July 17 - 4:50pm EDT   Creative recently introduced its newest headset, designed for use with Apple's iPhone and iPod. The EP-630i uses a pair of in-ear buds, which come with three different silicone covers to ensure users find an ideal fit. Each earbud is powered by a 9mm Neodymium magnet to deliver above average sound quality. [full story]

July 17 - 10:25am EDT   Creative is trying its hand again at competing with the iPod shuffle through a new and sleeker player, according to an unofficial release from its own website. The ZEN Krystal appears a successor to the earlier ZEN Stone Plus but is designed from the start to be used with its OLED screen with an upright design rather than the side layout of the pebble-shaped ancestor. It also targets the exercise market with a built-in pedometer that not only tracks jogging but comes with several games that tie into the pedometer's sensitivity to movement. [full story]

July 14 - 7:55pm EDT   Artlandia has released the third in a line of productivity plug-ins for Adobe creative software. The company says LivePresets works with two basic classes of static Adobe Illustrator objects -- symbols and swatches -- and makes them editable dynamically. The plug-in allows users to interactively edit multiple art objects from a single source. [full story]

July 14 - 8:25am EDT   Creative this morning set US launch information for the ZEN X-Fi, its first Wi-Fi media player. The local launch quickly follows the Singapore announcement and prices the full wireless versions well below the iPod touch and also with more features than Microsoft's flash-based and similarly wireless Zunes, putting a 16GB version of the player at $200 and a 32GB player at $300. An 8GB player without wireless will sell for $150. All three should be available in early August. [full story]

July 10 - 8:40am EDT   Creative on Thursday took the wraps from the ZEN X-Fi, the company's first-ever wireless player and its first competitor to the iPod touch and Zune. The device succeeds the original ZEN and includes a new, nine-point control pad key to using the device online over Wi-Fi: Wireless LAN versions can use a phone-style text entry system to chat online using Windows Live or Yahoo instant messaging. The network access also gives the X-Fi the ability to stream music and video directly from a home computer on the local network, although a rumored Internet streaming feature doesn't reach the finished product. [full story]

June 29 - 10:40am EDT   Creative's ZEN X-Fi player is still in progress and is being more directly targeted at Apple on both the hardware and software sides, says a slew of leaked information obtained by epiZENter. Spotted in an official product shot, the X-Fi changes the look of the original ZEN to an aluminum-and-chrome look believed to be drawing heavily on the visual appeal of the iPhone. According to leaked documents from the company's UK website, the new ZEN will also be Creative's first wireless player and will have a unique nine-point directional pad to take advantage of integrated Wi-Fi: users will have the option of instant messaging on Windows Live or Yahoo Messenger with a phone-style ... [full story]

June 3 - 11:10am EDT   Hynix today unveiled a new upgrade to its flash memory that it hopes will dramatically improve the capacity of portable media players and other flash-bound devices. The company's version of three-bits-per-cell technology lets the company stack data to offer as much as 32 gigabytes of data into a tighter space. Despite the capacity jump, the 32GB chip occupies 30 percent less area than a more typical two-bits-per-cell flash chip, the company says. The space would allow a single chip to hold as many as 8,000 average-size MP3 tracks. [full story]

May 27 - 8:45am EDT   Creative has for now shelved its plans to develop a Wi-Fi capable player, the company's Nordic product manager Jan Hvidberg has revealed in an interview. The senior official confirms the one-time existence of the ZEN Share but says that there were "technical complications" developing the player that prompted the company to drop the project. The executive doesn't rule out the possibility of a future player with wireless but for now shelves hopes of an immediate release. [full story]

May 16 - 4:45pm EDT   Creative Technology on Friday announced two additions to its PCI Express Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty sound cards with the Professional Series and Champion series. Creative claims the products are the first ever native PCI Express hardware accelerated sound cards. Both cards feature Dolby Digital encoding and single-cable connection for 5.1-channel home theater hook-ups, as well as EAX 5.0 effects and CMSS 3D positional audio support. [full story]

May 13 - 8:25am EDT   Creative today took a cue from the unusually successful Flip camera and launched the Vado. The company promises an improvement on the concept of an ultra-simple, YouTube-oriented video recorder with a design it says is both thinner and lighter than its rival and gives the camera 2GB of built-in flash memory. This gives the Vado up to two hours of recording time at its native 640x480 resolution, Creative says. Built-in software can help streamline uploads either to YouTube or Photobucket, though the use of MPEG-4 allows common video editing software to edit captured footage. [full story]

May 12 - 2:40pm EDT   Creative expanded its lineup to the underserved notebook audience with the Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1. The USB device is claimed as the first to both boost audio quality and output in full 5.1-channel surround sound; Dolby and DTS movies, as well as games that support surround through DirectSound or OpenAL, automatically have their video processed and split across a speaker setup. Compressed audio is also cleaned up through the Crystalizer hardware that Creative says restores lost details. [full story]

May 9 - 11:35am EDT   As part of its recent Zune update, Microsoft has revealed that it has sold two million of the music players since their launch in November 2006, revealing relatively flat growth for the device lineup. Although the company originally promised and slightly exceeded a target for its first million sales between the original launch date and June 2007, the company has largely remained silent on its data for its players in nearly a year. [full story]

May 5 - 4:55pm EDT   While there has been no official word from Creative Labs itself, a product page on JR.com lists a Vado video camcorder from the company. In terms of specifications, the ultra-affordable video camera is nearly identical to the Pure Digital Technologies Flip range of video cameras. The Creative Labs VF0570-P Vado pocket camcorder will feature a 2GB storage capacity capable of holding approximately 2 hours of VGA (640x480) video, and up to 2 hours of life from its rechargeable AA batteries. [full story]

May 1 - 2:05pm EDT   Creative is facing a class-action lawsuit that is alleging the consumer electronics maker misled customers with inaccurate capacity claims for its portable media players. The lawsuit seeks $900,000 for attorney fees and $5,000 for each plaintiff. Those who purchased a hard-drive based Creative player between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 and can prove it are eligible to be part of the lawsuit. [full story]

April 22 - 11:00am EDT   Creative's upcoming ZEN X-Fi media player may hinge on Internet-based storage as a selling point, says a new tip sent to epiZENter. While the player is already anticipated to offer local sharing between users, a "reliable" source indicates that Creative wants to use the device's Wi-Fi for accessing a remote collection; users would subscribe to a service that offers a multi-gigabyte Internet storage space for holding music; users could then access songs they can't fit on the player simply by streaming them wirelessly. [full story]