What's Creative hinting at?
After months of not even a peep from Creative Labs' stateside operation, I was starting to worry that one of my favorite MP3 player manufacturers had given up the ghost in the good ol' U.S. of A. Then today, an astute reader lured me over to the company's Web site with the following two screenshots:
(Credit:
Creative Labs)
(Credit:
Creative Labs)
So what's the deal, Creative? What dost thou have up thine sleeve? My curiosity has officially been piqued. I can only assume that a device being touted as an acoustic masterpiece that "you will want to wear" is some kind of ultraportable MP3 player. The image brings to mind a lipstick tube made to dangle around your neck. I'm guessing this little device will have no screen, a nonstandard user interface operated by twisting, and will be visually supported by a ring-like LED. Or perhaps it isn't an MP3 player at all. The item shown in the ad could just as easily be part of a set of headphones...who can tell for sure? The suspense is killing me!
(Thanks, Scott!)
Update, May 19: It looks as if the folks that commented below are dead on. The Creative teaser from yesterday was for the Aurvana Air earphones, as indicated by the e-mail screen grab below. You can pick up a pair for about $200. Stay tuned for a review in the coming weeks.
For more than five years, Jasmine France has covered a variety of tech products for CNET--from scanners to keyboards to GPS devices--but she's happiest where she is now: sitting atop a pile of MP3 players, "testing" every music service known to man, and jamming a variety of earbuds in every shape and color into her absurdly small ears. E-mail Jasmine.
Donald Bell is an electronic musician, a veteran record store employee, and a fearless hardware hacker. He's also CNET's Senior Editor for MP3 and digital audio.
Jasmine France is CNET's resident digital audio doyenne, writing and editing product reviews, crave blogs, and feature stories on all things MP3. And if you need advice on headphones, she's your girl.
http://www.journaldugeek.com/2009/01/20/nouveaux-creative-aurvana-air/
http://www.epizenter.net/comment.php?comment.news.447
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38147178@N07/
www.mycreativefansite.com
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by workenchina
May 19, 2009 9:50 PM PDT
- Really? These look like stethoscopes! Can't be noise isolating, could be noise canceling. Don't we already have a few products like that? Better be good Creative.
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