Hands-on with iRiver's new toys

iRiver was being awful coy with its stable of hot new gear -- we couldn't even get their reps to say anything would be out in North America, much less finagle pricing or ship dates -- but the new Spinn, iAmoled, and Wing still managed to charm us from behind the glass. We did get to poke around with the W7, P10, and the Unit 2 -- which was still impressive, even though it crashed -- and the Dicple D30, all of which had amazing build quality. Hopefully we'll see this stuff hit our fair shores soon, but for now, check 'em all out in our gallery!

Gallery: iriver at CES 2008

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[seoultrain @ Jan 7th 2008 7:02PM]

Are these the first up-and-down scroll wheels on mp3 players? Seems like such an overdue control interface. If so, bravo for iRiver. well, bravo anyway. They look great.

[Jeremy H @ Jan 7th 2008 7:40PM]

I can understand Spinn, but wtf is iAmoled? Dicple?

The best I can guess is that iAmoled is a play on amole, which apparently is a soap substitute made from parts of a yucca or agave plant.

Marketing discussion:
"What's a universal demographic we can tap into?"
"Well, everyone uses soap"
"I like where you're going, Stan, but our product is more alternative, you know, fucking edgy."
"How about amole!"
"Dammit Stan, I don't know how you do it! Genius!"
...and SCENE.

And dicple? Is this the first in a series of 12 players designed to follow the innovations of the 'Jesusphone'?

Hell, I don't even know how to pronounce that, unless there's an assumed 'o' four letters in.. but I'm above that..

[TMF @ Jan 7th 2008 7:51PM]

The name dicple is a merger of the words "dictionary" and "player" as it is an electronic dictionary with media capabilities. My friends like to pronounce it closer to "dickball" for their own amusement.

...

Yeah, I just call it "my dictionary thing" now.

[Matt @ Jan 7th 2008 8:25PM]

AMOLED is a display technologoy featured in a few iriver products.. the i is just trendy.. but sure, it's all about soap *shifty eyes*

Also, its not even called the iAMOLED, the device is simply part of Samsungs (developers of the amoled displays used by iriver) "iAMOLED campaign". The device is really called the iriver p20 (from memory).. Get it right, Nilay Patel...

[Mark Leach @ Jan 7th 2008 7:48PM]

LMAO

It's not the iAMOLED, that's the technology of the screen. It says P20 all over the webpage. It's called Disciple and it's a dictionary for Koreans.

[Jeremy H @ Jan 7th 2008 8:13PM]

Ah, 'active-matrix' OLED! And dicple makes sense, although that pronunciation is even more troubling.

Maybe the genius is lost in translation.

I guess I prefer mocking bad names to further research. Thanks for enlightening me!

[David @ Jan 7th 2008 7:50PM]

Amoled = a screen technology. It is a crappy name for a player though, not like any of iriver's cool players ever see a release anyways

[LegendZ28 @ Jan 7th 2008 7:51PM]

Am I the only one that wants a way to get directly to the related story from the gallery instead of having to use the back buttons and figure it out from there?

Is there already a way to do this and I just don't know how?

[Nilch @ Jan 7th 2008 10:54PM]

Was that a keyboard shot in between - a cool foldable keyboard ? WOW !

This is what wows me about iRiver - their designs are so cool and build qaulity is solid.

[Matt @ Jan 8th 2008 1:17AM]

I do believe the remote for the UNIT 2 folds out to be a QWERTY keyboard.. Rather impressive, too bad i'll never afford one though lol..

And you're right, iriver build quality is incredible..

Also, I know i've said it a million times now, but there's no capital r in iriver... just a bit of a pet peeve of mine...

[Matt @ Jan 7th 2008 8:25PM]

The SPINN is the coolest PMP i've seen in a long time, but it will definitely be outta my price range lol..

[Chris Le @ Jan 7th 2008 9:42PM]

"Kevin AMOLED?!...it says Kevin AMOLED?!"

[Chris @ Jan 7th 2008 10:12PM]

Is it just me, or is iRiver the only PMP with the balls enough to actually think of something entirely new and not copy an old design? I mean, the Zune is nothing more than an iPod with beefed up specs. Sansa, Toshiba, and the others are all copying a design that has left the building. I think even Apple is giving up on the "old" iPod design as they move into the touch space.

I guess Sony has sort of gotten their heads out of their a$$ too. The new Walkman line certainly looks better than it used to. I think iRiver is the only company other than Apple though that truly understands hardware and software design. Their stuff looks like it's very innovative without a lot of extra crap tacked on to give the "bigger-is-better" crowd a woody.

[Matt @ Jan 8th 2008 1:08AM]

iriver.. no capital R.. but otherwise, i totally agree..

[Zhalfim Deyn @ Jan 7th 2008 10:45PM]

I totally love iriver...and this stuff is making me drool quite a bit...

the spinn looks excellent, good successor to the clix...

[PenaltyKillah @ Jan 7th 2008 11:50PM]

unit 2??? W7/10??? That's last year's news...

The third-generation iriver clix (it's inevitable!) is curiously absent, though. I suspect Bluetooth, bigger screen, and perhaps, equal D*click sides. Oh, and 16/32GB to finally compete with hard drive players.

[Matt @ Jan 8th 2008 1:23AM]

As far as i know, the SPINN is, as Zhalfim Deyn said a few posts up, the successor to the clix line, so your clix 3 is right up there..

But if you really love the d*click system, check out the iriver LPlayer, it features d*click, but the features are otherwise mediocre (when compared to the clix2). It definitly is a top notch nano competitor though and the design kills the clix2 design IMO.

[Matt @ Jan 8th 2008 1:06AM]

What the hell!? THERE IS NO CAPITAL R!!! it's iriver, no capital R, NO CAPITAL R!! How can someone on engadget, a FREAKING GAGDET BLOG, get that wrong? It's been spelt wrong all over the place lately, but I still had faith you guys would get it right on engadget.. well, I guess I was wrong...

I bet you guys have never said Ipod or i-pod, right?

[F3 @ Jan 8th 2008 11:24AM]

Calm down, Matt. Back in the day iriver WAS spelled with a capital R.

[Iain @ Jan 8th 2008 2:32PM]

iRiver.
iRiver.
iRiver.
iRiver.
iRiver.

[Joe @ Jan 8th 2008 5:40PM]

lain, from his lack of response, i think you just killed Matt.

[Matt @ Jan 8th 2008 8:20PM]

No, lack of response due to the fact i was sleeping...

I know, back in the day it was iRiver, but it's not now. Back in the day it was Apple Computers, but no ones been calling it that around here have they?