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Creative launches iPod video knockoff

updated 08:45 am EST, Thu December 8, 2005

iPod video knockoff

, including Apple, that had duplicated its patented interface. [site not updated]

by MacNN Staff

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JeffHarris
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 1999

0

12/08, 09:13am | report spam | close Reply |
Call the Lawyers!

I'm no fan of litigation, but how long will it be before Apple sicks their lawyers on "Creative" to cease and desist?

How long before "Creative" tanks?

Creative, funny name for a rip-off company.

rok
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 1999

0

12/08, 09:20am | report spam | close Reply |
creative... yeah, right

"well, we're losing badly to the ipod, so now we're going to resort to figure out a way to litigate to get back into the race, while also pretty much copying the ipod video form factor in almost every way except the click wheel (which apple does have a patent for)"

thoughton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

0

12/08, 09:20am | report spam | close Reply |
who's lawyers?

As the final sentence indicates, Creative could sue Apple for copying their user interface. Apple disputed the patent but lost. This was headline news a month or two ago. Looks like they might be come to an 'arrangement'.

thoughton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

0

12/08, 09:23am | report spam | close Reply |
Who's lawyers?

I'm a Mac fan as much as the next guy, but at least get your facts straight. As the final sentence in the article indicates, Creative could be suing Apple right now for ripping off their user interface. Apple challenged the patent and lost. This was headline news a month or two ago.

thoughton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2003

0

12/08, 09:25am | report spam | close Reply |
MacNN buggy!

Sorry for the double post, evidently posting a comment here does not work in Win IE. At least it doesn't seem to work. Only after launching Firefox did I see my double post.

PS The fonts are also screwed up in Firefox PC 1.0.7 (serif, instead of sans-serif).

milhouse
Senior User

Joined: Jan 2001

0

12/08, 09:27am | report spam | close Reply |
Searched Creative's site

for "iPod ripoff" but the search came up empty... :-

This is a surprisingly blatant clone of Apple's industrial design. Nothing Creative has produced prior to this has even come close in aesthetics.

The interface looks nice and it might be a good choice for non-iTunes fans.

The xVid support is nice too.

Nothing Creative previously produced in this niche has made much of a splash. We'll see I suppose.

Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

0

12/08, 09:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Cool New Player

I am enjoying my iPod Video (30gb), but the battery life is poor. Actually I may have gone with the 60gb unit, if I had known it was better on the battery.

But, anyway, it still has problems..it's not great on ff and rewind, and quite frankly, the click wheel isn't that good. I much prefer the iPod 1g, with its physical sliding wheel, rather than this touch one, which just plain doesn't allow for precise control.

The good thing about Creative, is that its another choice. Basically I just want a good video player for my language learning, and if Creative comes in with one that finally looks good, and runs better than the Apple offerings, all the better.

Thain Esh Kelch
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: May 2001

0

12/08, 09:45am | report spam | close Reply |
Hmmm..

I wonder how they can get 2x the video playback.. Maybe its because wmv decoding is easier..

cfd
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

0

12/08, 09:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Buy It Where????

Currently, the caption below the Creative image states " Buy It From The Apple Store"

d_oob
Forum Regular

Joined: Apr 2003

0

12/08, 11:00am | report spam | close Reply |
Choices

Are good. now only if it supported AAC. Still, it looks good and if it performs well, then cool. Click wheel shmick wheel. That's like saying, "Don't use a play button because I invented it." Everyone's using them, move on! Just make something that works good and last long.

shawnce
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

0

12/08, 11:05am | report spam | close Reply |
Patent is not resoled..

"Apple challenged the patent and lost. This was headline news a month or two ago" -- thoughton

The patent that Creative is talking about has not been resolved and not action has been taken to stop Apple from shipping product, etc. You are thinking of some other patent dispute.

shawnce
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

0

12/08, 11:09am | report spam | close Reply |
thoughton

The Zen patent is still pending. No action has been taken yet to stop iPod or Apple. Apple has lost nothing in regards to the Zen patent.

You are likely thinking of a Microsoft patent that overlapped with iTunes interface. That one Apple lost but MS and Apple appear to have cross licesed or will be. In fact this other patent may help Apple defend against this patent.

Feathers
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 1999

0

12/08, 11:26am | report spam | close Reply |
Promoting piracy?

What content is legally available for this product? I also notice that it isn't DivX approved or licensed. Creative are sailing into litigious waters that have nothing to do with Apple. Content control is the issue, not petty patents covering hardware or UI issues! Just look at NBC's recent stance in relation to TIVO.

lazarus001
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

12/08, 12:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
shrug

I'd rather have an iPod.

aubin
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

0

12/08, 12:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
One advantage

I know it's fashionable to bash Creative in this forum, but there is one major advantage here over the Video iPod and that is that video conversion is not required.

