iRiver Announces 40G Player & Previews 2004 Line

slavitos writes: "Just as we've finished our discussions of OGG support in iRiver players, the company has announced it will soon release a 40G HD player. According to this source, the new model will differ slightly from the previous 20G one - for example, the 40G player will be 3 mm thicker and 12 grams heavier. The cost of the device has not yet been determined." While we're on the topic of iRiver, thopo notes: "iRiver presented their new products coming spring 2004, here are pictures from the show, including pictures (and specs) of all new models. Especially noteworthy is the IHP-300 which comes with a 2" color TFT LCD and a very classy design. This thing got 'iPod Killer' written all over it." The page is in Korean, but most of the product descriptions in the pictures are in English.

Comments

Ipod killer

[stanmann]

How will this kill the Ipod without Itunes... IIRC Itunes only supports the Ipod.. Or does the Iriver have RTunes?

Re:Ipod killer

[haystor]

My wife was looking through iTunes and on first glance everything seemed pretty cool. But then she started pulling up old albums and I started hearing complaints:

xxx isn't on here. Ok, I can understand they haven't signed everything in the world.

Then she found someone she liked that had a bunch of albums on there. Except for the good song from each album. She cited several examples after looking for a mere 30 minutes where the popular song from an album was the only song not available from it.

Is this a common experience with iTunes?

$1 a song isn't bad unless it's $1 for each of the crappy songs in which case it's worse than buying the whole cd.

English description of 40-GB model

[hankwang]

The 40 GB iHP-140 is described in English on their Northern Europe website. You have to click on the English flag in the upper right corner.

I'm looking very closely...

[xerxesVII]

and I don't see "i-pod killer" written anywhere on it, much less all over it.

Re:I'm looking very closely...

[Fortunato_NC]

Yes, actually, I'm moderately familiar with the history of Ogg, if that means following it since it was covered in Linux Journal a few years back (I think it was the November or December 200 issue).

And yes, I understand the patent controversy surrounding MP3. But why exactly is it a patent uproar? Shouldn't people expect to be compensated for their work in creating something? Even if you reverse-engineered the file format to create your encoders and players, the desire to do so wouldn't exist without the original work.

And if by charging through the roof, you mean $0.75/unit for decoders, yes, I can see where Fraunhofer was being so harsh. In a $250-$500 player, that royalty can make or break a company. Besides, of the royalty free nature of Ogg is so great, then why does every Ogg player on the market also support MP3 (presumably paying Fraunhofer to do so)?

The fact of the matter is that 0.01% of Ogg users use it because they're convinced it's superior way to encode music. The rest of them do because they are contrary, self-important egomaniacs. Ogg as a technology is unimportant, no matter how many soon-to-be out of business Korean electronics manufacturers support it, because (almost) NO ONE CARES ABOUT IT!

Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. As soon as I hit Submit on my previous, I thought of Perl as my personal favorite piece of open source software, and Perl definitely fits in the "original" category of software. But that's the beauty of Slashdot - you can shoot off at the mouth in front of the whole world!

Re:I'm looking very closely...

[aardvarkjoe]

The fact of the matter is that 0.01% of Ogg users use it because they're convinced it's superior way to encode music.

It's a well-known fact that 79.4337 percent of slashdot moderators wish that there was a "-1, pulled some statistics out of his butt" moderation.

Ogg is nice on iRiver, but what about my iPod?

[Anonymous Coward]

If Apple is so pro-open source, when are they going to add Ogg Vorbis to the iPod?

Re:Ogg is nice on iRiver, but what about my iPod?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is also pro-profit, so they'll do it when more than five people will buy iPods as a result.

Different

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

the new model will differ slightly from the previous 20G one - for example, the 40G player will be 3 mm thicker and 12 grams heavier.

and have a 40G drive instead of a 20G?

0GB version?

[magarity]

Be nice if there was a no-HDD included version; standard size 2.5 inch disks can be had mailorder for cheaper than the difference in the various models' prices. All mp3 makers are guilty of this. Of course, that would cut into their nice margins on the high capacity models so we won't see it. sigh

Re:If this thing is a portable 40GB...

[grub]

Decoding video requires a lot more horsepower than audio. My Egoman MP3/VCD player will only play VCD when plugged into the wall. RCA jacks take up a lot of room on the board, it's easier to use a minijack -> RCA adapter cable (they're cheap)

Different Class of device than iPod

[piznut]

Its cheaper, but not quite as good looking or easy to use as the iPod...as an mp3 player

The killer feature for the new iRiver devices is the recording ability. iPod and a handful of other devices can record voice at a low bitrate.

