iriver 3-inch touchscreen "GSM phone" headed for the States
By Paul Miller 
posted January 9th 2008 1:28AM
posted January 9th 2008 1:28AM
posted January 9th 2008 1:28AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
stupid engadget commentors also.
I know. I can't stand those bastards. Damn commenter's make this site almost unbearable.
If I tell you all about a phone, touch screen, can play mp3 and videos, and buy music and videos online, pop and imap email, calendar, contacts, lots of software, GPS based location services for local maps etc, camera, mms, txt, 3g speeds, and all the usual features, you may think this is an iPhone rip off, but actually it was a phone I had 3 years ago now.
Motorola A920
The *dock* icons people go on about so much have been a feature of UIQ phones, and any soft key icon driven phones for ages now. Windows Mobile phones, PocketPC, and Palm devices have all had the grid arrangement of icons for many years now, and do music, maps, email, and so on.
The iPhone broke no new ground with anything other than including the multi-touch interface on a mobile device.
That is all.
Get over yourselves iphone fanboys, nothing to see here, except your ignorance of technology.
(I have 2 macs, and an iPod touch, but the iPhone bullshit makes me seethe)
A920? That's nice for 2003, but don't kid yourself--It's no iphone!
No WiFi
Requires a stylus (no keypad at all)
Huge in size (5.8x2.3x0.95 in compared to 4.5x2.4x0.46 in for iphone)
Heavy (7.4 ounces vs 4.8 ounces)
Battery life (95 *min* talk, 70 hr standby vs 8 hours talk, 250 hours standby)
Resolution (320 x 208 pixels vs 320x480 screen at 160dpi)
Those are all VERY important real-world improvements over your A920. I'm not even mentioning any of the fancy ipod, safari, itunes things that comes with the apply product. Like I said, that's great for 2003, but pretty lame for 2007.
I'm no iphone fanboy (would like this iriver phone for instance), but your "ignorance of technology" is showing if you think this brick that weighs twice as much as an already heavy iphone compares to an iphone in 2007.
http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/9069-Pack-Of-Playing-Cards-vs-A920-vs-Apple-iPhone
Paul Miller: It says quite clearly in the PC Mag article that the phone WILL be 3G. And I quote...
"One thing's clear, though – it will work on high-speed 3G cellular networks like the one run by AT&T. (As a GSM phone, it won't work with Sprint or Verizon.)"
So all you boys saying it would be stupid for it not to have 3G, don't worry because it will. And for those of you questioning whether or not it's actually based on Linux, again read the full article.
"The icons in the Linux-based phone's UI even look like the iPhone's."
I think it's pretty clear that this phone will kick some serious ass. Linux-based, 3G, iRiver, 2MP camera with video. That's a damn good combo IMO.
I don't think the concept is what people are complaining about, its clearly the blatant rip-off of the UI look of the iPhone. Just what I observed from the video and the couple of pics around the place:
- Slide to unlock, even the text flashes from side to side.
- The phone number keypad, every button in exactly the same place (add contact, delete)
- The big red end call button, exactly the same position and style.
- The phone "in call menu" with exactly the same 6 transparent buttons for speaker/mute etc.
- All the menus with the blue iPhone bar and back arrows, with the big black text on the white background and the little black arrows.
To me its a little sad that they seem to have a neat little device and yet have to copy the UI right down to the last detail. Come on iRiver, have some more respect than that and actually innovate and produce a better product than imitate....otherwise jo public and everyone else will just think its a poor clone.
I am all for competitors to the iPhone, but there really is a great deal of similarity in the interface (colours, layout) dialogs etc.
Surely they could do something a little different to set themselves apart a bit more.
Also, looks like the touch screen is pretty cheapish too.
Well, IMAP only works without SSH on the A920, and the phone is buggy as hell. I have the A925 and it crashes more often than Windows Me. Beta. I've had all kinds of problems with it... except it never lost data and the problem usually can be resolved with restarting. Oh, and the thing is called phone booth by friends due to its enormous size. But an impressive phone nevertheless, especially for its time.
not to be an "anti-fanboy", but . . . . . back when iRiver was relatively new to the scene, i had two different DAPs from them. i think my first one was the "H120", which failed within ~6 months of purchase. fortunately, it was still under warranty, & as a replacement they sent me the "H340". which was awesome in its own way, since it had a color LCD & a couple other features....... but that, too, died about a year later. right after it was out of warranty.
other than the hardware quality, i found their stock firmware / user interface to be more than a little... lacking. browsing music when the (40GB) player was full was slow as *hell*. unacceptably slow. to the point where i finally ended up installing RockBox on it & customizing my own UI, just to make the thing usable.
after reading the other comments here, i have to assume their quality has improved at least a little since then.. & certainly, using Linux points to a better software-side. probably. ... but still. i don't think i'd own another iRiver product. especially since the iPod i bought to replace my H340 is well over a year old now & has never had a single issue.
in short: i'd love an iPhone with GPS, 3G, TV, & many other acronym'd features. but i don't think i'll be giving up my actual iPhone for anything made by iRiver. at least until i see better evidence that their products are reliable.
