Creative just announced a new media player today, the Creative Zen.

Available in 4Gb, 8GB and 16GB Flash models.

Audio Playback Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC (.m4A), WAV (ADPCM), Audible 2,3,4

http://www.creative.com/products/product.a...16999&nav=1

Interesting that they say on their site: "Listen to your music in multiple supported formats. Supports MP3, WMA and non-protected AAC (.m4a) from iTunes® Plus, ..."

Looks like more audio players are promoting the unprotected AAC .M4A format that Apple iTunes and iPods use. This should be welcome news for AAC fans.

I bet this thing can play non-protected MP3s and non-protected WMAs too. Non-protected AAC (.m4a) from iTunes® Plus just means it plays standard AAC files, it's just Creatives old marketing gimmicks. If it could play HE ACC or HE ACC V2 that would be impressive.

Well "iTunes AAC" presumably it also means they support the custom tags that iTunes places inside the MP4 container. I still don't understand why every two-bit mobile phone these days supports HE-AAC but almost no no purpose built DAP's.

Sigh.....it doesn't play OGG or FLAC. Creative is trying once again to compete with apple. Big disappointment for those of us who don't use AAC.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ic=9070&hl=

FLAC support would be nice. Cowon supports FLAC. Now if only Apple would at least import FLAC into iTunes

Will it do gapless???

Very good question. From what I've read so far it hasn't been mentioned. But we shall see.