Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox (6 GB) MP3 Player

Reader?s Note: I never attempted to be a playwright in my entire life, except now?I hope you enjoy the new format?the old one can be left to ferment temporarily. I?m so miserable after failing my midyear exams, so I decided to be corny this time! Hey, quit frowning?I still got all the pieces together! :-)

The Setting

The Cameramen fiddle with their instruments, making last-minute adjustments while the Reporter makes some to his own tie. The Audience slowly shuffles in, carrying various soft drinks and snacks of all kinds. Finally, the last of them makes an entrance into the theatre and the heavy doors close, producing an empty silence.

Reporter (whispering to the Cameramen): Alright guys?that?s it?enough fiddling.

Cameramen (unsure of themselves): Yeah sure? (gives two thumbs up) You?re on!

The lights cast their glare onto the stage, and the action begins. Applause.

Reporter: Thank You Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of ?Gadget Talk??I?m your host, Dang Insolent. It is a pleasure to see so many of you are here to join us today for another informative, and hopefully interesting talk on one of the newest devices of our time.

While technology has pushed the development of electronics to the edge during this age, many of us remain ignorant of such advances? (tugs at the pager in his pocket, probably a hundred years old).

Today, we?ve been fortunate enough to have Andrew to speak to us. He has specially taken this time, off your busy schedule to speak to you on this remarkable device, known only to me as a ?Jukebox??other details may very well be Biology. (lowers his voice) Being the typical Type A student, he is inclined to lose his marbles when stressed, so please be sensitive. (straightening) And now, Ladies and Gentlemen?please welcome?all the way from Singapore?Andrew Lim!

Applause and cheers rise from the crowd as Andrew emerges from behind the curtains with a suitcase. A tomato flies towards the stage precariously and lands several feet away from him. Andrew smiles wryly and shows the Audience the finger without even turning around. The Reporter rises to shake his hand hurriedly and nervously. And then silence reigns?

Reporter: Pleased to meet you Andrew?it is an honor to have you here with us today. Knowing you are just as busy as we are, it must have taken quite an effort for you to make it here for this special program!

Andrew (wiping sweat off his brow): Nothing to worry about, Dang. The traffic was terrible to the point of nosebleed, but everything is only half as bad, or otherwise twice as good when you?re immersed in the world of music!

Sounds of awe rise from the audience.

Reporter: Certainly. That is a deep concept. It has come to my knowledge that you have arrived here with the hope of sharing some of your dreams? (coughs) or rather, some of the experiences you have had with a little device, perhaps something only as large as a portable compact disc player, but yet carries enough power to store a tonne of songs?

Andrew: Yes?but one must remember that music has no weight in one?s hand?it only exists when it resides in your heart? (as though he has forgotten, finally commences) I?m here today to introduce you to a new MP3 player, a proverbial baby of the electronics market.

An ingenious creation of the makers at Creative Labs, this gadget is a testimony of phenomenal development in the sector of electronics. While having the ability to store thousands of songs, it has a width less than twice that of my palm! (shows the audience his minute hands?for a moment, they looked just like five-legged tarantulas)

Reporter: Point taken, Sir. (perplexed) However, one thing still confuses me- Who, or what is MP3? Should I call that a ?he? or a ?she?? I failed Biology in High School?

Andrew (laughs mildly): So did I?I guess you can call the MP3 an ?It?. ?MP3? is actually an abbreviation for ?Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 3?. (the Reporter opens his mouth to protest, but Andrew raises his hand impatiently) What this supposedly complicated phrase means is insignificant.

Special software, termed ?Rippers? are sometimes available through the internet. These use sophisticated methods to transform huge 40 megabyte songs on your compact disc, compressing them into manageable 4 megabyte files which can be easily stored on your computer.

Reporter (eyes widening with interest): Do you take me for a fool? How exactly is this 10:1 compression done?

Andrew: Elementary, my dear Watson. The Human ear is flawed. While the music and sounds around us are full, rich and vibrant, we can only catch a very limited amount of this energy, mostly due to frequency limitations. The ?Rippers? use our flaw to their advantage. By cutting out detail that is inaudible to us, the size of an MP3 file is thus much smaller.

