By Chris Davies on Friday, Jul 31st 2009
We’re indecently curious about Creative’s imminent Zii EGG developer design, what with its iPhone-like looks, 10-point multitouch display and potent ZMD 05 “Plaszma” module, so it’s interesting to see the first of the hands-on reports from over in Asia. HardwareZone and CNET both stopped by the Creative offices to take a look.
The pre-release versions on hand lacked multitouch support and had only patchy Android support; in fact, Android won’t be loaded onto the initial Zii EGG units, which are expected to begin shipping by the end of August 2009, with the devices instead running the company’s own Plaszma OS. Android will be released shortly after, as soon as Creative have ironed out the bugs.
Interestingly, the company is hoping to muster some of the “Shanzhai” developers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to work with their new platform. “Shanzhai” is the name given to the proliferation of derivative or copied devices that follow big-name product launches; however Creative believe that enthusiasm and expertise – as well as their speed of development – could be used to drive Plaszma. For the Shanzhai developers themselves, they’d get the support of a single OEM providing the relevant hardware parts.
Whether or not that pans out remains to be seen, but we’re still curious to see the commercial derivatives of the Zii EGG prototype
iriver Android iPod touch rival, plus ebook reader & internet tablet tippedhttp://www.slashgear.com/iriver-android-ipod-touch-rival-plus-ebook-reader-internet-tablet-tipped-3150868/
By Chris Davies on Friday, Jul 31st 2009
Details of iriver’s upcoming range have leaked, courtesy of an Australian distributor, including such fancies as an Android-based iPod touch rival, an ebook reader and an internet tablet. The iriver K2 is expected to launch in 2010, with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth and a digital TV tuner; it will also, according to C.R. Kennedy iriver product manager Danny Bejanoff, use Google’s open-source Android OS.
Other specifications include an accelerometer and browser, and while the device would obviously lack the iPod touch’s App Market, it would presumably have access to the Android Market for third-party software. However, according to Bejanoff the iriver K2 has not yet been green-lighted, and details such as screen type and onboard storage capacity are unconfirmed.
News of the ebook reader and internet tablet is even more scant, though Bejanoff seems more confident about their reaching the market than he is the K2. No release dates, prices or complete specifications – never mind word from iriver themselves – for any of the three devices, but we’d sure like to point iriver in the general direction of Creative’s Zii department and see what happens
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