It would have been nice if the Video iPod had supported something other than Quicktime, requiring that people who want to convert their own content have to learn a new toolchain to get video onto the system.

With this, at least you can just copy your AVI/MPEG/etc. files unchanged. I'm happy with my 4G iPod, but if I wanted something to watch video on, I'd probably think very hard about a player that supported the formats I actually have.

Deal
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Apr 2001

0

12/08, 12:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
Sounds like an advantage

I just wonder how well this "do it all" device really works. How many bugs it has.

When I have a device, I like it to do what it does well, and that's what Apple does.

Converting a file is no big deal. A friend of mine has the whole Batman movie on his iPod. I am going to put my home videos and hobby related stuff on mine, not to mention my photo collection.

Not to mention, I might download Video from iTunes.

Now if they could just add Nova specials to the download list and some other educational programs...

We love the iPod because we love the iTunes music store. It's the ease of use and the fair prices.

I agree with several previous posts. Creative is a very sore looser. Even Dell admits it's a day late an a dollar short. All creative is doing is spending more money on a product that will fizzle. Not a good way to run a company.

If Apple did anything wrong, it was in not patenting their technology well enough. They are allowing others to copy their ideas and they need to sharpen up a bit in that regard.

W. Ian Blanton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2002

0

12/08, 12:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wait and see.

I'm kind of intrigued by the fact that it won't be shipping until JUST after christmas. That's either: Very Bad for Creative (That's a bad thing to miss) or they're trying some tricksy "return your ipod Video" vibe. :)

As far as the device itself goes; It looks neat, better battery, various formats...all good. Of course, it's still not shipping, so we'll have to wait and see how it handles all those various DiVX formats that people have been using. But seriously, I think this is good. Competition. Good. :)

HOWever, they should really think about handling the MPEG4 that the iPod handles, if it doesn't already. I already have over 100 hours of TV/Movies converted from my ReplayTV DVR (only 500 hours to go! :)), people have already converted a lot of video, just because of the iPod/PSP.

Now we need a bigger hard drive, my 60GB iPod Video is full already! :)

W. Ian Blanton
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2002

0

12/08, 01:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wait and see.

I'm kind of intrigued by the fact that it won't be shipping until JUST after christmas. That's either: Very Bad for Creative (That's a bad thing to miss) or they're trying some tricksy "return your ipod Video" vibe. :)

As far as the device itself goes; It looks neat, better battery, various formats...all good. Of course, it's still not shipping, so we'll have to wait and see how it handles all those various DiVX formats that people have been using. But seriously, I think this is good. Competition. Good. :)

HOWever, they should really think about handling the MPEG4 that the iPod handles, if it doesn't already. I already have over 100 hours of TV/Movies converted from my ReplayTV DVR (only 500 hours to go! :)), people have already converted a lot of video, just because of the iPod/PSP.

Now we need a bigger hard drive, my 60GB iPod Video is full already! :)

pharmacopoeia
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2001

0

12/08, 01:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
video conversion

may not be a big deal as far as difficulty but it is time intensive. If i don't have to convert video to get it to play on creatives player and the thing works reasonably well i may look at it seriously. i agree with mr. blanton though, 60GB is definitely too small now-a-days.

aristotles
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Jul 2004

0

12/08, 01:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
They have a dock too

They have dock connector in the bottom. Creative is a very ironic name for such a company.

technohedz
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2000

0

12/08, 01:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
yay

cweyative, the only company gaining popularity through obscurity (a self-limiting market) has come out with the 'ipod-with-video' for all those people who won't buy an ipod because their 'friends have them'. The new clone device is just a done of the ipod: a teeny bit more battery life, a different (and less popular music DRM). Oh but wait...they did what Apple just keeps lagging and lagging on..throw in the buck 50 fm tuner and integrated voice recorder ok. Ah well you can't have everything...

This market is aimed at people who would buy a yugo, not because it was cheap or cool, purely because all their friends owned BMWs. Ok...that's just being different for the sake of being different and purely stupid.

Can we have the real video ipod now? huh? please please?

cameronx
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

12/08, 01:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Interface

The player is ugly and more expensive than the iPod, so I have no doubt it will be a flop. What Creative is obviously doing here, however, is nearly exactly copying iPod's interface, because they think they have the protection of the patent. It's sort of a blatant f***-you to Steve; looks like we may see this come to court.

ibugv4
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2003

0

12/08, 01:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
court court court

I want to see Judge Judy handle this one. I can't wait :)

Creative dropped out of the game, to come back with this? It's like the Corvair -- a feeble attempt to capitalize on the Volkswagen's super-economic bandwagon of the 60s and 70s! This won't last.

