iriver's Disney Mplayer puts Mickey ears to good use

Aww, isn't that cute? We get warm fuzzies just looking at this mouse ears MP3 player that iriver is building for Disney, creatively dubbed the Mplayer. Sure, ergonomics are pretty much a no-go, same for pockeability, but at least the controls shouldn't be too hard to figure out, and we don't figure iriver is going to be charging too terribly much for the privilege of ownership. No word on internals, or much more launch info than "this month," but somewhere in the 512MB to 2GB-ish range seems a shoe-in for flash memory capacity. Even better news is that iriver is unveiling this one in a sort of series, which started with the NV at "-2," was followed by the D5 at "-1" and has this Disney player repping the "+1" slot. Two more days of fresh iriver goodies? Sign us up.

Read - iriver promo
Read - Press shots
Read - Hands on pictures

[Joe Smith @ Jun 19th 2007 6:52PM]

don't drop this unless you want to lose balls

[kakapo @ Jun 19th 2007 7:03PM]

Who in Disney marketing signed off on this? They need to have their ears confiscated! This is atrocious. It must be for Disney Europe or Aisa, because it woud never fly in the USA.

[Dillon D. @ Jun 19th 2007 7:12PM]

What kind of person would want an MP3 player in the shape of a water molecule?

[derek @ Jun 19th 2007 7:31PM]

Ugliest device award?

[Andrew @ Jun 19th 2007 8:13PM]

Isn't Mplayer already the name of a Linux-based media player? I guess no one at Disney uses Linux.

[Cody Peterson @ Jun 19th 2007 8:51PM]

Hungary called, they want their MPlayer back...

[Jeff Schroeder @ Jun 19th 2007 9:01PM]

From a whois lookup on mplayer, the Linux media player's website:
http://whois.domaintools.com/mplayerhq.hu

The domain was registered: 6/26/2001

No matter how good Disney's lawyers are, the name has been in use for years. If they send cease & desist letters to anyone using the mplayer name, they will lose in court. Two words for Disney Lawyers, "Prior Art".

[Kr4t05 @ Jun 19th 2007 9:10PM]

Pfft... You act as if this is the first time Disney has "borrowed" from someone else. Considering that the only original films that Disney has come anywhere near would be those made by Pixar, (With the exception of the Fantasia films.) it's safe to say that this kind of blatant disregard to prior art is expected from Disney.

As for ergonomics, this thing is likely targeted for extremely young consumers. Likely the 5 through 11 set. It make sense to design a player with simple and easily accessible controls while, at the same time, sneaking in as much marketing and familiarity as possible. Kudos on the design, boo on the name. At least hyphenate it.

[Bruno @ Jun 19th 2007 11:04PM]

I think I've said this about at least four other gadgets this week. Looks like an ass plug.

[Grey Acumen @ Jun 20th 2007 11:05AM]

I thought it looked kinda cute. I kinda prefer my MP3 player to have some sort of display though, so I can tell what the heck I'm doing.

[rell109 @ Jun 20th 2007 8:15PM]

i like it. i know its from walt disney, but cmon thats just cool looking

[Frank @ Jun 21st 2007 1:44PM]

Very nice! especially for children. At least original iso all the ipod clones.

This product will be a great succes!!

[tifanny @ Sep 11th 2007 2:55PM]

this is so cool. pretty and cute. so different from those bubble gum stick player.
mickey rocks!!!

[avon @ Sep 13th 2007 1:37PM]

where we can buy this? and how much is it?