Imitation is the Quickest Way to Market Share

Yet another sleek and stylish iPod pretender is on its way from Creative, maker of the famed Nomad line of MP3 players. This one, called the Zen, is a 10 gig hard-drive based MP3/WMA player. It comes with both USB 1.1 and firewire ports, and its sleek aluminium exterior measures just 3″ x 4.4″ x 1″ and weighs about 9 oz. Price and availability unknown, but the specs are available from the Japanese website. Translate through Babelfish.

Update: The Nomad Zen is now available with 20 gig drive for $350.

Update 2: It’s only $300 with the $50 rebate.

Sweet 17

CNet has a review of the Envision EN7500 17-inch LCD monitor with TV tuner built in for only $600. That seems like a pretty good deal considering that’s about the same price as a regular 17″ screen. Worth looking into, if you’re looking for a compact display for entertainment in the den or entertainment plus computing in the home-office.

Sidekick

The new T-Mobile branded Sidekick (formerly called the Danger Hiptop) is available today in T-Mobile stores and at the website for $200 (after rebate) with activation — and it includes the extremely lo-res color camera attachment (120×90?). Kewl. For more info on the device, including a review, go to Dangerinfo.com.

Zire Predictions

Palminfocenter has come up with some spy pics of Palm’s new upcoming handhelds, and they all are sure to spark the handheld war afresh; Palm’s low end unit will be called the Zire, will have 2 megs of RAM and cost just $99. According to Palminfocenter, the Tungsten line will be the high end line, and will include the first Palm OS5 handheld with ARM-based chip @ 175 MHz with 16 megs of RAM, internal Bluetooth, a “double density” 320×320 TFT screen with 65k colors and a fancy slide out Graffitti area cover with D-pad (pictured right). Another rumored device is a Palm PDA/Phone with similar features as the Tungsten T, but with wireless access and a biult-in keyboard for thumb-typists. Visit Palminfocenter for better pics and specs.

[Posted by Nate Heasley]