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...

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]

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]

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?

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.

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" 176x220 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]

iriver is at it again with more players that wouldn't make a motion sensor react. This time it's two bargain players with tech specs so uninteresting I fell asleep three times while writing this post.

The T5 has a built in USB plug, is stick shaped and plays back MP3, WMA and Vorbis for 13 hours before needing a recharge. It will be available in 2 and 4GB and hopefully not be as big a catastrophe as its predecessor. The T6 is basically just a physically bigger player with the same format support as the T5, an FM radio and 28 hours of battery life. The T6 will also only be available in a 4GB version

[iriverfans via DAPreview]

Every week there is a number of news articles concerning DAPs that don't make it to our front page simply because they are too insignificant for their own article. It can be a delay in release dates, small firmware update etc. To try and get this out to the people as well, here's a news summary of week 48 2008.

GenerationMP3 is reporting that the long awaited S9 will be delayed until early 2009 do to production issues in Korea. Our forums have been buzzing with people wondering when the S9 will finally be out and it seems they have to wait a bit longer still.

The Samsung P3 has showed up at the FCC according to Engadget. This is just a further update on the P3 story as GenerationMP3 already has one and did a first look not too long ago.

iriver is doing their usual weird strategic choices in the DAP industry and have released a new version of the E100. This isn't the E150/E200 that Grahm wrote about in April as according to Akihabara News the only new thing about this model (named E100 Season 2) is new colors. If you recall our E100 review it isn't exactly the best player on the market and i fail to see how a few new colors will change that.

Thanksgiving is on for our American readers and in the wake of that comes black Friday. This also means a lot of deals on MP3 players and related accessories, so join our forums and share the deals to help make sure the players will find a new home.

I just got word from iriver that they will be showing off some new devices at CES 2009. I’m told that these devices will include PMPs, MP3 players, and GPS devices. These devices are also said to be “sleek and unique mobile networking devices” so start your imagination and hypothesizing.

Last year iriver’s booth and device showing was quite impressive- best of show in my opinion. You can check out my pics in last year’s iriver round up here. Do stick with us during CES coverage we will be sure to bring you the 411 on the latest iriver.

BTW: The word “Wave” was given to me in quotes so I perhaps that is some sort of clue as to what these devices entail? Any ideas? Perhaps the obvious "iriver WAVE"?

Update: I missed this one, Pocketables points out that the Wave is just a W7 turned phone. My excitement has turned into dismay. Lets keep our fingers crossed for more.

Iriver has always positioned itself as a premium brand putting emphasis on design and unique user interfaces. Since the clix 2, however, their products have been mostly disappointments. The E100 had a nice design but lacked quality hardware, and the T7 was downright unusable.

I have always been on the positive side with iriver products, but 2008 has not been a good year from them. The SPINN is iriver’s last saving grace for this year, so as I opened the box I crossed my fingers and hoped to find the old-school product.

I've tried to ignore this player when it was announced a couple of weeks ago, but the sheer weirdness of the player itself and some accessories revealed today certainly calls for a quick mention. If you remember the first gen Mplayer it was already somewhat of a peculiar MP3 player where the Mickey Mouse design was the focus. The player now got an update called the Mplayer Eyes which have LEDs that light up in various facial expressions. Pretty much any smiley you can make with text symbols the Eyes seem to be able to replicate.

If that wasn't weird enough for you, a Korean company has now released a dock for the device that is shaped like Mickey's body. This combo is by far the weirdest MP3 player I've seen and that says something. While the specs aren't too great for the Eyes with 1 or 2GB memory and 10 hours of battery, the novelty value is certainly through the roof. Hit the jump for a few more pics

[GenerationMP3 Mplayer Eyes|Mplayer Dock]

I'm quickly running out of ways to introduce small players like the iriver T7. They are small and they have exactly the same specs as the competitors do now and did 5 years ago. Reviewing them is all about finding out if they have anything to offer whatsoever.

The T7's specs are rather unremarkable, but there are a few things speaking in it's favor - on paper. The integrated USB plug matched up with user selectable MSC mode surely makes it a nice alternative for those who want to connect anywhere, but is that enough to join the party of tiny players? Read on to find out

Speedo makes swim suits. iriver makes MP3 players. Together they apparently make waterproof MP3 players. The Speedo Aquabeat is a Speedo branded iriver made MP3 player with 1GB of memory, up to 9 hours of battery life and a weight of only 35 grams.

What's so special about it is that both player and earphones are waterproof down to 3 meters and on top of that they float. The idea has been done before but frankly this is the best attempt at it so far. With the summer just starting this might be the thing to keep you company underwater, but the price tag of a whopping $145 might make you think twice. Out now from stores that carry Speedo.

[Engadget]

iriver announced quite a few players at CES 2008 and now they are starting to tickle out. First was the E100, now the Lplayer- next the Volcano and SPINN to follow in the next few months. I was a bit concerned that iriver lost its way with the E100 which was a rather disappointing low end player. But now they are back on track with a slick design and nice build quality typical to iriver.

The LPlayer is very much like the clix family of players sans a few of the more advance features. While the LPlayer is another great iriver product, there is not a whole lot of innovation, just a solid player offering another choice to the mix.

It's a common fact that certain companies like to "borrow" designs when making MP3 players and with some it might be a step too far. iriver has normally been good at using their own designs, but that can't be said for their new player, the Volcano T7. It's so much like the Samsung U3 in both design and features one could think it's the same player.

The T7 has a built in flat USB connector, small OLED screen, radio, equalizer and SRS WOW sound enhancements. It plays back MP3/WMA/ASF/OGG and comes in capacities of 4GB ($80) and 2GB ($55).

[Akihabara News]