iRiver preps colour-screen iPod Mini rival

[Marius]

Story & Pictures: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/17/iriver_h10/

By Tony Smith

Published Friday 17th December 2004 11:40 GMT

iRiver's parent company has revealed the portable music player maker's next major release: the 5GB hard drive-based H10.

The H10 will be aimed squarely at Apple's iPod Mini, itself expected to be updated early next year from 4GB to 5GB, the better to compete with new rivals like the H10 and Creative's Zen Micro.

Unveiled this week by ReignCom, iRiver's parent, the H10 will sport a 1.5in colour display, photo viewer, a voice-recording facility, FM radio and a text viewer. The player will boast Microsoft's PlaysForSure branding.

In a move likely to annoy Creative, the H10 uses a vertical touchpad not unlike the one found on the Zen Micro. The touchpad operates as a kind of virtual jog-dial.

The H10's battery provides up to 12 hours' playback on a single charge, ReignCom said.

Measuring 9.6 x 5.5 x 1.5cm, the H10 will come in four colours - red, blue, silver and grey - and, according to a Korea Times report:

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech...8562811810.htm

will ship in South Korea on 22 December for KRW363,000 ($344/£178/€260).

[DeadMan]

I really really really hate the square LCD. It should be 4:3 and not 4:4. It looks like they cut back on the size by chopping the sides off.

[Couch]

12 hour battery life? Thats sad. And shouldnt this be in the H10 section?

[NPswimdude500]

12 hour battery life--same as an ipod--shameful

[seadzz]

Colour or Color (US) LCD=battery life reduction. So is the state of technology today. Perhaps when either lcd or battery technology improves you will get improvements but the best solution would be a 10 gb flash player.

jmho

sdz

[epsilon]

Originally Posted by NPswimdude500

12 hour battery life--same as an ipod--shameful

more 4hour than mini pod. and it's battery could detachable