CREATIVE Technology seems to be taking a guerilla approach to marketing their latest products.
Just two months ago, they launched the cheapest 1GB MP3 player on the market with the Zen Stone.
The Stone is Creative's belated answer to the Apple shuffle, both being no-frills devices with no LCD screen and very compact sizes.
At $69, the Stone is half the price of the shuffle, and a no-brainer purchase.
Last week, they quietly launched the follow up called the Zen Stone Plus.
At $99, it's no surprise to see it having 2GB of capacity.
In case you're wondering, 2GB will hold roughly over 500 average-sized MP3s.
But I wonder what existing Stone owners will say when they find out the Plus version also comes with an organic LED (OLED) screen, FM radio, microphone, voice recording, an audio equaliser and even a stopwatch.
For just $30 more, that's plenty.
I've been testing it and I readily recommend it over the original Stone.
The OLED screen is small but easy to read. The few buttons available are all dummy-proof. There's no need to install any PC software as it's pure plug and play.
Best of all, like most Creative players, the default audio quality is really good, provided you have good earphones.
There's solid thumping bass, natural mids and clear highs, suitable for most genres of music.
One of the accessories accompanying the release of the new Stone Plus is the TravelSound Zen Stone docking speakers ($69).
It's a very basic speaker system - just plug your Stone into the audio plug and switch it on.
There isn't even a volume control.
I'm not too hot on the Travelsound for several reasons.
The sound quality of the TravelSound isn't something to shout about. It's tiny and lacks bass.
Moreover, the speakers won't switch off automatically.
A pair of alkaline batteries will power it for 21 hours, but forget to switch it off (even when no music is playing) and the batteries go flat.
