After teasing us with a touchscreen phone way back at CES this January, iriver has been decidedly mum on the subject ever since, calling what we saw
more of a "proof of concept" than a ready-for-market product. Well, that veil has been lifted and we're finally staring at the iriver wave, a touchphone that iriver plans to start shipping in Korea on March 9th of next year with KT, and with other major carriers to follow. Other than a touchscreen, the phone packs WiFi and the traditional kitchen sink approach of Korean PMPs, with multimedia playback, FM radio, e-books and an electronic dictionary. There's miniSD expansion, access to the Bugs Music Service for online music and we're sure a few other perks hidden under layers of Korean spec sheets. Overall the physical design hasn't really changed much from
what we saw at the start of the year (looks like that 3-inch, 480 x 272 touchscreen is quite intact), but the software has certainly been refined, and is devoid of many of its original, erm,
iPhone-inspired touches.
[Via
Hallyu Tech]
posted Nov 10th 2008 1:16PM
'i' dont like it
I don't like you
Ahh, constructive criticism at its finest.
He misquoted the guy in the cantina...
"... and I dont like you either! "
swoosh! arm falls off
movie gains PG rating.
which movie?
@eric
Star Wars?
With dumb phones, touchscreen is more of a novelty than something to improve productivity. I Hope this phone doesn't sell well for that very reason.
This is round 4 of the gadget wars.
Now we have mp3 manufacturers adding GSM and Wifi to turn once digital audio players into cellularphones.
I never thought Iriver would have one of these...I suspect Creative Labs will be next.
...next will be Coby's turn.
Hm.
Flexibility of input methods...ability to vary display between input and presentation depending on the media...
I'd say you'd get a healthy argument that touchscreen is better suited towards a dumb - (ahem) - I mean "operationally challenged" phone than a business phone.
Or maybe there are ways to optimize it as either...
Even if this doesn't surpass the iphone in terms of features, at least there'd be an mp3-playing, smarter-than-average-but-not-quite-smart phone on the market where it's pretty safe to assume that actually has respectable sound quality out of the headphone jack.
user interface looks very lg in that picture
this is what i call revolutionary.
keep up the good work iriver.
I dun understand how someone can already hate a phone that is not even released yet...
Afterall Engadget only posted one picture and only a few features on the phone... yet Clak already doesn't like it, thinking it's clever to put a single quote on the i as if his opinion matters lol.
OCEAN appears to have dedicated itself to making comments that are inane/indecipherable. From what I can tell, this practice is the new "first".
In spite of all future and past comparison's to the Apple Mobile Voice Communications Product and my general disdain for music phones, I call dibs on the above.
well, y'know what?
'i' think 'i' like it and 'i' think your a douche
comment fail that was meant for OCEAN 'CLACK' 20th
haha...double fail
Wow, 480 x 272, it managed to be even worse than the iPhone. Pretty impressive indeed.
This thread needs hot korean babes holding the phone.
Matthew Hilario for prez 2012. I'll make the buttons.
You know, I think it'll be nice once these manufactures start using Android instead of WinMo for these types of phones.
I like it.....though it looks a little thick.
that's what she said (referring to those korean girls who are NOT showing off the phone)
Released 12 years to the day of the Notorious B.I.G's untimely passing. Coincidence? I think not.
There is no correlation, whatsoever.
No coincidence huh? What do you think the I in B.I.G. stands for then?
That's right, iriver!
Coincidence indeed.
I welcome this phone. Looks pretty cool, a little thick. More competition means lower prices and more improvements in the future.
Looks promising. Could do with being a bit thinner, slightly wider so the screen can get longer without looking strange. On a fully touchscreen phone, the screen should be taking up almost the whole of the front of the handset, looks like there might be some excess fat there.
I wish it the best but it has some stiff competition!
Looks like a render, I'd like to see a mockup or a prototype. Looks like it has potential, though I doubt we'd see it in the US anytime soon.
the [Via Hallyu Tech] link is broken :)
double "http://"
Fail!!
Uh... does it actually do at least GSM? Or is it VoIP over WiFi only? That would be kind of... uh, limited?
it looks like a number pad, but thats just me
Hey. that my Birthday!
this looks EXACTLY like the iriver w7 released like 2 years ago! gosh! get a new design!
http://product.iriver.co.kr/p_w7_feat.asp
Excuse me, this article needs to be corrected for its shipping date: It's already shipping (since 12th of Nov), and it actually a second coming of the same model. The previous W7, was an "W10(Wave) minus WiFi/Phone function" version with car navigation kit option, and the new W10(Wave) is one with WiFi/Phone function. (Car navigation kit/recording functions are removed). It seems like Wave (and an WiFi AP) is provided for free with KT's VoIP phone contract. (Don't know how long)