV Programs or Home Videos(1)
Store and listen up to 9,000 songs(1)
Carry and enjoy up to tens of thousands of photos(1)
3.8" TFT LCD backlit display
Removable and rechargeable Li-Ion battery
Windows Mobile operating system lets you sync, find and manage your digital entertainment
Quickly transfer content from your PC to your Zen Portable Media Centre with USB 2.0
Built-in speaker
4 presets buttons that shortcut to your favourite TV show, movie or song
Works with popular formats like WMV, WMA, MP3, JPG
(1) Based on 2-hour movies encoded at 500kbps, 4 minute songs encoded at 64kbps (WMA) and 500KB per photo, with 20GB hard disk drive and all disk drive space dedicated to either video, audio or photos.
Specfications
Size WxHxD: 5.67" x 3.18" x 1.06" (144mm x 80.7mm x 27mm)
Weight: 12oz (340 grams) with battery
Display: 3.8", 320 x 240 pixel resolution, backlit LCD Display
Capacity: 20GB Hard drive
Battery Life: Up to 22hrs continuous audio playtime or up to 7hrs of continuous video playtime
Interface: USB 2.0 (backward compatible with USB 1.1)
Video Playback Format: Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, 8 and 9
Audio Playback Support: Windows Media Audio (WMA) (Lossless, Standard, Voice) MP3
Photo Format Support: JPEG
Windows Media Player 10 Supported Formats: ASF, DVR-MS, AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPE, M1V, MPG, MP2, WAV, AU, SND
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