Creative hunts Apple with new MP3 player offering

Creative, like Virgin Electronics, is targeting the Apple iPod mini with their announcement of the 5GB Creative Zen Micro. Priced at $249.99 and available in time for, you guessed it, the holidays, Creative describes their newest player as having "a smaller footprint and over twice the song capacity of an iPod mini."

Here are all of the marketing hyped specs from Creative:

• 2.5 times more song capacity -- The Zen Micro with 5GB of storage capacity carries up to 2,500 (WMA, 64kbps) songs, and it lets the listener choose MP3 or WMA music, ripped from CDs or downloaded from online music sites.
• 50% more battery life -- The party never stops with the Zen Micro, which delivers up to 12 hours of non-stop music playback.
• Removable battery -- Listen all day and night by just swapping out the Zen Micro's removable battery for up to another 12 hours of music.
• Smaller footprint -- The Zen Micro is a full 6mm shorter than the iPod mini.
• Ten electrifying colors -- The Zen Micro comes in a choice of ten different electrifying colors: silver, black, red, orange, green, pink, purple, white, light blue or dark blue, to let users choose exactly what color they want.
• Intuitive vertical Touch Pad -- The Zen Micro provides intuitive vertical scrolling to allow users to move through easy-to-use menus with a gentle stroke of one thumb on the face of the player. Vertical movement of one thumb scrolls through vertical menus instead of sending users in circles. In addition, touch sensitive controls enable users to access music with one tap of the thumb on the vertical touch pad.
• Mesmerizing blue glow -- Whenever the user turns on the Zen Micro or touches the Touch Pad, it lights up with a mesmerizing blue glow on the buttons and around the face of the player, which also lights up when the Zen Micro is charging.
• FM radio -- In addition to its 2500-song capacity, the Zen Micro has a high-quality FM radio with 32 presets to easily access favorite FM radio stations.
• Voice recording -- The Zen Micro has full voice recording capabilities so users can capture up to 10 hours of high quality digital recordings of dictations, notes or meetings.
• Ergonomic design -- In addition to its cool looks, the Zen Micro is curved to fit comfortably in the palm of one hand.
• Twice the Internet music access -- Unlike the iPod and iPod mini, the Zen Micro fully supports both WMA and MP3 files. By supporting the recently announced MSN Music service and other music services such as Napster, MusicMatch, Wal-Mart's music store and others, the Zen Micro allows access to up to 2 million songs on-line.
• "Plays for Sure" on any Windows PC -- The Zen Micro will be updated to suppport for Sure," the Microsoft-supported compatibility and testing initiative which allows consumers to easily identify which digital audio players and services will work seamlessly together. As part of this program, the Zen Micro will support Auto Sync with Windows Media Player 10.

Creative also mentioned in their press release the Zen Micro will have a built-in calendar and address book.