Reporter: Ah?I can finally see the light! It has come to my attention that this gadget comes in a hefty box with many other accessories, but carries an equally hefty price. What did they include in the package to justify its price?

Andrew (nodding): The Jukebox alone accounts for most of the price in the package, but various small accessories all add to it. (opening his suitcase and rummaging through it, he finally displays several items side by side on the table under the camera. He then proceeds to mention them in order from left to right.)

Naturally, the Creative Nomad Jukebox itself is the most important thing in this package. If it isn?t there, then 1) The packers made a major blunder and decided to omit this gadget for your inconvenience, or 2) The ?Nomad? packed the tent and dragged the ?Jukebox? away, leaving ?Creative? in the dark, or 3) The whole world has gone positively mad.

Then, the package should include two sets of four ?AA? NiMH batteries. These are special high capacity batteries that I?d advice you to use only with your Jukebox or your torchlight, but not with your electric shaver. (rubs his wounded chin and sobs)

In order to charge the batteries or otherwise power the device via a DC current, one should use the included Adapter. It might be helpful to note that you can still use the Jukebox while your batteries are charging. Obviously, nobody can resist fiddling with their new toy for 12 hours while the batteries to get their initial charge!

The USB Cable is included as a means of communication between your Jukebox and the computer. One end connects to the USB jack at the back of the Jukebox, while the other end inserts into the USB port of your computer, allowing the transfer of songs.

Also included are the nifty Back Phones that appear to be slightly better than average headphones and produce significant bass that can be a pleasure to hear. But these ?ear clamps? are terribly uncomfortable to wear. I?d prefer to get my ears twisted by my lecturer than leave them on for any degree of time.

Reporter: Very true, Sir?I clearly remember those painful moments!

Laughter.

Andrew: Oh, stop patronizing me, Dang [damn it]! (then laughs?obviously flippant about it) Anyway?

The Instruction Manual is a little booklet that fills you in on what the Jukebox does, and how you can perform certain operations to make it work for you. It is filled with many black-and-white illustrations as well as informative sentences to guide you through various processes. While detailed, it is still a thousand times thinner than my thick skull.

In order to facilitate the transfer of songs, an Installation CD has also been included in the box. This disc installs ?Creative Playcenter 2? onto your computer to allow easy uploading of songs onto your Jukebox. Presently, several firmware upgrades are already on the Creative website, so do check back regularly for updates. I have little idea how long Creative will maintain this policy, so take advantage of it while you can!

The Quick Start Guide, specially developed for impatient souls such as Humans who want to settle down to using the Jukebox in a minimum time. This contains much less information than the Instruction Manual and mainly instructs one how to manage the preloaded songs in the Jukebox.

And last but not least, there is the Protective Pouch that gives your precious jewel that little bit of protection?Creative knows that a little gouge on our Jukebox will leave us crying indefinitely.

Reporter (obviously falling asleep, looks up from his paper dreamily): Uh?um?my wife was saying?

Andrew: What?!

Reporter (jolts up quickly, as though his behind was pricked): Pardon me! This truly is no ordinary device?would you care to run us through the specifics, Sir?

Andrew (leaning back in his chair): Superficially, the Creative Nomad Jukebox resembles a portable compact disc player, though it might be somewhat larger at 5?, 5? and 1.5? (W, H and D respectively). There is the usual volume dial and a headphone jack on its right side, while the ?Lock? button is placed on its left. Behind the Jukebox are the USB port, a 12V jack for DC power, ?Line Out? jacks for external speakers and a ?Line In? port for a microphone, which will allow recordings to be made.

Near the center of the face of the Jukebox is a large backlit display, which can show four lines of information at a time! Below this are three ?soft? buttons. Simply put, the function of these buttons changes according to labels displayed in the screen. Like a regular compact disc player, it features the typical ?Play?, ?Stop?, and ?Rewind? and ?Forward? buttons including two ?Scroll? buttons that allow you to highlight songs and functions up or down a list.

