What everyone really wants - a Creative Apple

Yoo.. juz came back from the IT fair at Suntec convention hall! Went there with Jing and JX cos they wanted to check out some IT products, and I decided I could update myself about some of the latest gadgets as well. Yeah.. after browsing thru all the laptops, cameras, printers, handphones.... there came the highlight-mp3 players! At least that was the case for JX and Jing who are desperately searching for a nice mp3 player after discovering how fun my ipod was.. ahem. =) Anyway, for the ill-informed friends out there who are looking for a nice mp3 player like them, I've decided to give a low-down on all the latest mp3 players out there in the market right now. Yepz.

Being the proud owner of an ipod (10 GB, which means I'm holding the ipod ancestor.. long b4 u suakoos out there even know what an ipod is), and being the sister of the proud owner of a Creative Zen (20 GB), I think these are the 2 brands I can safely compare and give informative insights about. Yepz.. so let's start with ipod.

What's the great draw about ipod? It's classy design of cos. Somehow, Apple designers always seem to have a knack for designing all the latest gadgets to look space-age and cool, and yet not lose its funky touch as well. The ipod is slim, white (with a damn classy feel to it), has a cool touchpad (which Creative is desperately trying to imitate), and to top it all off, the back is chrome.. which means when u r outside and u forgot to bring your mirror, u can always check your hairdo or your makeup whatever by just turning your ipod around. Sometimes, I really feel they would do so much better if they market their products as "for ladies only". =p
It is the first mp3 player on the market with such a huge capacity and it is always at the forefront of technology in the field. Like how it came up with the ipod photo, which I feel is really ingenius! I bet one day we can upload our fav mtvs into our ipods and watch them on the go.. or even short clips.. like Mr Bean clips, or Spongebob square pants, or....whatever.. yeah.. u get my drift. On the technology front, Creative seems to always be lagging behind, just by that little bit.

However, Creative seems to be making up for it by digging up all the loopholes in ipod, which, in its haste for technological progress, seems to have overseen. Ok.. so the touchpad on Zen and the white colour design etc seems to be really a ripoff of ipod (even the Zen micro colours and the ipod mini colours are really similar). However, Zen has many strong points over ipod. Firstly, the Zen micro has an inbuilt radio. It also has a voice recorder and a radio recorder. All these are lacking in my ipod. It also has a spare battery, unlike ipod, which has an inbuilt rechargeable battery. This means that when u r outside and your battery gets used up, u r not able to change the battery and continue listening to your songs. And also, most importantly, we all know that rechargeable batteries have a limited lifespan. With an inbuilt rechargeable battery, the lifespan of the battery inadvertantly becomes the lifespan of the ipod. Which sucks, obviously.
And another important point.. the Zen earphones are really much better than the ipod earphones. Firstly, there's the material they use to make the wire covering of the earphone wires. In the case of ipod, the material is not very durable and gets torn rather easily, exposing the wires inside, which are then in danger of breaking. Yeah.. in case u r wondering, that's what happened to my ipod earphones. Which is how I found out Zen had much better earphones. Cos my earphones were really kind of spoilt beyond repair, I borrowed my brother's Zen earphones to listen to my ipod (ok, more like snatched it from him.. but that's beside the point.. and that's the privilege of being the elder sibling). Suddenly, I found that the bass of the music became very clear. At first, I thought it was due to my ipod earphones being spoilt, that's why even with the bass booster on, the bass still did not sound very loud. However, after I stupidly went to buy new ipod earphones (@#%$#@%!!! should have bought Zen!!!) and listened again, the bass still remained terribly soft as compared to the Zen earphones! If u r listening to music, that's what u r looking for.. a good and solid sound system in the earphones. If they can't even give u good earphones, then I guess, nothing else really matters... sigh..

Bad points about Zen are really more physical than functional. Ok.. we all gotta admit.. when a Zen and an ipod are put together, in terms of looks, the ipod win hands down. Especially so for ladies (with a free vanity mirror thrown into the package). Even though Creative has tried to imitate very closely the aesthetic qualities of the ipod, I must say, it has failed terribly. I mean, if u look at a Zen all by itself, it is probably passable.. maybe even skimming the line of "cool" and "funky". However, when placed together with an ipod... it's like, putting a swan together with a chick. By itself, the chick might look ok, and can even be described as cute. However, when u put it beside a swan.... yeah.. u get the picture. And also, the 20 GB Zen is relatively thick and heavy as compared to an ipod of comparative storage size. Another really intolerable thing about the 20 GB Zen is that they come with inset songs! Songs like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach.. and even chinese intrumental pieces... ok.. not that I have any thing against these songs.. in fact I even have a Mozart and some Tchaikovsky pieces in my ipod (ask JX if u don't believe me!).. but.. the thing is, u can't delete these songs! And they take up space too! OK.. I know all about the government trying to make us more cultured and all and Sim Wong Hoo trying to help them along and all.. but.. I really prefer if they let us choose the songs we deem as cultured and those we deem as not! I mean.. dun u feel cheated?! U get a supposedly 20 GB mp3 player, and after buying it u find that like, 1 GB of it is already used up to save songs that u might not have even heard of!? Ok.. I know the proportion seems small.. but my point is, they cheated us!!!! Sigh... If only the good points of Creative and Apple could combine.. then we get the PERFECT mp3 player!!!

And that's what I call a Creative Apple. =)