A little more than a year after I wrote my Love Letter to iPod Users, I bought a Creative Zen Vision: M. She is green and lovely, and her video screen is gorgeous. I didn’t even care about getting a video MP3 player, but now that I’ve been mainlining HD versions of Torchwood — I’m utterly smitten. (As per the CNET review: Of course, one could argue that the screen matters more than the container, and here the Vision:M definitely has the iPod beat. Although both devices have 2.5-inch, 320×240-pixel LCDs, the Vision:M’s displays a whopping 262,000 colors to the iPod’s 65,000. And really, it’s stunning.)
So, after a minor driver-installation glitch and a brief non-manual-reading learning curve, all has been well. Except, I can’t find a halfway decent Zen accessory to save my life. Whether I go into Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, or hit the online retailers — all I can find are iPod goodies. iTrips, docking stations, armbands, and more — all specifically designed for the iPod (and all iPod versions at that). Even with the relatively recent launch of the Zune, there are mini-Zune sections snuggling up to the iPod behemoths. I keep finding stuff for some random Sanska thing. And yet for my pretty little Zen? Nothing.
Amazon, which pimps the Zen for its Unbox, offers up slim pickings in additional links for Zen accessories. Sure, I can get a holder or a skin, but it’s been very hard to track down a decent car add-on so I can play it through my Mini Cooper’s stereo. Really, it shouldn’t be this hard to spend money. And I’m sure there are other Zen users that would also like to dole out some hard-earned cash so that they can enjoy their pretty in more places. I’m telling you, this is just another reason to hate the iPod.
(if anyone has any suggestions for nifty Creative Zen Vision: M things, please let me know!)
