Looks like Christmas came a day early for the developers this year. Plaszma firmware 98.16 has been released with some long standing requests.

Enhancements:

• Adds the Clock application.
• Adds a scene-selection feature for the Camera application.
• Adds a landscape view for the Music Player.
• Adds SDK APIs for Network Manager and Open Sound System (OSS).

The clock application was one of the first things actually talked about when people received their ZiiEgg devices. Landscape media player has been a request since about 92.07.

ZiiLife, the community driven site for the ZiiEgg and distribution of Zii Applications, as well as extra Zii info and features, has been launched in it’s typical Zii style. Green grass and the Zii logo to give this a “Green” device feeling that’s free and clean. The site boasts a login and a video that plays a little preview of the sites features. “Connect with friends” is one of the primary features pushed by the video. The video also shows the ZiiTrinity, Zii Conference phone, and the Zii Mobile Laptop designs. “Share Files with your friends using ZiiMeet” which is their way of sharing music, movies, documents over the website. However, a new feature that is quite intriguing that wasn’t announced earlier is “ZiiDisk” which apparently allows you to store files online for access anywhere. A photo organizer called “ZiiJournal” which of course would be similar to features boasted by Apple, allowing you to comment and share photos with your friends.

Hopefully, developers will be the first to really get in and test the website to put it through some testing, but apparently some people have already gotten an inside sneak peak. (Maybe I missed that email in my inbox…)

ZiiLabs Error

This morning, ZiiLabs developers home page has been down for an unannounced reason as of yet. Don’t worry, if you want to go to the forums though, those are still up and running. So have no fear, your Zii community is still here!

Just click here. https://secure.ziilabs.com/forum/default.aspx

Finally some new features or news to announce. Here’s a little info that some of you developers may have overlooked while coding away.

ZiiLabs has released two new pages in the developer downloads section. One page is a Sample Apps page that has has 5 simple applications as well as 1 game.

Multi Touch Demo

Widget Demo

Window Demo

HDTV Hotplug Demo

Accelerometer Demo

RiDE Demo Game – (pictured on the right)

RiDE is a sample game from Ideaworks. This shows the ease of porting cutting edge content to ZiiLABS Plaszma Platforms.

Airplay SDK is an advanced cross-platform development tool for mobile and embedded devices. You write your application once in C++, compile fast and small native code, then click one button to deploy to all native smartphone platforms.

www.airplaysdk.com

The release of the GPL Source Code comes with a huge welcoming though. The offering gives developers the Linux Kernel, GDB, pwdutils and udev.  There are also claims that more will be coming soon. The developer community is already showing signs of being pleased with todays release and will prove to assist in their needs greatly.

ZiiSound D5

Another “Zii” announcement at the Summit, is the ZiiSound D5 and D3. A speaker dock which allows you to plug your ipod or ZiiEgg device into to playback music on. The D5 dock is slated for a price range of $299 upon release and no statement yet as to the price for the D3 but will probably be at the same price point, unless Creative/ZiiLabs wants to put their devices at a lower price point to encourage consumers to move towards the ZiiEgg. There are a few different methods to connect your ipod or Egg to the dock, but the default method is to transmit your music via Bluetooth.

But wait… it’s a “ZiiSound” device?!? Is it running a ZMS-05 chip inside?  Not at all. The ZiiSound is only borrowing the Zii name for what we can assume as a marketing technique to start getting the Zii name out at the consumer level for the ZiiEgg public release in the future. Of course, it’s just a speaker with some communication processing.

Here’s a picture that was captured of the D5 with an ipod connected to it at the Summit.

Once again there’s another announcement which is sure to hit the suite spot on your tongue. ZiiLabs has bought the domain www.ziilife.com for their up and coming suite of applications and site features for the Zii device owner. However, there’s nothing on the domain yet, but it’s clearly owned by Creative Labs in the Whois info.

The ZiiLife Service Platform offers a complete suite of market-ready end-user service solutions in domains such as communications, education and entertainment. Consisting of ZiiMeet, ZiiVue, ZiiAcademy and ZiiApps, ZiiLife enhances the value of the services offered together with the Zii Hardware Platform for OEMs/Manufacturers, as this comprehensive suite of solutions delivered under a universal user gateway would provide seamless user experience and value for their customers. The focal point of the ZiiLife suite is ZiiMeet.

ZiiMeet – The Next Generation 7MTM Collaborative Conferencing System ZiiMeet is a highly-scalable Multi-Purpose, Multi-View, Multi-Platform, Multi-Medium, Multi- Host, Multi-Party and Multi-Device collaborative conferencing solution that works on PC, Mac and Zii Powered devices. ZiiMeet allows different parties to communicate and broadcast themselves ‘live’ simultaneously across different devices and platforms.

1. Multi-Purpose ZiiMeet offers the flexibility of application to a wide range of scenarios such as in the areas of communications, education, entertainment and security. Users can remotely broadcast their own concerts ‘live’, participate in online classroom sessions, video conference with multiple parties and even install remote surveillance in the home or office. Users and partners are also free to customize their own conferencing solutions to suit their needs with the available SDK.

2. Multi-View Users are able to experience multiple points of view with patented technology for distortion-free 360° real-time HD video capture with a fisheye lens camera. Users can have simultaneous multiple viewing angles with zoom and pan capabilities.

3. Multi-Platform ZiiMeet works across different platforms including the Plaszma™ OS and Windows OS. In the near future, users can also look forward to compatibility with Windows Mobile, Linux® OS, Android™ OS and Mac OS.

4. Multi-Medium ZiiMeet users can share information in different mediums during a video conferencing session, including text, graphics, voice, video and even MIDI music.

5. Multi-Host ZiiMeet can extend communication to various other hosts such as instant messaging hosts including Yahoo and MSN, and with Google-Talk and other communication services.

6. Multi-Party Flexible connectivity with one-to-one or one-to-many video calls. Utilize collaboration tools such as virtual white-boarding and document sharing to conduct efficient multiple-party conferences.

7. Multi-Device ZiiMeet works across different device platforms, including notebooks, netbooks, PCs, dedicated video conferencing devices like Project Lionfish, Project Turtle and InPerson, mobile phones, LAN phones and portable media players like the Zii EGG.

ZiiVue

ZiiVue operates as a rich media aggregator and distribution hub, boasting a wide variety of content offerings such as HD movies, music, and TV media. ZiiVue is a cross-platform media gateway for content developers, musicians, publishers and producers to showcase their content, while leveraging on Creative’s global infrastructure and partner network.

ZiiAcademy

ZiiAcademy is the future of education, paving the way towards a collaborative model for knowledge acquisition and assimilation. ZiiAcademy allows users to explore the information world in an interactive and immersive learning experience, and engage in live discussions. Future Books with embedded video, text-to-speech, dictionaries, online tutorials and even engaging in live dialogue with lecturers or textbook authors can be encompassed in ZiiAcademy, revolutionizing educational pedagogy as we know it. By further working closely with renowned international publishers, key textbook publishers and educational authorities, ZiiAcademy will greatly enhance the learning experience of school kids and make teaching more fulfilling.

ZiiApps

ZiiApps works with developers to produce game offerings, applications and utilities that support the Zii Platform. Developers who work on the Plaszma SDK can upload their applications to the ZiiApps store, which offers global support and distribution. Creative and Zii Pte Ltd are seeking potential partners to develop new business models that harness ZiiLife’s suite of value-added services to provide end-to-end comprehensive Zii solutions.

I can’t wait to see some of these features come to life. I’m extremely eager to see the Ziivolution unfold.

www.ziilife.com