I have an H340 and I've had it since 2004. Never one problem. I dual-boot Rockbox, because I'm a tinkerer, but I can't really complain about anything.
When I bought it, I requested that the salesperson allow me and a friend to test the sound blindly between an iPod and the iriver h340. I brought my laptop, along with my Audio-Technica DJ monitors, and copied the same file to both of the devices. After listening to both devices at default settings, I chose the h340.
After realizing that for the same price as the ipod, I was getting 10 more gigs of storage, the ability to charge from usb or AC, a color screen, a dock, an external battery pack for long trips, audio in cables, Sennheiser earbuds, a mic (for voice recording), FM radio, mass storage (no software necessary), a usb host (to dump pics and view pics from my camera), and better sound quality....it was a no brainer.
The iPod came with special white headphones, and a usb cord (not even an AC adapter). I could have easily spent the price of another iPod to buy all of the accessories that came in the box for the H340
I've cracked the damn shell of the thing open to skin it, dropped it repeatedly, thrown it about on various commutes and travels...and have had absolutely no problem whatsoever.
I'd say iriver has equal if not superior build quality, and definitely superior sound quality, when pitted against an iPod. I'd take one of these over an iPhone...anyday. At least with linux you'd be able to do what you wanted with it.
hmm. had i gotten "a dock, an external battery pack for long trips, audio in cables, Sennheiser earbuds, FM radio, and better sound quality" i'd probably agree with you. the H340 they sent me didn't have any of those things.
anyway, i wasn't trying to say that iPods are superior. they just happen to be the only other brand of DAP i've actually owned, thus the only basis for comparison i have.
glad to hear that iRiver's worked better for other people. my first iRiver failed with no abuse, warning, or anything... & the H340 took one spill off my (fairly low-clearance) bed, which was enough to kill it. & also enough to kill my faith in them, as a consumer.
I guess they offer a lot more to their home market. Probably why every Korean mobile phone, and a lot of their PMPs come with an extra battery in the box. Didn't know that they were giving non-Korean markets the shaft. Must use a different hard drive for different markets as well. Mine's fallen from my backpack on several occasions (idle and while playing).
actually, now that you mention it, i think that *is* the ticket. i remember hearing somewhere that iRiver had gotten huge in Korea, & that we couldn't even get their full product line-up in the US (much less any of the "perks" you mention).
FWIW, i can't think of *any* DAPs in the US market that come with extra batteries in the box. nor phones, for that matter. ... & if someone included Sennheiser earbuds, they might just have me sold. too bad, really. i think they'd get a lot better reception here if they were actually doing stuff like that for us.
here's hoping, the iRiver phone changes the trend. :)
iPhone Rip Off? Lets have it right Sony Ericsson have been doing touch screen phones for a long time I have had an example of each one since the P800! Sony Ericsson lead ALL the others merely follow, BTW iphone fanboys on the SE P1 you get proper handwriting input, 3G changable batterys GPS upgradable storage and you can send more than one message at a time!the list just goes on and on!
Let's not be stupid, please. The touch screen is not the issue. Its the near identical UI which people are taking issue with. Therefore it IS a rip off.
@Facez
Do NOT call me stupid
@Togarth
Ok, then I will do it. Stupid
I hope it does typing well. the LG Prada was horrible to use.
Apple came to the touch screen smart phone market later than most,It is therefore reasonable to say that their attempt to copy what other manufacturers have been doing for a long time is a "Rip Off"
As for the Apple UI its a GUI nothing more than that, my smart phone had Icons long before the iPhone crawled onto the market I am certain Apple will be more than capable of taking action against any one it feels has infringed its copyright its self, Chill Apple fans I thought your world was cool?
As Facez said though, its not the fact it has a touchscreen, nor is it the fact it is a highly icon driven graphical user interface (as opposed to say Windows Mobile), it is the fact however that they look almost identical. You can't say that...
- Slide to Unlock (uses the sameish font and way it highlights the text)
- Practically the same "in call" screen, with the same 6 translucent buttons and a big red end call button....all in excatly the same place.
- The same blue/white style for the menus, with the same line spacing, same forward arrows, same back button.
- The same keypad calling screen, with all the icons looking excatly the same and with the same button arrangement (i.e. add contact/backspace etc)
This isn't a matter of using an icon driven UI. Its more the fact they have failed to innovate on the GUI and just stolen it. Like I mentioned previously, they have on their hands a nice bit of kit. However the media and the public will just think of it as a poor clone for this blatent GUI copy. Honestly iRiver sort it out and you could design something even better.
Word
@Mars
Hi there, thank you for your invaluable & constructive input to the debate.
I am sure your junior school debating society must be pround to find a future president in their midst. Keep up the good work we value it.