The Creative Zen Vision:M was awarded Best in Show and Best in Mp3 and Portable Audio in the 2006 CES Awards. Because of that, I'm sure I'm not the only college student who owns one.

Therefore, I'd like to share with you the media software I use to sync up to it.

• MediaMonkey is a free mp3 Jukebox Player that will manage, tag, organize, convert, create, and synchronize all your PC music to your Zen. As a media player, it also comes with a "Party Mode", so you can set up what music you want played, leave it running/blasting on your laptop, and know no one can mess with it --which is very, very important if you plan on serving alcohol to the nontechnical. Also, another big thing is: MediaMonkey will also synchronize your Playlists. Yes, the ones that you create with:


• MusicIP Mixer is the original "mixer". Its best feature is the ability to select one track and then "mix" several tracks along with it --that are of a similar "mood". You can even specify how long you want your mix to be --1 hour, 2 hours, 5 hours, etc.

Oh, killing the iPod is pure art. (Though I'm sure Kelly owns an iPod!)