Video: Creative Zii EGG development kit gets a second look
We already know the Creative Zii EGG development edition is shipping out to eager hands, but for the even more eager eyes out there, the folks at Anything But iPod managed some pretty nice, well-lit HD video to give another illustration of how the hardware will look and feel. The narrator is quick on multiple occasions to remind viewers it's an early build running on Creative's Plazma OS only (no Android yet) and he takes issue with the feel of the thin film of plastic on the touchscreen, but that and slow load times notwithstanding, the device is looking mighty impressive. Pictures through the read link, and mosey on past the break for digital peep show.
[Thanks, Mathieu]
See more video at our hub!
[Thanks, Mathieu]
See more video at our hub!























He sounds pretty stoned.
Stonerboy has a mohawkish style.
Look at 1:38.
I think I can see red in his eyes.
Yeah, he's shooting this video right before a late night run to White Castle.
I think you would pretty much have to be stoned 24/7 to truly work somewhere called anything but ipod. They obviously have a drug induced reality of the world if they honestly think anything is better than it, I'm referring to the iPod. Of course they could probably be one of those who get their jimmies off by going against anything popular, even if it means living a life absent of the best products. Shame really that one has to avoid buying something because of who makes it, not because of how it performs.
The device is very developer.
urdaddy, urdaddy! Are you here? I can't see you.
nice iPod touch alternative
Yeah, I'm pretty excited to hear that some versions will run Android. Very interesting.
What puzzles me, if this device is so good, why doesn't Creative just market it. It seems like it has a lot of nice features and is far better than the Zune HD. I'm guessing that Creative doesn't have any money available to market it for itself. It seems like it would be a sure hit if it has any battery life whatsoever. It's possible a company like Dell or HP would buy it to get into the gaming business. This thing looks like it's a ready-made hardware/platform just for the taking if it can run Android.
Has anyone actually worked out what this device is supposed to be?
Except the Touch is 4x as small. But really, if you want to sacrifice ease of use for music quality, get the new walkman. This will never take off.
By the looks of their website, it hasn't been seriously put out to consumers because it's not meant for them. On zii.com it seems to imply that it's an OEM product that other manufacturers can take, fiddle with and then mass produce.
"Focus on the big idea, leave the nitty gritty to us. Showcase your innovation on an industry-certified open template. With a market-ready platform, enterprising developers can make quick profits, thanks to speedy time-to-market advantage."
So i assume they'll release a version to the public, but it sounds like they're basically selling it as a vanilla model that developers can customise for their own needs. Given the feature set, it should be awesome and unfortunately expensive...
As for battery, it's got a 1200mAh in it, so if someone would care to guestimate the current draw it should be pretty easy to work out how long it'll last with say 80% efficiency?
Will we ever see a Creative Phone?
ZiiPhoneGG?
That film is obviously meant to be peeled, you can see it lifting in the corners.
he was going to take of the screen protection film, but then he got high...
Off*
eh, I 'll just skip the "the comment system sucks" stuff and just admit I failed to proof read.
This device looks nice, but in my book, nothing can compete with the Zune HD's slick hardware and software... Ahh, well. I guess I'll have to wait 15 days like the rest of the world for it to come out.
I'm waiting for it as well. Getting my preorder in this week!
The Zii's hardware is much more powerful than the tegra processor in the zune HD, although I agree that the software on the zune HD is the best. It'll be a tough decision between the 0GB Zii +32GB SD and the 32GB zune HD.
The Zii EGG isn't limited by Microsoft's various levels of DRM, has a bigger actual screen and appears to be more targeted at devices like the iPod Touch than the ZuneHD. Like comparing Eggs and Bacon....
I havent seen any specs on the crazy zii processor, but i do like the ZuneHD, i mean the software is just delicious, and the build quality looks spectacular.... Either way, this wont be a consumer product till 2010, so go ahead and get the HD, i plan on it.
Oh shit jim, I LOVE BACON!
@Jim: It's not like it DRMs any track you put on there. Both devices will play MP3s just fine.
