Creative's latest iPod shuffle speaker, the TravelSound i50

Creative's done quite the about-face from the early days of calling the iPod Shuffle "worse than the worst Chinese player" -- the company's latest DAP speaker dock, the TravelSound i50, is designed to work exclusively with Apple's smallest player, and the clean lines complement the Shuffle's minimalist style in a pleasingly different way. Not much else to see here -- you plug in the Shuffle and it plays your tunes -- but you've got to wonder why Creative isn't lavishing the Zen line with such stylish accessories.

[Via epiZENter]

[Sushi @ Aug 24th 2007 6:20AM]

It looks very nice, I'm going to get one for my shuffle.

[Sushi @ Aug 24th 2007 6:21AM]

It looks very nice, I'm going to get one for my shuffle.
how much does it cost btw?

[Bad Beaver @ Aug 24th 2007 6:21AM]

Can we please rename the category for this into "annoyatron"? I am positively sick of people walking around emitting noise pollution. People have no more sense of decency, and Creative and others are making money out of it. Disgusting.

[David K @ Aug 24th 2007 6:36AM]

I think you're partially right. IMHO portable speakers are fine as long as it is used in the privacy of one's home. I mean, they can make and sell guns for all I care, but to use it to injure a criminal or to use it to kill innocent people depends on their users.

[eEZER @ Aug 24th 2007 6:37AM]

Agreed - people should kill themselves in their own home.

[MatthewJ @ Aug 24th 2007 7:00AM]

My god, I've been waiting for a decent bunch of accessories for my Zen VM for a year now, and Creative are spending time making them for their rival?? I know its likely to make them more money in the short term, but come on!

[Dave95 @ Aug 24th 2007 11:08AM]

They've lost the war my son, they've lost the war


"The MP3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war,...." Wong Hoo - Creative Ceo (2004)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/creatives-latest-ipod-shuffle-speaker-the-travelsound-i50/#commentform

[hanzo @ Aug 24th 2007 10:50AM]

I always wondered what the purpose of a speaker like this is... I mean, it will always sound a bit crappy, won't it? But then, it's still the shuffle we're talking about.

[quote]"worse than the worst Chinese player"[/quote]
I kind of agree to that btw. worse because it costs a lot more than those low cost, rip-off chinese players, while not really offering that much more. I mean, ok we like it minimalistic, but if less is more, not enough is not enough.

[Vizion @ Aug 24th 2007 1:03PM]

The worst than the worst Chinese player was about the 1st gen Shuffle. Back then it seemed absurb to release a screenless player, considering the industry was beyond that. Creative themselves had already released a screenless player way before it. Sim Wong overspoke though as usual and he was wrong about the Shuffle's success.

As for this speaker, please don't judge until you hear it. Creative has some great sounding speakers, and if you look at the specs (click the link in the post) you'll see it's pretty powerful for such a small speaker

[bob e @ Aug 24th 2007 8:03AM]

if you can't beat em, join em!

Me I'll wait for Zune 2.0

[kartman @ Aug 24th 2007 8:09AM]

Pretty soon, Microsoft will also realize that they will make more money on "Made for iPod" than on selling players themselves. The white borg will continue its march on music domination...

[BatteryAcid @ Aug 24th 2007 10:27AM]

When in use it looks like a flash drive.

[Kupaka @ Aug 24th 2007 9:07PM]

It's larger than the farking shuffle for christ's sake!

[The ZeroCorpse @ Aug 25th 2007 11:02PM]

The point of this kind of speaker is to listen to your audiobooks or podcasts without having to carry around earbuds or headphones, or without blocking out outside noise while you listen.

Not all of us like having plastic crap in our ears every time we want to listen to something on the go.