Answers to “How can I get a Creative Zen to work with a Mac?” • Register Hardware

Answers to: How can I get a Creative Zen to work with a Mac?

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@Larry #

By Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 11:23 GMT

We'd recommend you check out Richard Low's excellent XNJB, here:

http://www.wentnet.com/projects/xnjb/

It's a Mac app desgned to talk to a range of USB-connected Creative music players, including - thanks to one of the code libraries it incorporates - the Zen.

XNJB no workie with Zen #

By John Wards Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 13:47 GMT

My boss has one of these Mac things and a Zen. I pointed him in the direction of this thread and he says...

"That XNJB doesn't show any of the music on it, takes 2 minutes for every action and then freezes the Zen so you have to reset it. It's useless."

Next?

You can do it, but... #

By Jonathan Fingas Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 14:14 GMT

As was suggested by Tony, there's software to do it. However...

The truth is, you bought a player without bothering to check how well it'll work with a Mac, and one that doesn't really work at all without third-party software. Unless you somehow have a chronic aversion, I would think it smarter to get an iPod or (if you must be cross-platform) a Sony Walkman S600 or S700 series player. Those are fine players and at least work on the Mac through drag-and-drop without needing special apps.

Apple VS all other MP3 players #

By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 15:07 GMT

i'm in the same boat as you. I moved from a PC to Mac just over a year ago after (what i thought at the time was) a lot of research. Like many, i was suckered into the "It just works" mindset without reading the small print that states "with Apple products".

Anyway, I found XNJB to be slow and a bit of a headache so I haven't used it for almost a year. To properly load my old Zen Micro Photo i have to use my old XP system and WMP11 (i share an external drive between the 2 systems).

I don't understand why Apple can't make iTunes work with other players like WMP11 does.

Paris as she works very well with anything!

Some Suggestions #

By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 19:25 GMT

You might want to look for some Linux software that works with the Creative player. Some Linux software will work on the mac, due to OSX having an X window system (it comes pre-installed on Leopard 10.5, or you can install it from the installation disc from 10.4 and down) which is used on Linux systems, and Linux and OSX being based on the same basic concept of Unix the software can work cross platform.

Otherwise, if there's no good OSX sotware on the planet, then you can always try VMware Fusion (or Parallels if you want more frustration) and run windows inside OSX so you can sill manage it without switching computers.

Forgot to point out #

By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 10th February 2009 21:22 GMT

You might want to also check the Wine AppDB (here: http://appdb.winehq.org ) to see if the Creative software is supported. Wine works perfectly well on OS X, I use it myself, with programs such as Notepad++, to run some windows software on my mac without having to use Windows itself.