Asam
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

12/08, 02:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
cheap marketing gimmick

Would creative ever get airtime on the BBC for any of its lame knockoffs. You should just view this for what it is, a cheap gimmick to get some free publicity, in that sense it's already worked for them, they have free air time and blog spots riding on the iPod. Don't discuss this no more, its not worth it, Jobs'll sue their a** anyway.....

benhur
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2001

0

12/08, 03:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
cool new features

Well, competition is good. Maybe Apple will open up the iPod to more formats and finally, finally, include an FM tuner, recorder, etc.

hayesk
Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

0

12/08, 04:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
converting?

What do you mean you have to convert video for the iPod? You have to convert video for the Creative too. It doesn't play DVD files as is, (they have to be shrunk anyway). And if you are making your own video, just choose the iPod playable formats when you create it.

There are a few sites offering iPod formatted video now too.

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

12/08, 06:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: converting

But most video you find on the internet, as well as what most people already have, are in standard formats (MPG, AVI, WMV, etc, etc, etc). Why do you think all the people whined when the viPod came out about the long conversion times. Because their content wasn't in that format.

Or, all the people saying that it supports multiple formats is a good thing are just a bunch of whiners who won't spend the time or effort to make sure all their content, by default, is in the iPod specific and format then something they've used for years...

eswinson
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/08, 07:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
pity

I feel sorry for the kids that get this for christmas instead of an iPod. They will get picked on just liek kids of my day that got knock offs instead of nike air jordans.

metrodus
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/08, 07:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
Looks okay...

... but is [url=http://monsternet.org/imgview/zenvisionmpreview/zenvisionm_appleipod3.jpg]nearly [b]twice[/b] as thick[/url]!

metrodus
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/08, 07:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
d'oh

no bb code? denied.

anyway here's a pic showing the thickness of this thing compared to the 5G iPod:

http://monsternet.org/imgview/zenvisionmpreview/zenvisionm_appleipod3.jpg

ender
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 1999

0

12/08, 07:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Confusion

Yes, competition is good. But intentionally trying to trick consumers into buying your product because they think they are getting an iPod is potentially grounds for legal action by Apple (there's precedent with the iMac being copied by some knock-off company in Asia). The dimensions of the think, the marking images showing the grid of photo thumbs, the specs, are all close enough to cause confusion to consumers. Image the grandparents who think they are getting their granddaughter an iPod only to find out they got the wrong device!

ender
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 1999

0

12/08, 07:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Resolution

Ok, so I just looked all over their product web site. Nowhere does it mention the resolution of the screen. They list the number of colors and that it has a "sharp" screen, but no pixel dimensions. Anyone want to bet it's a lower resolution than the 5G iPod? Probably on par with the old photo iPod.

eddd
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2001

0

12/08, 11:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
misleading photos

Very clever, Creative, using a white background and some Photoshopping to hide the true dimensions of this thing. It really is cumbersome looking if you go to their site and see it in 3D. Nothing like the latest versions of the iPod, let alone the nano.

I thought they might have something here, but I'll bet this looks pretty bad on display. And I guess I've come to expect misleading statements from this company; now I'm seeing misleading photos as well.

LouZer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2000

0

12/08, 11:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: confusion

No one buying this could be confused they're buying an iPod. First, the iPod does NOT come in colors. Second, the iPod's most noticable feature is the wheel. There's no wheel. Third, its not like its called the zPod or something.

Oh, and for the concern about the poor kids who get this vs. the iPod, that comment alone shows why no kids should get an iPod. Yeah, let's make sure every kid gets an iPod so they don't get beat up. Great marketing or PR.

denim
Mac Elite

Joined: Jun 2000

0

12/09, 09:06am | report spam | close Reply |
What if...

What if Creative launched a "product" and no one noticed? Would they make a sound?

williamdrover
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2005

0

12/09, 09:09am | report spam | close Reply |
Creative is Junk

I wouldn't use it if someone gave it to me. Creative players are trash. I guess i could use it to clean my toilet but i still use a Zen for that.

Donny
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2003

0

12/09, 03:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
Too late in season

They are too late in the season to impact holiday sales much, if any. It seems that since they are copying Apple's product they should also learn something about market timing. Though I doubt it would have made much difference.

whackjob
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

09/13, 03:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
You know

When a company BLATANTLY copies it is the ultimate sign of weakness. Why? well, there's no creativity of original ideas and they are building on the foundations of another company which only means they will crumble in time.

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