Newest Creative Zen Vision:M music player "upgrade” disables FM Recording
Since it’s initial release in December 2005, the Creative’s Zen Vision:M portable music player has been receiving awards including Best of Show at CES and a Red Dot award for product design. The device also was named “Editor’s Choice” by CNet:
CNET editors’ review
Excellent/ Editor’s Choice / 8.0out of 10
The good:Available in five colors, the Creative Zen Vision:M has an incredible screen, a simple interface, excellent video battery life, an FM tuner and recorder, and a voice recorder. It features a customizable Shortcut button, and it supports a wide range of online music stores and subscription services, as well as video formats. It has excellent audio and video quality.
Creative was having some success luring users away from Apple’s iPod because they were offering a good product with more features than the iPod. However, Creative seems intent on undoing these gains. A little over a week ago, Creative released a new software update for the Zen Vision:M player. This update disables the FM recording feature and gives no reason for doing so:
This download contains an improved version of the firmware found on your ZEN Vision:M™. It adds the Volume Restriction feature, which allows you to restrict your player’s maximum playback volume. For more information, read the rest of this web release note.
This firmware removes your player’s FM recording feature.
This behavior is inexcusable. Consumers bought this device expecting to be able to record radio programs and could happily do so for almost a year, but now Creative is turning off this feature without giving a reason. Users across the web are furious with this uninnovation:
“I would send a nasty letter to Creative when you’re done downgrading too, but that’s just me. I know I sent one to Apple when they castrated iTunes’ ability to share over the internet, a feature that I had used all the time to listen to my music while studying or working in another building.
Companies need to know that we won’t just bend over and let them fuck us with little “upgrades” like that, at least not without noticing.”
Users like Kadin2048 are posting links to a forum post that details how to downgrade the Zen Vision:M to regain the lost FM recording feature. However, this is a temporary solution that gives users the choice between downgrading to out of date and unsupported software or upgrading and losing features.
Creative needs to issue an explanation for this “upgrade” and re-enable the feature. It is not acceptable for companies to sell products with one feature set and then change the feature set after release. In a fierce market with little room for error, this is no way to compete with Apple.
technorati tags:creative, zen, vision, vision:m, fm, recording, upgrade, uninnovation
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There is an anonymous comment in that slashdot article by someone claiming to be one of the engineers at Creative, stating that legal told them to pull the feature.