Creative @ CES - The Zen Wireless Headset
posted January 7th 2005 9:52AM
Check it: Yesterday we got Creative to show us the new Zen Wireless Headset they're working on. We're know what you're (probably) thinking, that these are another pair of Bluetooth headphones, but for these Creative decided to go with Aura Communications' near-field technology, which uses magnetic induction rather than radio frequency to transmit sound (and in fact there was an announcement about their partnership back in July). We only got to play with a prototype, but the sound was excellent and only really started to degrade when we moved the Zen Micro more than about five feet away from the headphones. The Zen Micro had a sled-like thing around it for all the magnetic induction stuff, but we're pretty sure they're planning to eventually build all that right into the players. They couldn't tell us a thing about price of availability, but it'll happen soooner or later this year. Click for a couple more action shots.
UPDATE: Oof! Forgot to mention that the plan is to offer these in all of the different Zen Micro colors.
Wow, that thing is big, can it get that in brick form?
Doh, and I was planning on keeping the Zen in my shoe. Curse my tall stature.
P.S. What was over on the left that was so interesting? Both models look transfixed by it. And please tell me that they'll have colors other than pink for the headphones.
Eek... I'd better keep my pacemaker away from that! :-D ;-)
Do you know if they'll make a version for the Zen Touch?
You know, the Zen is just ugly. And it's worse in that Hello Kitty pink. So I was wondering the same thing about the "models" looking to the left. Is that the photographers attempt at being artistic or were they keeping an eye out for security?
If it works by induction, does that mean the headphones don't need batteries?
Too bad the headphones look like something Voltron would wear.
The headphones are pretty ugly, but I always thought the Zen Micro looked pretty decent in person.
Yeah, right, like I'm going to surround my head with 'Near-Field Magnetic Induction'.
Yeah, right, like I'm going to surround my head with 'Near-Field Magnetic Induction'.
I'm pretty sure the guy is peter from engadget, I saw him on CNNfn once.
My guess is the "models" have their heads turned so we can see the color on the headphones.
My guess is Peter has his head turned to see if anyone is laughing at him with those hot pink headphones.
Who's the girl in the first picture? She's super cute.
...and a lot more enjoyable to look at than that repulsive Zen Micro.
gak! When they shrink them down and come up with a better industrial design I'll bite. Otherwise I can't ride the metro with that monstrosity on my head (the headphones or the creative zen). Doesn't anyone make bluetooth or magnetic induction whatzit EARBUDS?
Hey, I was speaking with one of the Zen demo guys at CES yesterday and he said the wireless kit would MSRP in the $150 zone. The sled uses two AAAs, and the headphones one. He also commented it was very preliminary hardware, as the headphones were barely flexible. I got to test them out a bit, and when I tried both pairs that were there, noticed they were only playing mono audio, which could imply the stereo version is not demo-able yet. There was also a rep from Aura there walking around with a better realized pair of headphones. And it seemed they could all pick up the audio from the one Zen playing as long as they were in range.
On 2nd thought, I got a Zen Micro for my mom's b-day. When those earmuffs come out I'll grab a matching pair for her.
Well, I meet with Aura when they visited in the UK last year and they where finishing of the stereo support back then, so hopefully they'll have it working shortly. The technology is quite smart and it's pretty much interference free and supports much higer quality sound than Bluetooth is capable of due to much higher bandwidth. Although people with hearing aids might get upset ;-)
To make it clear... The magnetic link was providing 44.1kHz stereo... not sure why you only heard it as mono... As for the plastics, as the article states that these are just proto-types.. form and fit will follow shortly...naturally the progression would be the smaller the better...
Some more pics here, but of a red one.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=2124&head=1
well, u know if you got some pretty shaggy hair, the headphones won't look TOO much of a monstrosity... but for a dude with dark hair with pink headphones... i dunno about that. hopefully further advancements such as size minimization will come out in the mere future; but since this is still practically new, i guess it won't happen any time soon.
Is this available for purchase anywhere yet? I'd like to buy one
As an better alternative, I used the Plantronics 590 and it's delivers the same quality sound from a wired headset:
http://headsetplus.com/product362/product_info.html