The iRiver (IHP-120 and i am assuming the new models) can record from a digital input or microphone into a high quality mp3 or wav file.

So in addition to being a decent mp3 platform, it could also stand to replace portable MD and DAT recorders. This is a great thing for musicians and bootleggers. While the onboard mic-preamp isn't the best in the world, it appears to be from what Ive read, suitable for most applications.

Alpine/iPod integration

[burgburgburg]

Alpine has announced that they will demonstrating at CES the first solution that allows users to connect/control their iPod through their in-car system. They'll be able to view playlist, artists, songs, etc. through the Alpine's receiver buttons. And the connector will also charge the iPod. To get more info, write to ipodready@alpine-usa.com.

slashdot and pictures

[bdigit]

the words "here are the pictures" and slashdot should never go together. We all know it never works out in the end.

It's got to make up a lot of ground

[Dixie_Flatline]

One of the things that Steve Jobs mentioned in his keynote yesterday before announcing the entirely overpriced iPod Mini is that about 60% of the market is flash players that cost up to $200. 31% of the market is iPods. Approximately 7% of the market is all other non-iPod hard-drive based MP3 players. Nobody knows what an iRiver is. Most people don't CARE what an iRiver is. The iPod name has mindshare right now, and it'll take a lot more than even a massively superior product to dethrone the iPod. If someone wants to make an iPod killer, they have to have iPod killing marketing. Right now, people are using the word 'iPod' like they use 'Xerox' or 'Kleenex', as in "I hear iRiver makes a pretty cool iPod."

It doesn't matter what it costs, either. The only people following non-iPod HD-based MP3 players are the people here on /. :P

Image mirror

[markclong]

http://slushdot.org/mirror/iriver/board.php

Minus all the other crap.

iPod killer... where have I heard that before?

[freerangegeek]

If I had a dollar for every "iPod killer" that's been announced, I could buy a nice new iPod mini!

Re:iPod killer... where have I heard that before?

[smart.id]

And by next month, you'll have enough to get more than 3 times the space!

iTunes != iTMS

[nosferatu-man]

I like the way the iTMS works, but I don't buy much music there, as most of what I want is not on the Big Five. To me, the biggest iPod win is not .m4p (FairPlay burdened AAC) from the Music Store. The big win is the integration between iTunes the music jukebox/ripper/&c. and the iPod. It's seamless; they are really two parts of the same tool.

'jfb

It won't

[swordboy]

How will this kill the Ipod without Itunes...

Itunes or not, even Apple have realized that the average Joe doesn't have anywhere near 40 gigs of music.

nice, but where's the firmware for iHP120?

[PeterChenoweth]

A nice improvement to the existing iHP line, but iRiver should be concentrating on fixing the *numerous* bugs in the current firmware of the iHP-100/120 series. Such as ....

1. Shuffle still isn't random (just all your tracks in a different order - but always the same order)

2. Doesn't support any type of secure files.

3. DB application can't handle OGG or WMA file tags, so you can only search by Artist/Album/Genre if it's an mp3 file.

4. No on-the-fly playlist ability, and very limited playlist ability at all (only when using the Beta firmware that's been out since November).

I just bought one

[VividU]

The 20GB player. Here is super-quick review from a professional audio engineer (me).

Pros:
- The output sound is tight, crisp and full-bodied. The level is clean and hot, just the way I like it.
- Plug-N-Play. No drivers, no nothing. Plug the USB cable and it shows up as a HD. Organize files however you like. By ID or standard directory structure.
- The remote has its own tiny LCD dispay. Very cool.
- USB 2.0 file transfer if very fast. I did 12GB while I ate a bowl of cereal.
- Transfer & store any type of file
- Its supports more codecs than I'll ever use.
- OGG support. No DRM
- Digital In and Out!
- Analog In and Out!
- Records to WAV and MP3
- FM Radio!
- Internal Microphone
- External Mic jack (mic included)
- Firmware upgradable
- Quiet and fast
- Its packaged with a real leather case and all the cables and adapters you'll ever need.

Cons:
- The GUI could use some work
- The Joystick can be a pain
- Navigation can be rough
- Issues with Recording time limitations

Its looks like the software faults can and will be upgraded through the firmware.

Overall a great little package. Its not as slick as the iPod. But for less than the 20GB iPod I get a ton of more features.

Not that common...

[SuperKendall]

I've noticed that problem with a few bands, but most of the music I've looked at is complete. One artist I like (Barenaked Ladies) you could even buy the full CD of songs a week before the real CD was released in stores!

I would submit a request for that particular song to the iTunes request section, they really do pay attention to that as whole artists and songs I've asked for have appeared.