It's hard to know where to begin with this, but Creative has confirmed that
Zii EGG handheld we saw pass through the FCC a few weeks ago, and proceeded to slap every odd marketing term the company has come up with over the past few years on it. The Zii EGG runs the new "Plaszma" platform, which has something to do with "
StemCell Computing" and allows developers to simultaneously develop for Plaszma and Android. Since for now the Zii EGG is aimed at developers and OEMs, it runs fairly vanilla Android on top of Creative's
ZMS-05 chip. The hardware itself is rather impressive, with front and rear facing cameras, HD playback, 1080p video output, OpenGL ES support, X-Fi audio processing, 32GB of built-in memory and a
full SD slot. Other more "run of the mill" features include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a 3-axis accelerometer. The 320 x 480 screen sounds strictly ordinary, but on top is some 10-point multitouch capacitive input -- Synaptics' new
ClearPad 3000 if we had to guess.
The big drawback here is the lack of cellular data, but hopefully somebody can solve that before long. The Zii EGG is a developer platform, after all, but Creative says the platform is "market-ready" for picking up by OEMs for production -- hopefully they aren't far removed from shoehorning a 3G chipset in there somewhere as well. The Zii Plaszma Starter Kit bundled with the Zii EGG can be had for $400. A video demo is after the break.
[Via
DAP Review]
posted July 28th 2009 10:03AM
Hopefully the X-Fi in this one isn't "fake" like the Zen X-Fi.
Those specs are mad cute. I like.
which came first? The chicken or Zii EGG?
I need my dumb joke to be at the top to annoy everyone.
Must reply off-topic to first comment.
As far as I know Android does not support the multi-touch yet. How did they put it in there?
@OBC... it has been added in both others, or simply said they probably worked with google a bit during the development and have an unreleased version.
by = both**
Android is open-source, adding multitouch support to it is trivial. Homebrew hackers originally added multitouch support to the G1's web browser a couple of months after it launched. The Hero also has multitouch support in a lot of its built-in apps.
The real reason why Android doesn't "support" multitouch is because there's no library for it in the SDK. Nobody can write an app that uses it even though all the hardware released so far has been designed to be multitouch compatible.
looks like an iPhone to me. but hey everyone rips off Apple so what's new? Losers.... i'll be waiting on the iTablet
@ OneLove
Depends on which one is better on bed. ;)
The article forgot to mention that one of the cameras is HD and that there's an ambient light sensor and an X-Fi audio chip.
@derrik enjoy only being able to run the software that Apple, Inc. decides you are allowed to on your $1500 netbook spec tablet.
And Apple don't rip people off derrik? I take it you haven't heard of the so called "Zen" patent? Apple paid $100 million to Creative to settle a case over the iPod hierachical interface.
And don't forget how Apple stole its name and logo from trees.
@ derrik
Funny, I don't recall anyone asking for a fanboi to speak. Also, does the iPhone support 1080p out to your HDTV? And Last I checked, the iPhone doesn't have an expansion port for memory cards.
Not everything is an Apple clone. The specifications listed are standard / or the soon to be expected standard for personal media players.
He-he
Why everyone forget so quickly about battery?
Can this provide even a hour of pleasure on one charge?
Or can i have a 20 minutes of 1080p output without connecting power brick?
BATTERY! BATTERY! POWER? POWER?
@derrik: OMG it has a touchscreen! And wait, it can run applications. No doubt about it, it must be an iPhone knockoff! Idiot.
If what they say is true, this is one of the biggest jumps in mobile technology. Ever. 1080p? The Atom has trouble doing any kind of HD.
A processor designed to deal with HD video in a specific format is completely different from a general purpose cpu like the Atom. It's not a quantum leap because they're not really comparable.
Where does this processor say that it was specifically designed to run HD video? It's not.
@Cory
Uh, yeah it does.
Nice try though, troll.
Watch the vid, he clearly call it a "dedicated media and 3D processor". Kind of like a GPU for a phone, I guess?
Dude, news flash, its called Tegra and is capable of 1080P.
@Adam, it's not running a Tegra- the Zii is a competing platform.
Isn't that a leaked iPhone 3GS, with the higher positioned speaker?
But.... Is that a phone?
I was wondering that too. I know I like it and it seems cool - but 'what is it?' - Phone, MP3 / MP4, MID, Portable HD?
It's a HANDHELD, duh!
Oh, wait... good question.
I want...
Then buy it. All you have to do is sign up as a developer and give them 400 bones.
i seriously just bought it.
went over to this article not even 10 minutes ago, fell in love, and bought it.
today's a good day :)
i want too .... and if what they say is true ...that it ll be available for 200 later on i ll be the first to get it
I signed up for a developer account. I just can't bring myself to dropping 400 bucks on this thing.
$400 is dirt cheap for the SDK plus this amazing little thing.
It is if you're the type of person who has the skill to do something with the SDK.
I'm not. So, to me, it makes more sense to wait for a retail version of the device.
But considering a 32GB iPod Touch also runs for $400..
Believe me. I see the value in the hardware. The thing is loaded.
However, for me, it would just be another in a pile of expensive media players that I don't use. I've already met my stupid PMP purchase quota for the month. I can't afford to take a chance on another yet.
That being said, if I was in the market for a 32GB Touch, I'd seriously consider the Egg. I'm just not in the market right now.
If it had at least two programmable buttons I would've bought one.
I've always been a Creative fanboy, but as soon as Apple released the iPod Touch, I jumped ship.
But fiiiiiinally it looks like its safe to go back to Creative again
Yes indeed. I was sad to see the high-capacity creative PMPs go away. The iPod interface is just horrible in comparison.
..which is ironic since Apple stole that interface from Creative.
Omnia HD without phone function and smaller screen resolution, half the price.
So whats so good about it? I don't want a phone-sized PMP without a phone to carry together with phone.
While I've not tested either, so this is purely speculation on my part, my guess is that you would notice a bit of a difference in the audio output on a samsung phone, and a creative PMP specifically made for audio and dedicated hardware for that.
Well, at least I hope so ;) The price is lower too though, yes?
Isn't the Omnia on a contract though? this isn't a phone, and it isn't on a contract.
Hmm, OK.Since when has the Omnia HD had 32GB internal storage, 1080p output, and run Android OS? By having the Omnia HD run S60v5, Samsung have rendered it a piece of crap, irrespective of its hardware.
/ex-5800XM owner
If this thing is a phone, it looks like a combination of a lot of other devices...but better. its more powerful than most netbooks
Unlike this, Samsung Omnia HD is a phone. Features sound similar.
Can't dislike the price drop though - Omnia HD = $700+
how is this compared to the iphone in power? all the demo here looks like can be done with the 3gs iphone, except the HD output, or can u do this with iphone?
Nvidia chip looks much better.
Nvidia chip looked better since the announce of Zii but who cares? Not Creative.
iPhone is powered by ARM CPU, and has 128 MB of RAM. Zii is powered by multicore ARM processor called ZMS-05 along with 512 MB of RAM. iPhone is great but sheer processing power of the Zii handheld computer is much, much higher.
Why do you care about the aesthetics of a processing chip?
The Zii is WAY more powerful than the Tegra that's going into the Zune HD. I'm not sure about the power consumption though.
WANT android device(s) without monthly fees.