The one thing holding me back from the ZuneHD is that it's not open source, thus not open to further codec and container support. Did I see mkv container support at all? I dont think so.
@Jim
Comparing the Zii EGG and ZuneHD is like comparing peaches and nectarines. Let's see, both are:
-play music
-play movies
-play games
-have internet connectivity, browsing
-can run 3rd party apps
-have HD video output
The only thing the Zune HD doesn't have is GPS and a camera. How do you figure they target different markets at all? Look like dead-on competitors to me.
jeeze this guy sounds so boring also, he keeps saying "um" and rambles alot. other than that good review i can't wait for the consumer edition to come out i need a new mp3 player and like the fact that you this can hold regular sd cards. why are they using the opera browser the android browser is way better than opera.
Where's that business card holder from? Looks neat.
I love how it's such an obvious rip off if an ipod touch, and the logo thing is a major ripoff of Wii. I miss creative when they were actually... well... you know, creative. But seriously, why copy the itouch, and so closely? It's really nothing spectacular.
Well, even though it's far superior as a development platform and I'm assuming as a PMP, cosmetically it's a major ripoff of an iTouch. I'm not trying to bash on the Zii, I just wonder why companies can't do their own thing anymore. Not even shitty chinese knockoff companies. Actual respected, prominent companies like Creative.
I thought the zunehd interface looks pretty cool and unique. The palm pre has its own style as well. Rows of icons are the "in" thing.
A talking anus. That's what you are, isn't it?
jezze , do you want some sort of fakin clown to talk dirty about mp3 players to you!?!?
would u rather have a real clown sir?
"once it hits the store shelves" ?
He does know that it will only be sold to devs, right? The only thing that will remain the same is the OS(es) and the internal Zii guts.
Wonder how it will stand up to Tegra in a benchmark.
That's exactly what he's talking about..
"This is available to license for software developers, OEMs and ODMs [?] so that you could innovate in software, take this product, rebrand it and get to market extremely quickly." (source: 'Introduction to Zii optimized Android' video, about 2:26)
To me, this sounds like this this _is_ hitting the store shelves, with at most slight cosmetic changes ('peel off this protection film-sticker for example).
I can't see any video's at work posted on YouTube (Would be great if Engadget could repose using something like Vimeo :) ). 1. I'm in China, and 2. I don't have my VPN here :(
Either way, I did find this on Youku.com which is Android on Plazma
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTA4OTUyOTMy.html
Not sure how old it is. Looks promising :)
My problem with this pmp is that it looks and feels too much to the ipod touch. Heck even the apps on the screen, songs playlist tabs and the not available album art pic.It has a lot of extras like the camera but i dont need that. At least zune has some Unique feel. Im gonna feel that uniqueness sometime in the future. Gonna order through zune originals soo its gonna take longer.
Why the name? I just think Wii when I see the name, think they need to rename it, go for something unique like ipod or zune.
Are we on the name thing again? They registered the name literally years before the Wii. Creative are famous for thier Zen series...Zii stands for Zen 2.
iPod Touch pretender?
Ugh want.
The only reason this isnt filed under 'Keepin it real fake' is because a legit operation, Creative, came up with this design. I know the iphone/ipod touch form factor is limited in its scope, but this looks like it was shamelessly ripped off.
OMG it's rectangular in shape and uses a touch screen how dare they ripoff Apple! Didn't you know they invented fruit,square(that includes rectangles)mice,mp3's and they also invented touch technology. Because none of these idea's were around before Apple came into existence....
Adam & Eve, Bullshit Apples weren't invented till 1976!
I am by no means an apple fanboy, but if you were to put the devices side by side how could you not conclude that the Zii looks very much like the iphone all the way down to the positioning of its camera? We are talking black slab devices.. really not much variety in design but dont you think it looks awful close to say the Meizu M8 aswell?
...good to see the zii out in the wild...
...if you have one, please make more videos for youtube...
...there are only about three or four as of now...
Creative live up to it's name.
im sure xda will make this and the zune hd even better.
xda-developers? They only work on HTC products, unfortunately.