Creative Zen

Creative Zen

Creative may have had a hard disk based MP3 player before Apple even thought about entering the digital music device market, but that hasn't stopped it being massively overtaken by sales of the iPod.

It looks like Creative is now calling for a truce with its rival as its new Zen player is its first to support AAC encoded files which means you can use it to listen to tracks ripped using iTunes or unprotected tunes bought from Apple's online store.

The Zen is available in 4GB, 8GB or 16GB capacities and features an SD card slot for easy expansion. In addition to supporting audio tracks encoded in WMA, MP3 or AAC, it can also playback video files in WMV, DivX and Xvid format.

The Zen will be available in September with prices starting at £99.99 for the 4GB version. See Creative's website for further details.