Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

All we’ve really got to go on so far is a quote from Creative Labs president Craig McHugh during their quarterly earnings conference call, but just because we don’t have the word from a friend of a friend and didn’t get the message passed in invisible ink doesn’t mean we have to discount it entirely. Thus saith Craig: “As I mentioned earlier, what we’re doing with the Zen Vision:M at the $299 level and then increasing it when we add 60GB.” That marvelously ambiguous statement could mean $300 60 giggers, or a new pricepoint for the new size, but either way it looks like there’s a new Zen Vision:M headed our way. Other rumors point to a September launch date to coincide with Microsoft’s WMP11 launch for Windows XP, and it sounds to be a good a date as any. The real question is when Creative will be ready ready to compete with iPod video 2.0 and the forthcoming Zune — they need something to combat the real topic of the conference call: hefty losses — but a storage bump still can’t go far amiss.

[Via Digital Media Thoughts]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Nothing starts the day like a freshly squeezed Apple rumor, right? Well you’re looking at 10 supposed iPod (and one iPhone?) “redesigns” which AppleInsider extracted from the bowels of a European trademark and design office. Credited to Andre K. Bartley, an Apple interface designer with several iPod-related patent filings in the US and Europe under his belt, these designs were registered in January 2006 without any descriptive data. We don’t doubt the authenticity of this filing, however, what’s hard to stuff down the ol’ pie-hole is the idea of Apple walking away from its much loved, and oft imitated, click-wheel interface for the iPod as AI suggests. And certainly not in favor of a Gigabeat e(S)que cross-hair controller or uh, Creative’s scroll strip. Considering Apple’s long history of litigation over interface design, we’re probably just looking at some legal maneuvering here. Next.

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