May 20 - 11:20am EDT   Creative on Wednesday took a different approach to earphones and launched the Aurvana Air. Taking some of its name and basic design philosophy from Apple, the design focuses on weight with unique nickel-titanium ear hooks that keep the earbuds light but which also remember their shape to save owners from readjusting the fit every time. The pair's neodymium drivers are also said powerful with slots specifically meant to drive bass; frequency response is estimated at between 20Hz and 20kHz with 32ohms of impedance. [full story]

May 8 - 8:50am EDT   MSI today stepped into audio devices with the launch of its Syren line. The series is headlined by the SyrenSound X-Fi, one of the few non-Creative sound cards to use X-Fi hardware. It uses the same technology as Sound Blaster cards to restore missing detail in compressed audio as well as to introduce EAX effects, and supports up to 7.1-channel sound while reducing the CPU overhead versus integrated sound chipsets. The PCI Express-based board currently requires Windows XP or Vista. [full story]

April 28 - 10:20am EDT   Creative has added a new entry-level model to its portable audio player line-up with the ZEN MX. Available in models with 8GB or 16GB of internal memory, the new players look largely like the company's current ZEN players with detail changes to the control button layout. The same 2.5-inch LCD display with 320x240 resolution remains. Supported audio files include MP3, WMA (with DRM) and Audible 4. As for videos, only Creative's proprietary video-CMV format is compatible. Creative did include its Creative Centrale software that will convert videos into the format, however. [full story]

March 25 - 8:35pm EDT   The recession has brought a sea-change in the way Adobe is marketing CS4. Instead of focusing on fancy new features, the new mantra is ROI -- return on investment. To that end, the company has commissioned what it says is independent research proving CS4 can save "thousands of dollars a year" over the previous version thanks to built-in timesavers and other workflow improvements. In other words, CS4 can do more with less. [full story]

March 16 - 4:55pm EDT   Not unlike the fairly popular Flip Video that spawned the category and the near identical Creative Vado that followed it, Amadana on Monday announced the introduction of its SAL pocket video camcorder. The SAL uses a 3-megapixel CMOS sensor to capture 640x480 resolution videos in the MPEG-4 format, with a 320x240 LCD display acting as the viewfinder and playback display. Storage space is fixed at 2GB, or 2 hours of video that also matches the claimed battery life. [full story]

February 22 - 1:45am EST   Without any formal announcement, Creative has introduced the MovieWorks HD iPod dock as part of the product lineup from its subsidiary, Cambridge Soundworks. The device allows iPod video to be played on an HDTV or audio receiver via HDMI, where movies can then be upscaled to 1080i. The system also supports 5.1-channel DTS surround sound from an iPod when using a compatible receiver. [full story]

February 13 - 5:05pm EST   Creative subsidiary ZiiLabs on Thursday announced it will showcase HD video playback capabilities on February 16th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The capability will be thanks to the company's ZMS-05 media processor and platform on Google's Android platform phone. ZiiLabs promises to offer 1080p resolution video playback for the first time on handheld devices. [full story]

January 8 - 11:15am EST   Creative on Thursday announced its Sound Blaster for iTunes is being displayed at CES (booth 30651). Designed for use through the iTunes interface, Sound Blaster plugs into the USB connection on a PC or Mac, and plays back music through Creative wireless speakers or headphones while enhancing the quality. Sound blaster also works in users pre-existing speaker systems equipped with Creative Wireless Receivers. Users can select up to four different receivers for music playback. [full story]

January 8 - 9:20am EST   Creative today finally confirmed the nature of the Zii. The one-time mystery device is now known to be a processor platform based on the notion of very generalized, software-based cores known as Processing Elements: the "stemcell" element from earlier teasers refers to an ability to repurpose any of the cores for a particular task. The process mimics the unified shaders processors of current video cards and is said to provide supercomputer-like acceleration without needing a large processor or a large amount of energy. [full story]

December 28 - 9:55am EST   Creative's Zii is actually a processor unlike much of the company's existing lineup, according to info obtained in advance by epiZENter. While the company's own teaser provides little information, the new update adds that the product will be "completely different" from the X-Fi audio processing chip in Creative's sound cards and MP3 players. It additionally won't be tied to any one product, instead finding its way into several devices of an unknown type. [full story]

December 26 - 10:40am EST   Creative today launched a teaser for an unusual product known as Zii. The company posts very little but suggests that the device revolves around the concept of "stemcell computing," suggesting that it may involve distributed computing or a parallel to the hardware or software of the Nintendo Wii. Aside from this, the firm only makes the claim that "everything you know is about to change" and provides no clues outside of four-leaf clover graphics. [full story]

December 8 - 10:55am EST   As promised, Creative this morning marked the US in-store date for its Vado HD pocket camera. The 720p-capable recorder aims to beat the Flip Mino HD on features with HDMI video output, twice as much storage at 8GB and a larger two-inch preview LCD. Creative uses H.264 encoding that should give it four hours with Flip-level encoding or two hours in a claimed better HD+ capture mode. [full story]

November 28 - 12:05pm EST   Dell announced its Black Friday sales this morning, all available for one day only and online. The deals include an Inspiron 1525 notebook for $559, which is $285 lower than the regular price, while the Inspiron 530s desktop is priced at $299, representing $80 in savings. A 19-inch Dell flat panel monitor, the SE198WFP, can be added to the desktop for $129, or $50 off. The 8.9-inch Inspiron Mini 9 netbook costs $299 today, which is $50 lower than regular pricing. The biggest savings is offered on the 42-inch Sharp HDTV, the LC42SB45U, which costs $779, or $620 off the regular price of $1,399. [full story]

November 26 - 11:45am EST   Creative will launch a version of its Vado pocketable camera with a flash drive that is capable of recording high-definition video on December 7th in the US as per an Amazon product page. The small camcorder will record video using H.264 compression at up to 1280x720 resolution (720p), with its 8GB of integrated capacity good for two hours of HD video or double that at VGA resolution. It will be priced aggressively at $199 and should have more storage and small feature improvements over the well-received Flip Mino HD. [full story]

November 21 - 10:00am EST   Creative today tried to appeal to a niche market by introducing a line of Zens encapsuled in a cow's head likeness, calling it the ZEN Moo. Basically a new exterior for what is essentially the Zen Stone, the Moo includes 2GB of integrated memory with MP3 and WMA file support as well as built-in speakers. There is an entry version and a higher-end one, called the Plus, that includes a small OLED display behind the cow's nose, an FM tuner, voice recording functionality and an alarm clock. [full story]