Computer audio product maker Creative has a presence at this week’s Macworld Conferences & Expo in New York. The company is showing off its PCI-based audio card, the Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh, as well as its line of Nomad portable digital audio players. They’re also giving Mac users a break on their line of Mac-compatible products.
A Creative spokesperson said that show floor traffic has been brisk. Showgoers are particularly interested in a row of Power Mac G3 and G4 systems equipped with the Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh card, which enables Macs to output four-point positional audio, a feature long sought after by hardcore Mac gamers. Mac games are increasingly supporting the OpenAL sound library, an open-source technology promoted by Creative and others that provides this 3D audio capability. The card also features audio input and output capabilities and a MIDI interface.
Other Creative products on display at the show include Creative’s line of NOMAD digital audio players, diminutive MP3-compatible digital audio devices that hook straight up to the Mac through USB (they’re supported by iTunes). The NOMAD Jukebox is also on display — the device is about the size of a portable CD player equipped with a 6GB hard drive and support for digital signal processing (DSP) effects.
Creative is offering Macworld Expo showgoers a special deal on Mac-compatible products via its Web site. You’ll need to enter the login code “newyork0701” (without the quotation marks) to view the page.