We've seen iriver's
SPINN (above between the HTC Touch Dual and iPhone 3G) floating around Korea in pics and video for a few weeks now. But damn if this little 3.3-inch DAP doesn't make a distinct impression in person. Of course, you've heard the term "iPod killer" tossed around for years with obvious effect. But this, this little SPINN with brilliant OLED display and up to 16GB of storage looks to be device-for-device superior to the bigger iPod touch. The SPINN navigation is very well implemented and allows for natural and precise one-handed operation with heavy tactile control -- touchscreen too if that's your preference. Of course, making an iPod killer is about more than just the device -- it's the ecosystem of PC software, third party accessories, and daunting global distribution and retail model which faces any upstart vendor. On sale now in Korea, iriver hopes to address the latter piece of the puzzle as they prepare for a global (US, UK, and Europe) launch in September or October -- assuming they can sort out the necessary distribution / retail channels this week at IFA. Remember, it's already got
FCC's nod of approval.
posted August 29th 2008 4:27AM
the first true ipod killer? so, a radio and tactile controls do that? in that case the creative zen was an ipod touch killer several years ago. huh, i would have thought it would take more than that. smaller screen, lower capacity, no browser, clearly no graphics acceleration from what we were seeing, no keyboard, no mention of multitouch. they only thing that could possibly make it an ipod killer in my speculation is if it were $10. does engadget just get excited when its "their" story maybe?
Well, having now watched the video I can't quite see how this can be an iPod Touch killer. I mean, the addition of the scroller and click action surely makes it slower to use than the iPod Touch where you can just press the icon that you want on the screen rather than having to scroll through the options. Am I missing something here?
I think the real iPod killer is the Cowon Q5W. Now THAT is a truly awesome piece of technology.
I think we need to wait until whatever announcement Apple is due to make in September has happened. Seems rather silly to proclaim this device as an iPod Touch-killer if the Touch is going to be overhauled in a few days time.
Let's be honest, even if this device is superior to the iPod Touch after the September announcement then it's still unlikely to "kill the iPod". It will take much than a single device to do that and many years, although at least it would be a start.
Put another way, if the SPINN does kill the iPod Touch and the new iPod Touch announced in September is better then perhaps the Touch should be renamed to the iPod Lazarus.
Without True Multi-Touch like the iPhone, all 'iPhone Killers' are just Palm M105s without a stylus. I don't care how much spin you put on it.
Hehehe, I made an O'Reily reference and a funny all at the same time... I kill me.
So multi-touch is now the most important feature of phone?
Here, in CIS, particularly in Russia, iriver (forget about "iRiver" at least!) still has lots of fans. But, of course, that iMania does let know about itself. Nevertheless, I think that SPINN has all chances to become popular product.
Why are Apple and Microsoft the only companies out there making new high-capacity players? It seems like every other day on Engadget I see a new PMP that looks seriously cool, then it's followed up by "this 4gb player" or "up to 16gb of storage" which just makes it absolutely worthless to me. Is there really so little demand for large capacity in a portable device?
Probably because most people are comfortable with 8 or 16 gig of music on their players at a time, and flash is safer than a hard drive. Think about it this way: if you sold mp3 players, would you rather offer a 1- , 2-, or 3- year warranty on a portable device with a very delicate hard drive inside? I've personally lost two players to hard drive failure (one ipod, one zen micro) and after that, i accepted that mid-capacity flash was the way to go...even if i can't carry all my music on it.
You're kidding... of all the devices you pick one with mechanical controls? How very steam-punk. (Gimme touch-screen any day).
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that it HAS a touchscreen.
But nevermind, I know it's challenging...
Did you actually read the article?
So it has touch-screen. Then why the Scroll-Wheel? Gimmicky... silly... not worthy of the term "iPod Killer". Sorry.
I don't care about iPod-killers and getting sick of hearing the term. Yes, I am a happy Zune 80 owner, but really, I don't every want to see a competitor's product die. I want to see products competing, I want to see innovation, I want to see something come somewhere close to market parity with the iPod because I think that is best for innovation and the market, I want to see small upstarts continually seeking to put the smack down on the iPOD. AGAIN, I AM TIRED OF ALL THIS iPOD KILLER TALK!
The menu looks like it could have been handled under DOS. Couldn't they have at least given us some pretty icons representing the different functions? Positively boring!
It looks to be an awesome player, and quite sexy to boot. It will please a lot of iRiver users, and perhaps draw in more people to their brand. However, it cannot, by definition, be an iPod "killer" (what a stupid moniker, anyway -- like someone said above, it's gotten tiring) unless it addresses the iPod's strengths -- which are the reasons people buy them -- and better them. The SPINN fails to do so in the following areas:
(1) Screen size
(2) Multi-touch (I'm assuming)
(3) Integration with iCal/Address Book/Entourage, iTunes and iTunes Music Store (one of the most important)
(4) E-mail and web browsing (WiFi)
(5) Price -- pretty much the same as the iPod (touch) GB for GB
There are those geek-pleasing factors, which are intriguing; WMV, Xvid, OGG, FLAC and APE support, OLED. But then, stupid shortcomings like no AAC (WTF?). When you have CNET say things like "We'd love to see the Spinn with the Clix's D-Click system instead of the wheel" you know that the wheel, while perhaps novel, is little more than a gimmick. And finally, the single thing that really makes the iPod stand out now is
(6) The App Store
Unless you can top that, you can't "kill" the iPod.
