Careful, careful to everyone with a Zen Xtra. Creative just released a new firmware upgrade this month but, apparently, it is designed to give you a fit! Lots and lots of people in the Creative Forums are now complaining of problems after installing (or more accurately, trying to install)  the firmware upgrade.

Everything from detection failure with Windows Media Player’s refusal to install, and other issues are being reported.  Guess how happy I am I own a Vision M and refuse to upgrade firmware until after two months of release? :P  Ever since that demonic Creative Labs firmware upgrade that actually removed features (due to legal issues) I’ve been wary of installing new firmware releases until everybody has voiced their complaints.

To the unfamiliar, the Zen Xtra is a really small, high-capacity, pocket-sized music player with a spectacular sound and a really strong body. I know a friend who has dropped his plenty of times with no remarkable damage.

Like many MP3 players in the market, some of Creative’s releases like the Zen Vision W are equipped with the capability to manage personal information such as contacts, schedule and other entries, syncing with MS Outlook on your PC.  However, like almost every other MP3-player with PIM functionalities, they are extremely limited and are largely a useless feature.

They allow only the most basic features, such as viewing, some sorting but little beyond that.  They are easy enough to set up so if the limited range of functions are not an issue for you, then you can just install the Sync Manager software and click a few buttons afterwards.

If you really want a full-fledged organizer with useful features that can actually help you work, don’t look to your Creative players and get a PDA or a PDA-phone insead.

<=========== Dude, check out the eBay auctions to your left!!!!!!

Lots of good deals!  Vintage Creative players!  Brand new and second hand ones!  Awww!