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Creative removes FM recording support from the Zen

By Justin Mann

On October 16, 2006, 7:00 PM

In an mp3 player world dominated by the iPod, Creative and other companies are having a tough time pushing anything else. It'll be even harder for Creative now, who will be removing FM recording from their Zen series. Requiring a firmware upgrade for units already sold, the upgrade will disable the ability for the unit to record radio, under pressure from the RIAA. Earlier in the year, we heard about the RIAA using the same strongarm tactics against XM, who resisted rather than rolled over.

The announcement from Creative is a bit of a downer to the home media community, as it seems that less and less functionality is being introduced with more expensive devices, rather than vice versa.

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User Comments: 3

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  1. Wait I own a Zen MicroPhoto, so your saying that if I update my Firmware I wont be able to record off the radio?
  2. I also have a Creative Zen MP3 Player with this record music functionality. I cannot believe Creative is doing this to it's purchasers. I will never buy Creative products again. In my opinion, very few owners would ever share any recorded songs. I never have shared any of my digital music. Anything recorded from the radio is ever perfect. Most of the time, the beginning of the song is partially talked through by the DJ and the end of the song is interrupted the same way. This just makes me mad. I have not used this feature yet but I plan to. The RIAA really continues to make me sick and now I put Creative in the same category.
  3. What do you mean when you say Creative is "Requiring a firmware upgrade for units already sold"? How can Creative require a firmware upgrade? If I want to keep my FM recording capability, can't I just never download the firmware updates?

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