iriver's SPINN hits 2.0, throws download party
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 21st 2009 7:35AM
posted Jan 21st 2009 7:35AM
The SPINN is easily the sexiest device on iriver's tawdry pallet of gadget-lust. Unfortunately, we found the user experience to be a bit lacking at launch. While the feature list is long and impressive, the UI just couldn't pull it all together. Now SPINN's gone 2.0 and with it hope for the device to live up to our giddy first impressions. New to this firmware update is a memo taking feature, big glorious album art, auto rotating pictures, auto-recording of DMB television, and DAB or FM radio (where supported), increased control over video playback, and game downloads for those of you in Korea.
[Via PMP Today and DAPreview]
Ah gone are the days when iRiver actually made practical players with insane hard drives. :(
Can't be doing with this ultra-modern crap littered with gimmicks.
Still not found anything that can match my H340 in it's balance of space, functionality and sound quality.
The fact that no one has made a spiritual successor to the H3XX series
is mind boggling, The Iaudio X5 was close but just didn't have the same
build quality.
Hint to companies out there: Some people still are willing to trade form for function
I'd rather have a player with the H3XXs looks and stats then a fashion statement
Though I agree that having a high capacity player would be nice, for the most part, there just ins't a significant market for them unless you're a really big seller like Apple or MS. I think at this point, most manufacturers would rather avoid the increased risk of HD-failure-related warranty issues and focus on the bulk of the market. Besides, at the rate of increase of flash storage capacity, we've already gained access to flash players that best iPods from a couple years ago in terms of storage capacity (32gig), battery life, durability (flash vs. HD), and physical size. If i was making MP3 players, I'd focus my resources on flash devices only in order to stay competitive not just now, but in the coming years.
I'm with you... I'm gutted that someone broke into my car and stole my H320 (With Rockbox, so I had realtime level control on the line in, plus ability to record to WAV... not to mention Doom and other goodies).
Yeah yeah, my new phone is thinner, has a 3.2" screen and plays DIVX, but I still miss my iRiver!
I too am amazed that no one in the last few years has made the 'spiritual successor' to the H-series- they fetch more on Ebay now than theyy did when they were new because musicians find them useful- how many gadget can you say that for?
My friend bought the H140, loved it and bought a second one immediately- it's as if he knew we wouldn't see the likes of kit like that again!
Can Engadget start a petition site for bringing back great gadgets? I'm half-serious!
Oh, and not to mention the H3xx could browse the contents of other USB devices and suck the contents on to it's harddisk. They gave us everything with that player! There is some fancy stuff around these days, but it all feels like a compromise in area or another!
(Okay, sorry peeps, nostalgia rant over)
not just that but they were adding functions with firware long after it ceased production.
got an H320 and have no interest in replacing it
I dont like Iriver
and I don't like you, so there you go
Why I need to like IRiver's products?
you don't, I just want a reason like:
I owned one and it broke
Iriver killed and raped my family
Iriver will build the t-1000
just saying you don't like randomly is dumb
You don't need to like them, you just need to have reasonable grounds.
Would it kill Iriver to make it 32gb and add an sd expansion slot?
I'd buy one then.
Does anyone know what the deal is with all those devices released not that long ago that miss sd slots? There must be a reason, is it some tax or licensing cost thing? are they boycotting the flash market? what the hell is going on?
I will co-sign this
I have the Spinn, and rather like it. Looks good (screen and overall device), feels good, and works well enough. Yes, I would have liked bigger storage, but it does not really limit my use of the device day to day.
The only really negative experience with this was the utterly useless software iRiver provided for it, which hangs 50% of the time, and trashed some of my video codecs.
I don't know why the hate-on for this device. It's overpriced, but often available at very major reductions (check newegg) which make it competitive.
"NOMAL"
Engandget, how about a 2.0 review, to see if the update can really grab new users (myself included)?
An expandable memory slot would make this the bee's knees, or at least a higher capacity drive (8 GB's a joke, especially for a player that lends itself so well to movie playback).
Yup, I would have bought one of these if it had an expandable SD Slot. I am pretty sure New Egg was giving these away a while ago. With the new software update I might give it a try. I don't understand why nobody can get this right. touch screen player with 3.5" screen that isn't a iPod Touch. I think the iPod's are great but I want something that works with a subscription service like Rhapsody. This seems like the only contender but still seems way off the Touch and the suggested retail is like 30% more, although they sell for less than a touch if you shop around.
Hmmm... looks like Steam.
wow.,another crappy pmp/mp3 .who would buy this over touch.,???no remote control dock support or steering wheel car integration.,weak.,definitely years behind apple touch.,