Creative Zen Stone Plus Program

• Zen Stone Plus

More Creative Zen Stone Plus Program videos. This starter pack is updated with the latest software and User's Guide for your Creative ZEN™ Stone player. It enables you to customize the audio format when.

. Pros Small and lightweight. Voice recording.

Stopwatch and clock. Can delete songs on device itself.

Zen Stone Plus

Snazzy date/time display. Cons Short USB cable. So-so earbuds. Annoyingly long start-up time.

No way to monitor voice recorder. Bottom Line The ZEN Stone Plus, at 2GB, has twice the storage of the original ZEN Stone, a screen, FM radio, and voice recording. This is about as cheap as it gets for a reliable 2 GB player (the screen-less 1GB iPod Shuffle is $80), but if storage isn't your main priority, the 1GB Sansa Express is better solution (and costs $10 less). Creative has given its barebones a radical update. The new ZEN Stone Plus adds several features the original Stone lacked: an OLED screen, twice the storage (i.e., 2GB), an FM tuner, voice recording, a stopwatch/clock, and EQ options.

Not surprisingly, this array of modifications also raises the price from $40 for the intentionally simple Stone to $70 for the more complex Stone Plus. The ZEN Stone was great because it was as easy to use as an, at half the price. The Stone Plus's added features and higher price, however, have placed it in direct competition with some more graceful (and cheaper) solutions, like the, our Editors' Choice for inexpensive flash players. Both devices have their merits, and the consumer's decision between the two will likely come down to a battle between design and storage capacity. The design of the Stone Plus is similar to the original Stone's.

The most noticeable change: where the ZEN logo was on the last iteration is now a circular, 0.75 inch OLED. The right side of the front face houses a similar control wheel to that of the older Stone—volume controls and skipping buttons surround a central Enter button (the central button on the original was for play/pause).The contour is almost identical, except that the Stone Plus has different buttons up top and is a hair longer than the original Stone.

The headphone jack sits on the top panel, on the left side. The space once occupied by the play-mode and reset buttons is now occupied by a Power/Play/Pause/Assignable function rocker button and a microphone. The underside of the player has a mini USB port and a reset pinhole.

The main physical difference is the one you can't see: the flash memory size has doubled to 2GB. As usual, I recommend upgrading from the included earbuds—Shure, Ultimate Ears, or Etymotic all make great earphones. My main gripe with the Stone Plus is that it's not much fun to navigate.

Unlike the truly convoluted player interfaces on the and Cowon's iAUDIO 7 (Check back soon for our review.), there's nothing tricky about navigating the Stone Plus—it's just slow. There's a lot of one-button navigating back-and forth and button response is sluggish. That said, you'll rarely get lost, and the assignable function button at the top of the player means you're always a one-click shortcut away from your favorite feature—be it the FM radio or your music folder. Another thing that's sluggish about the player: the power up sequence.

You have to hold down the power button for a few seconds before the Creative logo appears on the OLED, and it takes an additional few seconds to actually start playing music. Once you finally get it going, the last function you were using—say, the FM radio—will be the first thing you see. Also, if you were playing a song, it'll resume right where you left off.

The Zen Stone's menus can be accessed via the central Select button, and they are, in order: Music, Options, FM Radio, Microphone, Recordings, Stopwatch, Settings, Lock, and Cancel. This last also appears at the end of every menu page and basically means 'return to main screen.' Oddly, the menu system isn't circular, so once you get to Cancel, your only choice is to go backwards.

Likewise, navigation of music files seems a bit unnatural. First off, choosing the Music menu provides only ways to skip to the next song or go backwards. To actually pick a song from the entire player's library, you have to go to Options menu and select Browse Music. Artists are arranged in alphabetical order; for example, all David Bowie songs are listed alphabetically, from 'Changes' to 'Ziggy Stardust.'

The problem is, artists' names aren't displayed anywhere. Bowie songs simply start showing up on the list after Daniel Johnston's songs are finished, without either artist's name being displayed. The ZEN Stone Plus supports WMA, MP3, and WAV files—no AAC support here, so forget about on the Stone Plus. There's no software or manual CD included either—you have to go to to download Creative Media Lite and the manual, which is a bit of an annoyance. As usual, I had an easy enough time loading the player via Windows Media Player, so you might just forgo the download altogether.

That said, it is quick and painless, and loading files using Creative's software is a snap. The Options menu has the aforementioned Browse Music tab, as well as Play Mode, EQ, Bass Boost, Cancel, and Delete. Delete does exactly what you think: deletes the current song.

Why don't more players have this option? Play Modes are the standard array of Repeats, Shuffles, and combinations of the two for individual songs or the entire song list.

I found the EQ adjustments much more subtle than on most players; it was hard to drastically change the sound of the file playing without utilizing ridiculously intense settings. On most players with EQ options, the 'faders' can make some serious changes with only a little tweaking, particularly to the bass. Still, if you're familiar with my leave-it-flat EQ policy, this is neither good nor bad. Better earphones-before-EQ adjustment is the preferred approach for audio purists. The Stone's FM radio works more or less intuitively. It took me a second to figure out how to set my station presets.