Two more buttons are new, and are labeled ?LIB? and ?EAX?. They are digital wonders, each triggering their own menus when pressed. The ?LIB? button is used to access your Play lists, Albums and Track Listings, while the ?EAX? produces a menu that allows you to select from a huge array of sound-tuning commands to refine sounds according to your preference. Phew?what a mouthful!

Some whom I know have been fooled into believing this is another run-of-the-mill device, but all of them eventually realized that the Jukebox is even stronger than a compact disc player on steroids! While compact disc players typically play one album or CD at a time, giving approximately one hour of music before a disc change, the Jukebox is a goliath, able to store perhaps 100-150 standard albums in its memory?that amounts to over a hundred hours of music!

The Audience is stunned.

The secret behind the Jukebox?s ability is not just because of the 10:1 compression from CD audio to an MP3 file, but can also be attributed to its incredible 6 gigabyte (six thousand megabytes) storage capacity! Unlike regular MP3 players that utilize chips?no, not potato crisps?or ?flash? memory, the Jukebox incorporates a laptop hard disk, a nifty gadget that is not only durable but also gives off groovy sounds when running!

Reporter (clearing his throat): Ironically, this seems to be a step back in time?music instruments carrying moving parts were previously at risk of ?skipping? when jolted. Now that the Jukebox carries an active hard drive, how has Creative worked to combat this folly?

Andrew: I?m glad you asked. The creators, well meaning, have added an 8 megabyte DRAM buffer to the Jukebox, which acts to prevent it from ?skipping? when one is on the move. In my opinion, the Jukebox stores the entire song in the DRAM buffer within the first 20 seconds of it being played?the hard disk is then shut down to save on power. Since the digital buffer is non-moving, the resulting song will never skip!

The Audience exchange quick glances and nod.

Reporter: That?s ingenious! How does the Jukebox compare to other regular MP3 players on the market? Have any improvements been particularly stunning?

Andrew (wets his lips): Most notably, sound production of the Jukebox has been greatly enhanced. True to its name, the Jukebox not only carries music files, but it also hosts an on-board ?digital signal processor? and a ?real-time effects processor? to enable widely varied customizations for playback. It is not only a traveling companion, but also a DJ?s best friend!

The ?EAX? button effectively reveals important system information such as memory and battery life and also produces a menu where one can modify certain output settings?

-Parametric EQ: This menu controls the equalizer, a standard program that allows you to vary the Bass, Treble and Mid outputs anywhere between +/- 12dB, according to your preference.

-Spatialization: Producing interesting effects, one can choose between ?Narrow?, ?Wide? or ?Full? in this menu. These settings replicate the positions of would-be speakers, determining how close, or how far away they are from your ears.

-Environmental Settings: This is undoubtedly my favorite and the most mind-boggling part of the ?EAX? function. There are altogether 10 different presets here, ranging from ?City? to ?Living Room?, and some of these can, particularly in the case of ?City?, produce very jaw-dropping 3D sounds! While increasing the echoes created by a song, this preset muffles it selectively in other ways, making the song sound very far away?(gently waving his arms) as though it were coming from over the hills! Now, you can have your ?Living Room? with you, even when on the bus!

-Playback Speed: One of the DJ?s favorite toys, this function allows you to vary the playback speed of your songs or sound files! The strength of this lies in its ability to change the speed of a file but not mar it by producing those awful (channeling his voice shrilly) ?chipmunk? voices! The speed range for MP3 tracks is 0.5X to 1.4X and 0.5X to 2.0X for voice files.

In recent months, Creative has faithfully provided a multitude of software updates on their website?these are aimed at improving compatibility, fixing bugs and keeping your Jukebox up-to-date with the latest formats of music. While MP3 seems to be the dominant format today, other varieties such as WMA files are emerging quickly. In a fast-moving world, it is always a blessing to be able to keep up with the times. Hopefully, with consistent updates from Creative, the Jukebox is advancement-proof and may never be obsolete!

Unsurprisingly, the Jukebox receives data from the computer via a USB cable, a standard for most of today?s MP3 players. As such, in comparison to earlier devices that used the Parallel Port for communication, the Jukebox ensures much higher compatibility as well as lightning-fast transfer rates! You?ll never have to remove your printer cable to use that Jukebox!

