Creative to show off 'Zii Android mobile phone' next month at Chinese summit
By Ross Miller 
posted Nov 15th 2009 5:27PM
posted Nov 15th 2009 5:27PM
[Thanks, Kyle]
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Maybe something like the Zii Egg with phone capability, should be interesting to see if they have put some finesse in the OS, unfortunately my sights are in the HD2 or Passion at the moment but if i can be patient and see where this thing heads it might be a serious consideration
I'm looking hard into getting the HD2 too, but ideally I'd like it with the Hero's interface over Android 2.0 and that would be my perfect phone. Maybe I'm asking too much. I now have to wait to see how this turns out and/or how the SE X10 final software runs. Guess I won't be upgrading just yet.
@Muddy
The HTC Passion is going to be the Android counterpart of the HD2 supposedly all the same specs with Android 2.0, it might be coming to verizon on Black Friday so you might wanna check that out if you want HD2 specs with android awesomeness
Given Creative's track record, I wouldn't hold out much hope for competence.
FINALLY! OH THANK GOD FINALLY!
COME, COME TO USA. COME TO USA NAO.
Quiet down sheep you will be fed in time.
Dell, for one, should give this platform a close look. Their initial offering is nothing short of pathetic. Go Zii'g or go home Michael.
Creative hardware with an Android OS sounds like an ideal mix to me.
First thing this year worth getting excited about in the TechWorld. Finally some development and some real competition for the iPhone. Bring it on !!
Lets hope it's better than their Audio Drivers.
Let's hope it's as good as their audio hardware!
One reason why I still care about what Creative does is that they are really good at audio quality.
Hopefully they'll also show off a consumer version of the Zii. Here's hoping for a high resolution screen and Android 2.0.
this is the true coming month of android
Windows Mobile 7.0 doesn't arrive until Q4 2010, new iPhone probably won't arive until late Q2 2010, Blackberry just came out with the Storm 2 which nothing new to speak of.
Looks like it may be the year of the Android!
I'm holding off until December to find out if Verizon is actually going to get the HTC Passion (Android version of HD2). If not then I will just buy a Motorola Droid. Either way it's Droid for me.
Call me a sucker, but I'm holding out for Sprint's 4G offerings.
that is a sick looking release
Then maybe they should get that looked at.
"our interested are definitely piqued"
for shame engadget! making fun of our Chinese brothers with your engrish...
Dell, Garmin, and now Creative? The smartphone market is becoming very crowded. Yay for the consumer benefits of competition :)
creative's making the processors, not the phones though...
i wonder if parts of the zii chip can be programmed to function as a 3G chip...
I am way more interested in the consumer version of the zii egg. Hopefully it will be shown and is more price competitive than the zune hd and the ipod touch.
I hadn't previously noticed that the i's were different.
That's pretty much all I took away from this.
So basically this kicks tegra/snapdragon's ass in terms of prossesing power/battery life .
Didn't obama say he was starting an initiative to get drastically better batteries?
Scheduled for right after closing quantanamo, pulling out of iraq, releasing the torture pics, supporting gays and fixing the deficit and holding AT&T accountable I presume.
They should have been did this. The Mp3 market is stagnating. Time to think differently.
I would much rather see this device in the pmp market. Think how awesome it would be to have an android device with wifi, gps, bluetooth, front and back cameras in one device without having to pay 900 extra dollars to verizon. You could have your augmented reality apps without sacrificing your first born child.
Leave the phone parts in and let us make skype calls from it too...
I for one support smart devices without phones, to hell with phones, that's the place where the carriers reside I believe?
(Note: I'm an atheist, all reference to metaphysical stuff are for amusement purposes only.)
Eh.... but are you sure you guys at Engadget got the right picture? Disturbingly, this one is about a *"STEM CELL COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY"* summit...
That's what Creative has been calling the Zii platform for quite some time now.
Well I for one welcome the consumer version of the Zii Egg, having had my developer Egg for a few months now .. its definitely a nice bit of hardware, even if there are some rough edges in the software yet to be resolved. It has replaced my iPhone and iPod and G1 Phone as the major MP3-player in my pocket. Definitely great to have the ability to swap out SD cards full of music at will and without requiring some murderous ball-and-chain maneuver with an 'integrated' app-administration package (iTunes: I hate you, suck suck suck.)
Certainly leveraging Android is a good plan, and it would be even more special if Creative can give Plaszma OS a little niche as well, since Plaszma is really, really nice from the perspective of developing new and interesting media apps .. sure it hasn't got a market like Android, but I'm really enjoying Plaszma-oriented development right now .. so nice to be writing fast, nicely performing C/C++ code for a pocket device that beats the iPhone in terms of aesthetics and power.
Am I the only one who naturally pronounces the name of this product using a fake German accent?
How about they start focusing on Win7 drivers for their already established line before delving in to new projects?! Heaven forbid they pay attention to the people they already took money from.
It'd be nice to see what the full list of devices is.
A 9" or 10" tablet, with KVM support, pixelqi display, and their version of Android, would be quite nice.
I'm only interested in their phone, though, if it'll have a physical keyboard.