And don't call me no fanboy; I don't even own an iPod touch (still chugging along with my 3rd Gen iPod 40GB).
nothing can kill the ipod interface...it's what makes it better. so really there is no ipod killer. windows mobile sucks bawls and this one seems like dookie too. if we could toss the iphone os with jailbreak on that bitch then we can talk business, or even on the ericsson x1.
hi, my name is spinn and i am not a phone
That is a BRILLIANT navigation scroll wheel. I mean seeing ideas like that makes me wonder why many respected companies are throwing away their brains in favor for a "touchscreen only a la Apple" PMP. This is proof that thinking outside the Apple box could actually generate a lot better ideas....
When you think of it, operating an iPhone/iPod with only one hand is really NOT comfortable. BRAVO iRiver...oh hold on.
Awkward looking one-handed operation. I'm guessing it requires a stylus for the touchscreen operation. Apple hit a home run with the click-wheel.
I'm guessing your not very smart.
It's a decent player. There's no need to tar it with the ipod killer label.
There really isn't any point in making an "iPod Killer" anymore, as the whole dedicated MP3 player market is already starting it's inevitable decline.
Seriously... why would most people want to buy a separate portable device just to play music and movies when most new cell phones now have that capability built in? The smaller flash based players are already useless if you have something like an iPhone, and the larger hard drive based players are in danger as well as cell phone storage capacity increases. I know that I've already retired my old iPod Photo and my Zune when I got my new phone, and I'll imagine that many other people will as well.
iRiver should really make their next "killer" product an iPhone killer or Samsung Instinct killer if they want to stay in business.
"Seriously... why would most people want to buy a separate portable device just to play music and movies when most new cell phones now have that capability built in?"
One word my friend: batteries. In the world of iPod/iPhone where you can't replace your batteries, you hold onto your charge like it's your last will to live.
"Seriously... why would most people want to buy a separate portable device just to play music and movies when most new cell phones now have that capability built in?"
In addition to battery life above, how about sound quality?
As mentioned earlier, is nobody actually interested in how their audio sounds any more? Given the dominance of the iPod I can only assume this is the case.
They should call it the iBox since that thing is so boxy. Are these guys afraid of curves? The boxy look is so 1980s. Get with the times, iriver. Somebody's gonna get hurt on all of those pointy edges.
So.... making an iPod killer is more than just making the device. Granted. But iRiver has not demonstrated any of the other ecosystem stuff, so I would hold off on the claims of iPod killer. The Zune is the only device I've seen with PC interface software that comes close (actually better than) iTunes.
Where's the 160Gb version? Why doesn't anyone produce a 160Gb Classic competitor?
"Of course, making an iPod killer is about more than just the device -- it's the ecosystem of PC software, third party accessories, and daunting global distribution and retail model which faces any upstart vendor."
No it's not. If a device is better than another, it is because it is. Not because of how the company can handle international distribution etc. You just gave them a compliment and then said "But none of this really matters since they are only a small startup company." I agree with the part about software interaction with your computer (Apple's isn't very good), but not the rest of that BS.
By your logic, nobody would ever likely produce an iPod/iPhone killer because Apple dominates making their products popular, not necassarily making them better. In this sense, if the Sprint Instinct sold more than iPhone, you'd say it was an iPhone killer, when it's clearly not.
In what way does this rival an ipod touch? ipod classic? This doesn't seem to rival either. It does about the same things as ipod classic but with better form factor and WAY less memory. It does WAY less than the ipod touch (like email, apps, im, internet browsing), but has the same form factor and memory. I don't get it. How is this better? Don't just make claims, give us examples!
This is hardly an "iPod Killer" when this misses one key spec that the Touch has, WiFi and a full html browser. I hate when "iPod Killer" is thrown around when a device in the same form factor is introduced but lacks something major as WiFi and the browser, throw in third party apps as well.
Just purchased an 8gb spinn for incheon airport in korea and I have to say this is a very sweet player. I have held back buying another player since my ipod died a year ago and was about to purchase the 120 gb zune when it came out. Other than capacity which is very small this is a great device.
Sexy, intuitive, with a great screen. I am playing around with it at the moment and I really hope that more people take a serious look at this device.
how does one change from landscape to portrait views?
Yeah, that's WAY better than just flicking and selecting with your finger. NOT!
Epic fail and the reviewer is a tool.
The ipod has been killed a hundred times over as a media player. Let's face it, it's one of the worst dedicated media players around. Let's think, for a minute, about the many ways its is exceed by *virtually every other player on the market*:
1) No hard drive mode (at least not for the touch). You are forced to use itunes to sync your music. Itunes is one of the biggest/worst pieces of bloatware in software history. It's god awful.
2) Movies require transcoding -- adding insult to injury, Apple does not supply the software to do this. Either but your content from itunes, or suck a lemon. In short, Apples players support fewer codecs than anyone else out there. Same thing goes for music.
3) The Touch lacks any sort of tactile feedback. Operating it while driving/jogging/etc is nearly impossible or, at minimum, unsafe. You have to look at the damn thing to do anything with it.
4) Expensive. You get players that beat Any apple player, feature for feature, for half the price or less.
5) No FM tuners -- a feature virtually every other player in the world has.
In short, Apple makes TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE media players. Ipods are just plain bad at being media players.
But you know what? They are masters are marketing and branding. Your grandmother will buy an ipod because she doesn't know an MP3 from a Potato but she's heard of an ipod. Trendy douchebags will buy an ipod because it's the most expensive player out there and it because they think it'll make them cool.
And, on top of that, the ipod touch, while being a bad media player, is a god-damned *amazing* internet device and a very good PDA. Throw in the App Store and you've got yourself a fine product, actually worth its high cost.
But is it a good media player? No. It's not. If you just want something to watch movies or listen to music with -- and nothing else, you'd be stupid to buy an Ipod (especially an Ipod Touch).
Nice manicure.
not an ipod killer, not a zune killer, just a gimmicky pmp. you spin me right round baby right round