As you may have read , Creative has launchedthe Creative Zen Stone this morning. A 1Gb iPod Shuffle-a-like, the Zen Stone isa low-end MP3 player with great battery life and good storage for such as small little player.

I was able to get my hands on one when weattended CeBIT in Germany earlier this year. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement so we couldn'treveal any details until now. But now Creative has released me from the shackles to I'm free to discuss it!

It really is a great-looking little player.It looks like the kind of smooth stone -barring the funky colours - that you'dpick up on a beach and give a skim across the water to see how many times youcan get it to bounce. It's incredibly light, smooth and let's face it, it looksbetter than the iPod Shuffle.

The Shuffle is blocky, and doesn't lookanywhere near as cool as the other models in the iPod range.

We had a few minutes to put the Stonethrough its paces and it's more or less exactly the same as the iPod Shuffle.Let's not beat around the bush - it's EXACTLY the same. Apart from the moreattractive appearance.

Then we come to the price. While the iPodShuffle still sells for £55, the Stone has a recommended retail price of 40Euros which means it'll sell in the UK at around the £28 mark. If mymaths is correct, that's £25 cheaper than the Shuffle, suddenly making thestone an extremely attractive alternative to the Apple version.

Expect Apple to retaliate with a price dropof its own very soon!

The Stone is as easy to use as you couldexpect from a player without a screen. It works in pretty much the same was as theShuffle, pressing the skip button to jump between albums. It's not ideal, butfor this bargain price it's definitely worth it.

This is definitely a player for thosepeople who want to buy a decent MP3 player with good sound quality for a goodprice.

Creative has promised to send us the firstZen Stone it gets so expect a full review in the near future.