Creative never ceases to amaze me on the crazy stuff they jam into their already confusing product line. So here we go with another such product. Creative has managed to cram a speaker into both the Zen Stone and the Zen Stone Plus, keeping the same product name, and merely added a caveat to them- “with built in speaker”. If someone emailed me a leaked photo of this I probably would not have posted because it’s almost not believable.

So how does it sound? It was actually surprisingly loud. Clear? Yes, but I could see the lack of full range becoming rather fatiguing on your ears for extended periods of time- much like the Zen WAV’s tinny sounding speaker. I can see some applications for the Zen Stone Plus (with built in speaker) since it has an FM radio. It might come in handy at the gym. However, the Zen Stone (with built in speaker), I’m going to go ahead and skip this one across the pond of wtf.

The 2GB Stone Plus retails for $60 and the 2GB screenless Stone retails for $50. Available for preorder on Creative’s site now. There are a few photos below comparing the Stone (with built in speaker) to the Stone Plus.

I have been lagging on this players review for the last month or so since I did not think it would ever make it to the US. But sure enough it found its way to Wal-Mart’s online retail channel. The WAV, Creative’s first player with built-in speakers sells for a reasonable price: $80 for the 2GB and $100 for the 4GB capacities.

I will post a review shortly but here is a quick take: The Zen WAV is pretty much the Zen V Plus with speakers, similar feature set and same great Zen interface and controls. The screen is subpar, but video watching is not too practical considering large Motion JPEG video files, like with the Zen V. The speakers are what you would expect-- not as good as the Sansa Connect or the Samsung K5, but they lend well to the WAV’s alarm functions. Overall the WAV is nothing amazing, but with its built-in speakers, it’s a niche product and may be worth a consideration at its current price.

Update: Check out the full Zen WAV review now posted.

[Wal-Mart via Engadget]

Persistence from Ministry of Sound will be seen shortly as their latest endorsed player from ALBA electronics, labelled the MOSMP085, will commence sale later this month. In the past not a great deal of commendation has been handed to Ministry of Sound players. The MOSMP085 is not going to blow away all past reputation, but at least the typical features of a digital audio player appear to be accounted for this time.

If the 2-inch TFT display is enough to distract you from the rather bland design, a voice recorder and internal speaker are also included. Format support is certainly nothing to rave about (audio scrapes in with MP3, WMA DRM, and WAV), however six preset equalizer settings and a lyric display function will contribute to the decorative aspect.

As you may expect, there are 5 preloaded Ministry of Sound tracks, plus two free music downloads. Rest assured, this model does have inbuilt memory: 1GB for $90 and 2GB for $100.

[Product Page via Tech Digest]

It’s no surprise that more companies are making the choice to employ touch screen technology, the most recent of these being TEAC. The MP-600 will provide for the low capacity PMP market, as it is offered in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities, but can also be expanded through SD/MMC memory cards. Only the very basic file formats are covered: MP3, WMA (DRM), AVI (XVID), and JPEG.

Sharing music and video with others can be done easily through a built-in speaker. The MP-600 supplies a decent collection of equalizer settings, FM radio, recording functions, reading of e-books and text documents, and if you get bored of it all: Tetris. Battery life registers at 10 hours for music, and 5.5 for video playback.

[Product Page via Bestofmicro]

At first glance the Datawrite Nitro might not strike you as being anything to write home about, but the amount of features that are available for the cost may soon change your mind.

Support for music only spans MP3, WMA, and WAV formats, but can be played through built-in speakers. Most video formats can be converted to MPEG-4 (AVI) with the included software for playback on the 2.0-inch, 220 x 176 pixel, 260k color LCD screen. The PMP also features picture display, FM radio (which can save 40 stations), games, voice recorder and a text-viewer. All of this is offered in 2GB for £34.99 ($70) and 4GB for £50 ($100).

[Product Page via Tech Digest]