Creative Zen Stone Plus: Now with 4GB and 8GB?

Those crazy Yanks are busy scoffing all the leftover turkey and cold pumpkin pie they can lay their hands on today, but we don't care about Thanksgiving here in the U of K, so instead we're giving thanks to Creative. Why? Because it's just let a whopping great news story rip: there's a 4GB Zen Stone Plus on the horizon, and it's got a Thanksgiving feast of improvements over the original version.

Firstly, and obviously, the Stone Plus will come with up to 4GB of internal memory. But it also comes with support for unprotected AAC files, such as those bought from the iTunes Plus Store. It also has increased battery life, which now stands at a more trendy 12 hours. Everything else stays the same: it's got the original glossy black design, the same blue OLED screen, the same interface and the same basic feature set.

We're big fans of the Zen Stone Plus here at Crave, and seeing mention of a 4GB model is really exciting. There are no further details at this point, but we'd expect it to retail for about £60. There's no word of a release date or availability, but if you're already considering this lovely little gem, you might want to put Mr Cash safely back into Mrs Pocket, and let them spend some time together over Christmas until we have a confirmed launch date. -Nate Lanxon

Update: We've just spotted the 4GB Zen Stone Plus on sale at Amazon for £69.99, and the page mentions an 8GB version, which we would expect to go for about £90. We'll keep you posted on this one, folks.