Look, we know the sound will be crap from that tiny, tiny speaker. Still, we can't help but feel a slight tug at our gadget loin by the new Zen Stone Plus with built-in speaker. Your $60 pre-order will reserve 2GB of flash with up to 20-hours of MP3 playback -- a bit less for the WMA resource hogs. For $50 you can pre-order the Zen Stone with speaker but without that four line display. The biggest rub in all this is the guaranteed up-tick of annoying tweens and teens rockin' out to their mico boombox on public transportation.

[Via epiZENter, thanks Ramon]

Read -- Zen Stone with speaker
Read -- Zen Stone Plus with speaker

So it looks like Creative will be continuing to attack Apple on the features front, with Crave UK reporting that the Singaporean manufacturer is poised to release an updated version of its diminutive, Shuffle-esque Zen Stone Plus -- packing in a hefty 4GB of flash memory, no less. Besides the capacity bump, the unannounced upgrade is also said to boost battery life to a more respectable 12 hours and add support for unprotected AAC files, clearly a move designed to sway fans of the iTunes Plus DRM-free music selection. Being a rumor and all, we don't even have a clue as to when you can expect to see the latest Stone on store shelves, so keep your eyes peeled.

Update: Now Crave is reporting that an 8GB Stone Plus is also forthcoming. Stay tuned throughout the day as this supposed capacity continues to increase.

[Thanks, Daniel M.]

Put your accessory fears to rest Creative fans, there's a speaker dock available to swaddle your Zen Stone or new Stone Plus. Priced at just ¥3,980 (about $32), the TravelSound Zen Stone speaker is primed for all the itty-bitty, 0.2W x 2-channel thimble thumpin' action you can handle. Better yet, it'll annoy the audiophile in your family for up to 21-hours off battery. Available Amos 'n Andy or Martin 'n Lewis. Think about it.

It was barely a month ago that Creative pelted the market with its Zen Stone, and now they're rolling out a re-upped and revamped version known as the Zen Stone Plus. While pretty much keeping the form factor the same, Creative has added a blue OLED screen, FM tuner, karaoke mode, and a stopwatch. The capacity has been increased to 2GB, doubling the original Stone's, but the color choices remain the same. Price and release date haven't been mentioned, but you'll know as soon as we do.

Update: For what it's worth, Impress tells us that the 2GB Stone Plus will hit Japan Saturday for ¥9,800 which translates to a tax-inclusive price of about $79.

[Via epiZENter]

It doesn't take much to figure out who Creative is slinging this Zen Stone at, and Anything But iPod seems to think Creative has scored a direct hit. The player is comfortable in the hand, features a switch to toggle between track-by-track or shuffle all tracks, and to jump to the next folder of music, is similar to the shuffle in size, and best of all: goes for about half the price. It's hard to go wrong with $40 for 1GB of DAP action, especially since Creative allows UMS/MSC access to the player, letting you load files and songs in a cross platform drag-and-drop manner. Most people aren't going to be able to use a screenless player for primary DAP usage, but as a secondary player and fashionable accessory, the Zen Stone should treat you nicely.

We know that it's a bit tired to compare every single new DAP that hits the market to one of Apple's babies, but one look at the screenless, postage-stamp-sized Zen Stone is all it takes to discover where Creative got the design inspiration for its latest player. At 18.3 grams, the Stone is slightly heavier than the 2G shuffle -- it seems Creative was more concerned with keeping prices low than weight down, as the 1GB, clip-equipped player will retail for just $40 when it hits shelves on the 14th. Different colors and skins allow for some degree of personalization, and the claimed 10-hour battery life should help you get through most of the 250 or so songs you'll be able to store on the non-expandable memory. Doesn't look like we've got an iPod-killer here, but with accessories such as the TravelSound Zen Stone dock going for only 40 bucks as well, Creative's latest "me-too" will likely fall into a comfortable niche.

Honestly, not a whole lot of Zennin' has been going on since we witnessed Creative's mammoth display at CES, but according to Eipzenenter, the next one is just a stone's throw away. The presumably small, flash-based DAP should be dubbed the Zen Stone, and while it hasn't been confirmed, we can probably expect a roundish motif. Unsurprisingly, Creative will likely be giving us a plethora of colors to choose from, including black, red, pink, white, dark blue, and lime, and you won't have to look far to find the corresponding armband, skin, or keychain attachment. Word on the street is that this one will demand a mere $50 for the 1GB rendition, and while curiosity may be keeping you up at night, the official release date should happen sometime next month.