While it is impossible, as far as I know, for one to install and run programs on the Jukebox hard disk, it can still be used to backup important data or large files. The ?Creative Playcenter 2? software included in the package ensures that such data can be transported to and from the Jukebox. Plainly, the Jukebox is almost as good as a built-in tape drive, only much faster!

Reporter: Recalling that the Jukebox can store thousands of songs, it is amazing how everything can be categorized so neatly?how exactly is this done?

Andrew (gives the audience a geek look): Even though the Jukebox is merely a machine, it can successfully list all its songs separately according to their data without going berserk, unlike myself. The Jukebox, like most MP3 players and software, is able to read ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, which are fully customizable by the user in ?Creative Playcenter 2?. Based on this info, this hunk of songs is then sorted out into categories based on their ?Album?, ?Artist? and ?Genre??

Since navigating through thousands of songs is inevitably impossible for most of us, the Jukebox includes an intuitive ?Search? function, commonly activated by one of the ?Soft? buttons. As the letters are typed in, the Jukebox immediately displays the closest match on the screen!

Reporter: Knowing that you are (coughs) very critical and quite unforgiving when it flaws, where, in your opinion, did the Jukebox not perform up to your expectations?

Andrew (a little insulted): The biggest flaw of the Jukebox probably pertains to its very low battery life. This device runs on four ?AA? NiMH batteries at one time, which amounts to about 4.8V or quite simply, a lot of added weight! Despite this power supply, the Jukebox will kill the batteries in a matter of four hours?often even less. The package does include two sets of 4 batteries, so be sure to charge both sets before leaving for a long trip. Also, never attempt to use alkaline or ordinary batteries on the Jukebox. Since its power consumption is so high, buying batteries for it could very well push you over the edge to bankruptcy.

Laughter?somehow very subdued now. Most of the Audience has gone to sleep.

Speaking of weight, picture this little scenario in your mind: In a boxing ring, the Jukebox, a heavy-weight champion shambles in from the left weighing a massive 14oz?and its light-weight challenger, a humble Nomad (another product of Creative), weighing a humble 64g skips in from the right.

The Jukebox is much heavier than all standard MP3 players on the market today, and is also an awful lot bigger. While Creative claims that the Jukebox has been contoured to fit a pocket easily, I thoroughly disagree?its size alone requires you to use a car jack on your pocket to fit it in!

The Jukebox comes preloaded with 20 hours of music for instant enjoyment. While I think this was well meant, it is almost unnecessary. After listening to most of the songs, I have decided that they just weren?t for me since they were somewhat distasteful. In my opinion, the Classical ones may be the only songs worth keeping. I remember once when my mother?

Reporter (sharply cutting Andrew off): I apologize?but we?re running very late.

Andrew (embarrassed): I apologize. Please allow me?the Jukebox is perhaps one of the greatest revolutions in the sector of MP3 players today. Boosting a huge capacity as well as flawless playback with its incredible sound, the Jukebox is a perfect candidate for travel. While it is heavy and possibly cumbersome to carry around, the Jukebox has very redeeming qualities that ?wash away its sins?.

Battery life needs serious improvement here, but the solution is to always carry spare sets with you, especially when on long plane rides. In time to come, the Jukebox may well become an invaluable tool for parties and functions, where hundreds of play lists can be customized for play. This is something that I wholeheartedly recommend! Thank you for your attention?or what?s left of it?

Applause.

Reporter (rises with Andrew to shake his hands): Thank you, Andrew, for instilling such knowledge into our minds, and above all, for taking all the time and effort to be here with us today! I hope we will meet again!

Andrew (flushed): Your welcome, Dang. Thanks for being such a wonderful host! You can be sure that we will meet again?anything that is possible will happen!

Andrew leaves the stage.

Reporter (turns to the Audience): Some secrets from one of the most incredible creations were revealed today?in this way, we are enlightened of our own abilities. When you ?Awaken the Giant Within?, we are miracles of Nature?and can perform other miracles of our own! Thanks for joining me tonight on ?Gadget Talk?. Hope to see you again next week, same time, same channel. This is Dang Insolent, good evening.

By: Andrew Lim
Revised: 17-7-01