The iriver P20 gets its first “handling” at IFA 2008, and thanks to Engadget, we all can revel cringe from their first impressions of the device. Although the specs of the device remain mostly the same as revealed at CES 2008, the navigation seems to be the major issue here. With a confusing combination of two thumb wheels and a touch screen, coupled with the fact that some menus are only accessible via thumb wheel, it seems that iriver may have created a navigational disaster. As Engadget stated, they had very limited time with the device so it may be too early to tell, but initial impressions don’t sound good especially compared to their favorable experience with the Spinn.

Take a look at their gallery HERE.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of the new Archos lineup, Cowon have today released photos/rendering of their newly proposed lineup to be shown at the upcoming IFA show at the end of August. The S9, O2 and L3 are all new and some of the features include AMOLED screens, Bluetooth, 32GB capacities, GPS/NAV, and the list goes on. Cowon is putting direct pressure on both Samsung and iriver to come up with viable competitors in an every increasingly tough portable market. For more information on the newest Cowon players, visit their Korean product pages here.

As has been reported all over the net in the past couple of days, Archos is releasing their newest line of portables with the title of “Internet Media Tablet”  The entire lineup has undergone cosmetic as well as internal changes and all come HSDPA ready, with the 5G model coming with 3.5G built in.  More information is available at the Archos site and pre-orders are being taken at Amazon.com with a 2-4 week lead time.

iriver Korea today revealed the new iriver Spinn. According to iriver, the design is based on an old analog radio and the fact that you had to “turn a dial” to tune the radio.  Anyhoo, the Spinn will be hitting the U.S. soon and will come in 4GB and 8GB flavors.  As usual, the design is killer but the player will receive limited interest in the U.S. due to its small capacities, lack of external storage (no SD card slot) and somewhat high price (guesstimate) in comparison to competing models from other companies.  Nonetheless, it does have a great “cool” factor and should garner some good press.

The iriver E100 is on sale now!  You can pick up the 8GB version for $120US and the 4GB version for $90US at sensorycandy.com.  As an added bonus, all E100’s are shipping with a FREE pair of AT ONTO headphones in either Black or White color.   We are clearing out the E100 stock to make room for new products from iriver as well as other manufacturers.  In case you missed our forum post, The iriver Store will be officially moving to Sensory Candy, our new store.  The move has come about mainly due to the economy here in the good ole’ U.S..  We will carry the same great products with the same great pricing and service.  Check it out today!

The New York Times has an interesting bit from the “new” CEO of Reigncom (the company behind iriver) Only time will tell if the former Samsung/Sony executive can bring iriver back to the U.S. and abroad in a strong way. Here’s a snippet from the article and a link:

“His diagnosis: iRiver had produced innovative and attractive products that appealed more to its engineers than its customers. His remedy is to try to replicate Samsung’s approach to market sensing, a method of observing demand to be able to offer the features customers want first.”

Full Story Here

thanks to Anthony7 at DAPreview

iriver Korea have officially released the much anticipated P10. Nicknamed the P.ple P10, it is iriver’s first journey into a HDD based player since the E10 back in mid 2006. It is also the first time we’ll get to see Samsung’s new 1.3″ 33GB HDD in action. This first release sees the “Pro” version of the player available in two colors, White and Violet, with rumored versions coming including a Basic, DMB and Dictionary. The Pro version includes everything and the kitchen sink, including Audio, Video, Photo, Dictionary, DMB, Voice and Text. No doubt the P10 will get a lashing by those in the U.S. for it’s “chubby” look, it still comes in at 108mm x 73.5mm x 19.2mm and 205g. The P10 features a 600mhz processor, Win CE 5.0 Core, 4″ 800 x 480 TFT Touch Screen and supports a multitude of codecs, both audio and video, including MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, DiVX, XVID, WMV, MPG. Available now for the equivalent of $381US (W398,000) at the iriver Korea estore.

A nice little video appeared today at Club iriver, courtesy of a community called danawa.com via pmpinside.com  The video, along with commentary (in Korean), shows a nice GUI demonstration of the new P10 which is due for release in Korea this month.  Looking fully customizable and with that nice 33GB HDD inside, the P10 looks to be a yummy addition to anyones PMP collection.  No word on whether or not it will make it outside Korea/China, but with several “flavors” available (Dictionary, DMB, Pro), we can still dream.  Click on the photo below to see the video.

iriver Korea is prepping the LPlayer, first seen at CES 2008, for a June release in Korea. Today we finally get to see a shot of a working unit and what looks to be the “now playing” screen. Sure hope to see this come stateside, looks like a cool unit.

Looks as though this shot originated courtesy of iriverfans.com   Thanks Michael

DesignFabulous over at DAPreview is reporting that iriver is planning to launch 3 new players in the next 3 1/2 months.  These include the P10, Volcano (new name coming) and the LPlayer.  The P10, perhaps the most anticipated player that iriver debuted at CES 2008 is scheduled for a July launch in Korea and it’s not looking like the U.S. will see the player anytime soon.  The LPlayer is targeted for a Korean release in June and our guess is that it will make it to U.S. shores.  The Volcano is targeted for a May release in Korea.  The post at DAPreview can be found here.