Development | Personal Media Center

Microsoft and Creative Hit a Home Run
Written by W.G. Ryan  [author's bio]  [read 19793 times]
Edited by Derek

      

Page 1 

It Arrives!

Earlier today I came home and had a very pleasant surprise. Waiting for me was a new Creative Zen  Personal Media Center. You may be inclined to think "Big Deal, Microsoft is making a MP3 player" but you'd be quite shortsighted (or shortthoughted) if you stop there. Let me explain:

The device itself is not very large. If I put my iMATE on top of it with it's cover on, the size difference isn't worth mentioning. The Zen is rectangular while the iMate has rounded edges so that accounts for most of the difference. The display is a bit larger but not by a whole lot. Weight wise it's a lot heavier, probably twice the weight of your average PDA but still pretty light. I could fit it in my front pockets if I was wearing khakis, but it was pushing the envelope. When I got it the battery was dead so I attached the power chord to the cradle and let if charge for about 20 minutes. At this point it was 2/3 full so it appears to charge pretty quickly. I tried setting it up at work but only had a Win 2000 Pro machine at the time. Fortunately our Network Admin is a boy genius and can always make something work. So we found an XP machine and off we went. We realized that we didn't have any drivers for it so we hit an apparent roadblock. I sent Marcus Ash an email and he told me the good news. You don't need to install any drivers, you just need Windows Media Player 10 which, by the way, is extremely cool. We had a little trouble getting it working on the first try, but that was due to a screw up on my part. Anyway, it took Adam about 2 minutes to get it working and I eventually had to get back to work.

I Started Tinkering

So I hurried home and plugged it in. I had downloaded WMP 10 at lunch so it was already set to go. As soon as the USB connection was detected, it prompted me how I wanted to Sync the files, through WMP 10 or through Nothing. I chose Nothing for the time being. After that I started playing around with it and immediately fell in love.

To say that you could be braindead and move your music around would be an understatement. It was the easiest and most intuitive sync I've ever done. It's true, I'm a gadget geek but assuming I wasn't, the interface is so clear, so easy to use that I really can't do it justice with words. 

This version has a 20 Gig hard drive so there's plenty of space on it. I loaded up just about every song I had on my computer and part of Where the Boys Aren't 11 and that took all of about 6 minutes. I was trying to bombard it and the speed was amazing. I'm not sure if this is partially attributable to WMP 10 or if it's just the device but I was pleasantly impressed with the speed. 

Off to the Gym:

Well, now I had all the Gangsta Rap and Techno I needed for the next month sitting on my PMC and off to the gym I went. First thing I noticed, and the only thing I can find wrong with the device, is that the speaker is challenged. I can probably double the volume of it with my iMATE. To be fair, I don't think it was intended to be a Boom box and if you use headphones, all is well. Moreover, this was in the middle of rush hour and traffic was heavy. Later on in the evening I jogged a few laps around my street and the volume was fine. Mind you though this is the ONLY thing I could find to criticise. Once at the gym I got to cracking on the eliptical machine. One of my friends saw it and immediately asked if he could play with it.  I handed it to him and he was navigating through it like a pro in under a minute. A few other people wanted to look at it (as well as Janine and Jenna) and pretty much everyone had the same opinion: 1- It has set a never before seen standard for ease of use 2- These things need to be released on the market ASAP. One guy had an iPOD and made a snipe comment about indicating "wow, Microsoft is making something that Apple was doing years ago, just like Windows". I couldn't let him disgrace my new toy so I asked him how many DVD's he can play on his iPOD. "Oh, I didn't realise it played video" to which I replied "looks like Microsoft is poised to kick Apple's a33 again, just like Windows". I used it throughout my workout so I had it running for about an hour and 15 minutes (most of which was me walking to the gym). I then took off and grabbed something to eat, again letting it run the whole time. By the time I got home it had been on without rest for about 3 hours. The charge was still holding at 2/3.

Final Thoughts:

The package I got didn't contain an owners manual or drivers which concerned me at first. Within 5 minutes I realized there was no reason at all to need a manual b/c it was so easy to use. I know I keep saying this, but the whole Sync/Transfer process was so easy, so seamless it's amazing. I bought one song off of Napster (That really sounds funny, I know) and it loaded right up. As we speak I'm trying to download Kill Bill from CinemaNow.com. The other thing is the interface, it rocks. The navigation buttons have that killer Blue Neon look a la Orange SPV E200. There's a really neat little green Home button that looks quite similar to XP's start button giving it a very similar look at feel. Then when you get on the device, watch out. It has all of the creature comforts of WMP 10, and that says a lot. It's as easy on the eyes as it is cool. Plenty of power on the background light too, at night it's like a damned flashlight. Microsoft deserves some serious props for this. Marcus made a big point of how easy it was to use and the seamless integration and there's no doubt, the Hype is REAL . Anyway I really need some sleep but have a lot more to write. After all, there's a Common Language Runtime on it although presently it isn't exposed. A lot of people are going to have a lot of fun with these things.

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