Tech products change as often as the discs in my CD player. New versions, tweaks, and updates come along all the time. Sometimes you're handed a product like Creative's Zen Touch, and it's tough to tell how people will react. Other times, well, you're looking at Apple's new IPods. This month I've taken brief looks at new players from both these companies. One's taking steps in the right direction; the other I'm not so sure about.

Polishing Up the IPod

By now, you know where you stand on Apple's famous portable player: You either love it, or you're unimpressed. So here's a simple take on the new versions: Yes, the new models are much better. Apple's offering 20GB and 40GB IPods for $299 and $399, respectively--that's $100 less for the same capacity as earlier models. The company's built in some very real improvements as well, including easier navigation and better battery life. And yet these IPods aren't likely to win over power users holding out for the perfect MP3 player.

Apart from the price, the big changes are the battery life, now rated at 12 hours of continuous play, and the Click Wheel control that debuted with the IPod Mini. With the Click Wheel, Apple has managed to elegantly combine its touch-sensitive scroll wheel with easy-to-use buttons. A button in the center of the wheel lets you select items; the menu, fast-forward, rewind, and play/pause buttons are located on the wheel itself. You click the wheel in the appropriate direction to activate those functions.

Beyond that, a few thoughtful tweaks make the IPod a more friendly device. A new setting lets you adjust the playback speed on audio books without turning the narrator into a chipmunk on helium. You can remove songs from On-The-Go playlists, and save the resulting arrangement of tracks if you like. If you want to shuffle through all the songs on your player, you'll find that choice on the top menu. So thumbs up to the new IPods. An already great player gets lots of useful additions.

Still, the new IPods can't quite claim the title of perfect MP3 player. Codec support is limited to AAC, MP3, and Apple Lossless--so those of you with WMA, Ogg Vorbis, or FLAC files are out of luck. You still can't rearrange songs in a playlist; and there's nothing like the DJ feature on Rio's Karma player, which lets you build rules-based playlists on the go. Finally, a few corners have been cut to help trim prices. The 20GB model lacks a docking cradle, and neither model comes with the case and inline remote that shipped with older IPods. But both models ship with a USB 2.0 cable as well as a FireWire cable.

Is Creative Losing Touch?

At least Apple's player keeps getting better. I'm not sure I can say the same for Creative's offering. I took a brief look at the company's newest hard drive player, the 20GB Zen Touch. At $270, it seems like a step in the right direction. It's smaller. It has a nifty touchpad control that's easy to use. And I thought it would have the same ultra-powerful interface for selecting and playing songs.

But it doesn't. Sigh.

You might remember that a few months ago I went a little nuts (in a good way) over the playlist interface for Creative's Nomad Zen. I mean, I loved this thing. It absolutely changed the way I listen to music. The idea of an IPod-sized player with that interface had me drooling.

But no, Creative wanted to simplify things, to aim for the ease-of-use found in its IPod rivals. So with its latest player, there's no more moving songs around within a playlist. No more treating albums and artists as objects so you can collapse them for easy navigation or move a full album of tracks with a few clicks. Gone. Poof. No more. And no "advanced menus" option that brings these features back.

I can hold out hope for a firmware upgrade, I suppose. But I can't help thinking that Creative really dropped the ball here. How, exactly, do you sell this device? With a powerful interface, you could pitch it as the power user's MP3 player. Without it, the Zen Touch just comes off as a slightly larger, slightly heavier IPod. Sure, it's $30 cheaper and it's got 24 hours of battery life. But that's not going to put a dent in IPod sales, is it? Especially not when people pick it up and realize it still uses pick-list commands for many of its functions. Looks a lot like a poor IPod knock-off, doesn't it?

Like Gary Oldman playing Zorg in The Fifth Element, I am very dis-a-point-ed.

Quick Hits

RealNetworks Hacks ITunes: All this uproar over Real's Harmony technology certainly is amusing. The story so far: Real releases a beta version of its RealPlayer software that lets you download protected tracks bought at RealPlayer Music store to Apple's IPod players. Apple accuses Real of resorting to "hacker-like tactics" and mentions that, oh-by-the-way, this feature just might break when it updates its IPod software. Real maintains that what it's doing is perfectly legal.

This will probably end in an instant messaging wars-style standoff, where Apple keeps locking RealPlayer users out as the two companies head to court. I'm not sure what Apple's worried about, though. Would people stop buying IPods if they could play RealPlayer Music Store downloads on them? Does anyone seriously believe that IPod owners would desert the ITunes Music store for Real's offering? Come on, Apple: Just license FairPlay and get it over with. The IPod and ITunes are strong enough to compete without being tied together.

New Musicmatch: Lost in all the Harmony hullabaloo was the release of Musicmatch 9, which features a new premium service called Musicmatch On Demand. My colleague Ed Albro has spent more time with it than I have, so you'll want to read his Today @ PC World blog posting for his evaluation.

Eric Dahl desperately wants a new MP3 player. To comment or ask a question, send him an e-mail.