Then again, this was before I read the manual, and I still got it working. I was surprised by the lack of an FM recorder—most players that feature a voice recorder also have one for the radio, but that's not the case here. The voice recorder function, found under the Microphone menu, is easy to use, and your recordings will—surprise!—end up in the Recordings menu.

The Stopwatch is also a snap to use, and it utilizes a display similar to the date-and-time graphic, which is pretty good-looking. The stopwatch, sadly, does not offer a continuous spew of milliseconds, but instead jumps ahead every few milliseconds. For example, the timer skips from 32.17 to 32.33 seconds. Still useful, but not exactly impressive. In Settings, you can flip the orientation of the OLED 180 degrees, which I like, and you can make the date and time the default screen saver. The screen shuts off after 30 seconds of inactivity, but you can set it to shut off sooner than that to save battery life.

You'll need to conserve that battery life, too. The rechargeable battery is rated by Creative as having a life of 9.5 hours, which is already pretty low. Worse still, my test yielded an unimpressive 8 hours and 3 minutes. The original ZEN Stone was a clear victory for pricing and simplicity. The ZEN Stone Plus tries to do much more, but doesn't win on every front. The Sansa Express, for $10 less, offers voice and FM radio recording, simpler menu navigation, and better response times. On the other hand, the Express is 1 GB smaller than the ZEN Stone Plus.

Both players offer more bang-for-buck than the iPod Shuffle. Thus, which player to buy is a question of your priorities: storage versus ease of use. If you need more than 1 GB for your budget player and don't mind the slow navigation of the ZEN Stone Plus, $70 is a fair price for a decent 2 GB player. If, however, it's ease-of-use (and an FM recorder) you seek, the Sansa Express is the better bet. For those who just want a dirt cheap player and don't care about navigation at all, Creative's original ZEN Stone is a fine choice. Creative offers a one-year limited hardware warranty with a 90-day service warranty.

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DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It is a form of copy protection for music and subscription content purchased from online music stores. Your player is a mass storage class (MSC) device that supports purchased music in the Windows Media® DRM (WMDRM) 9 format.

Your player does not support subscription music. To transfer WMDRM 9 music to your player, use Creative Media Lite or Windows Media Player (WMP) 9 (or later). Before transferring WMDRM 9 content, play the content once first on WMP 9 or later. This activates the purchase license, which enables you to subsequently transfer the content to a different location, subject to the conditions of your purchase agreement. Why can't I transfer music files from an online music store to my player?

The track may have been transferred incorrectly or is in an unsupported format. Check the following:. The track is in a format supported by your player (.mp3.wma or.m4a). The.m4a (unprotected) format is supported on selected player models only. The track is within three levels of folders from the root.

For details, see 'Managing Music' in the User's Guide. If the music track is copy protected, make sure that it is transferred using Creative Media Lite, not Windows Explorer. Can I play back PlaysForSure™ and subscription content on my player? Audible content refers to spoken audio programs such as audio books that you can purchase online. To transfer Audible content to your player, download AudibleManager. To skip sections within an Audible track. Transfer Audible content to your player.

Press and hold the Menu/Select button to display the options menu. Scroll to Skip Section and press the Menu/Select button to select. Scroll to the section you want to go to, and press the Play/Pause button to play. Can I use my player as a portable data storage device? Yes, you can.

Your player is recognized as a removable disk by your computer. You can use Windows Explorer to transfer files (including music tracks) to your player.

Please note that copy protected WMA files will not play on your player if they were transferred using Windows Explorer. Your player is displayed as Stone Plus in Windows Explorer.

In Windows Vista, click the Start button - Computer. In Windows XP, click Start - My Computer. What is firmware and can my player's firmware be updated? Firmware refers to the software that resides on your player and that controls your player's features.

Sometimes, improvements are made to your player's firmware and these firmware upgrades are placed on the Creative web site for you. To check for upgrades, connect your player to your computer, and click the Check For Updates button in Creative Media Lite. Alternatively, visit the Creative web site,. Before upgrading your player's firmware, you need to log on to your computer in Administrator mode. For details about Administrator mode, see your operating system's documentation.

After my player is turned on, why does it turn off immediately? The battery may be too depleted to power your player. Launch Creative Media Lite to check that the battery level is at least 75%. Before turning on the player again, charge the player for approximately two to three hours by connecting the USB cable to an actively running computer. Avoid using a USB hub. If you encounter problems after two to three hours, try the following:. Do not use a USB hub and ensure that the USB cable is connected properly.

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Connect your player to another computer. Can I reset the password used for Volume Restriction? If your player stops responding, reset the player. This should not cause you to lose any data or audio tracks, unless you were in the middle of transferring files. Insert and remove a straightened paperclip from the Reset Hole.

If this does not work, proceed to Formatting Your Player. Formatting Your Player WARNING: This step deletes all your player's content. If possible, back up all your player's content on your computer before proceeding. Make sure your player is connected to your computer and you are logged on in Administrator mode. For details about Administrator mode, see your operating system's documentation.

In Windows Explorer, right-click your player and select Format. Why does formatting my player in Windows Vista take a long time?