Archive for iriver

Iriver T9: a Stick That Wants to Do it All

It’s something like the Samsung U Series, something like the Sony B14/15/16 series, but it’s also trying to be a Sansa Shaker, or maybe a Nike+ accessory. Take your pick.

The iriver T9 sports an aluminum housing, it has a g-sensor so you can shake for the next song (cause using the buttons is way too inconvenient), and it has a ‘screen saver’ that says “I love you” and “enjoy your life” (yeah, cause a ‘screen saver’ prolongs the life of a monochrome OLED display). Now I have to go cut myself, BRB.

Oh, before I forget – it comes in appalling 2 and 4GB sizes (no expansion slot), it plays MP3/WMA/APE/FLAC (but no Vorbis), it has SRS WOW sound enhancements (for the little trunk rattler in you), an FM radio, and a voice recorder. There’s also a ‘fitness mode’ with step and calorie counter. It has an USB plug built in, so you don’t need any cables to carry around with you.

Thanks to Splashback for the tip.

U100: iriver isn’t Quite Dead Yet

It’s been rather quiet around iriver (the company formerly known as iRiver) lately.  In the last few years they didn’t really manage to create a player that evoked more than a lukewarm response in reviewers and customers alike. Now they’re back once more, this time with the U100. Besides the pink and toxic green shown in the picture, the rather uniquely shaped player comes in at least one additional color that doesn’t result in instant eye cancer: black.

The U100 sports a 3.1″ 480×320 touchscreen TFT, comes in meager sizes from 4 to 16GB, has a MicroSDHC expansion slot, and should give very good battery life – 50 hours for music, 11 for video. Sound-wise, iriver unfortunately still sticks with SRS audio enhancements. Compared to Cowon’s BBE, Samsung’s DNSe, and the rest, SRS sounds rather artificial and mushy. For bookworms the U100 might be worth a second glance: besides basic TXT it supports ePub and PDF as well.

Spec-wise iriver is maybe a little late to the party, obviously aiming at the same market segment as the Cowon J3 or Samsung R1, but the U100 has one more trick up its sleeve: it comes in two variants, with and without Wifi. So I guess the Zune HD can be seen as another competition for the U100. It’s not known yet what kind of browser the U100 provides (if any), or what OS it runs – or if it’s ever going to see the light of day outside of South Korea.

Thanks to lebellium for the tip. Korean product page. Via JDG.

Watch a video after the jump.

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iriver Story’s Built in MP3 Player Demoed on Video

Iriver didn’t have much show off at CES other than their new e-Book reader dubbed the iriver Story. The hardware is awesome but not much too unlike the Amazon Kindle. Here is a video I shot of the Story in action playing back some MP3 tunes.

iriver Announces New ‘Chococat’ Player

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Hello Kitty fans rejoice, iriver recently announced a new MP3 player which is designed to look like the Hello Kitty “chococat”. The player—which iriver Japan says will be targeted more towards adults—features gold accents and an LED nose which will surely make even the most hesitant become fans of the Kitty.

The 4GB player, which weighs in at a paltry 16 grams, features a 10 hour battery life, 4-preset EQ, and a shuffle mode.

iriver says the player will be available December 18th for 7,980 yen ($90). Unfortunately it will only be available in Japan.

Yes, it’s a slow news day. That’s the excuse that will help us sleep tonight anyway.

[iriver via engadget]

Mariah Carey, iRiver to Release Limited Edition N20

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As we were making our rounds across the Mariah Carey fan blogs, which we usually do on a Sunday night, we discovered the pop star is teaming up with iRiver Korea to release a limited edition N20 which will come preloaded with all 17 tracks from her latest album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.

“We’re excited about the new N20 Special Edition, as it offers digital consumers and music fans an exclusive experience of the fantastic new album by the megapop icon Mariah Carey,“ said iRiver CEO, Kuno Kim.

That’s all well and good, Mr. Kim. But you still fail to tell us how the player is controlled. Some say it’s controlled by a touch interface, some say there are buttons at the back, some say you have to scream at it in Korean. We just don’t know.

We also still don’t know release dates, or whether or not the N20 has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack somewhere. However, after putting our team of crackpot ABi researchers on it for several hours, we did discover this bombshell…

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iRiver N20 Makes a Return

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We first heard about the iriver N20 about 3 years ago, before it had an identity crisis and eventually became known as the iriver S10. Now the N20 is back, and the only thing it has in common with the S10 is the name— and the whole MP3 playing thing.

The 26 × 55.5 × 13mm necklace player—which bears a striking resemblance to a 9V battery—features a 4 line monochromatic PMOLED display, support for most audio codecs, and a 15 hour battery life. And judging from the lack of tactile buttons, it’s likely controlled by some type of touch interface. There’s also an FM tuner in there, somewhere.

The N20 will be available in 2 and 4GB flavors which will set you back 649 yuan (about $95 USD) and 749 yuan (about $110 USD), respectively. No word on release dates, or whether or not the N20 will make a very unlikely appearance in the States.

[imp3.net | via PlayerBites]

iriver SPINN FW 2.0 Released

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The iriver SPINN has been out for a while now and the firmware updates are starting to show up. The device just hit FW 2.0 with a number of minor improvements.

The new features include bigger album art, more supported picture formats, radio recording, video options and a memo pad. There’s also mention of some downloadable games, though that might be Korea only.

[Download Link via DAPreview]

Iriver P7 Video Overview [HD]

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The P7 was my favorite device shown off at the iriver booth, but unfortunately the US won’t see this device. The closest thing you will get is the Cowon O2, but well we found quite a few problems. The P7 is a beautiful monolithic block design common to the high style of iriver. But this modern design also shows up in the UI with a truly unique home screen almost like a layout of a brochure or magazine.

Unfortunately, the UI is rather sluggish as you can tell from the video and basing the opinion solely on experience from previous devices, it’s likely not up to par. Perhaps what needs to happen here is iriver needs to give up on making the electronics and concentrate on the design- leave internals up to Cowon. A fantastic sounding Cowon iriver P7 anyone?

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iriver Booth & Wave Home

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I was definitely excited to see iriver’s booth this year at CES since was by far my favorite last year- bright, modern, and fun. I would love to put the iriver booth in my home somewhere; it would be my happy place. This booth was the same as last year with a slightly different layout but it a much better location, not stuck in the corner with the car audio. I did the best I could to share this with you in the form of an HD video below. Please enjoy this along with a general recap of whats new with iriver.

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iriver E50 Coming in January

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Some of iriver’s products this year have been questionable, with the very plastic E100 being a prime example. iriver is now preparing the release the iriver E50, which on paper will correct a lot of what the E100 did wrong.

The T50 has a brushed metal casing, FM radio, a 1.8″ 176×220 pixel screen and voice recorder. The battery life will be a whopping 52 hours and it supports Vorbis and FLAC beside the usual MP3 and WMA support. It will be available in 2, 4 and 8GB capacities sometime in January.

[GenerationMP3]