Creative Labs was in some confusion yesterday over its commitment to produce a digital music player to rival Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP300 portable MP3 machine. First, the device was in development, then it wasn't and finally it was on again. After the publication of reports from Creative's European brand manager, Eion Leyden (see Creative Labs to offer digital music player), that the company was planning a multi-format music player, other company spokesmen were quick to leap in to claim such comments were overstated. The company had not committed itself to products such a device, they said. However, later in the day, company officials made an abrupt U-turn and confirmed Leyden's original comments. A portable music player is in the works and will be available "soon", a spokesman told Maximum PC magazine, though no specification details were forthcoming. "We're leaders in audio, and this is a natural extension to that," said a spokesman. "It's a technology that our 60 million plus SoundBlaster customers may want to use." ®