For a company that pretty much just makes PMPs, iriver manages to pull off an incredible quantity of surprising product moves and design choices. Its new Dicple D35 and D31, for instance, square off any of the sexiness and sleekitude of previous iterations, like
2007's D5. The devices seem to be getting inexplicably thicker, the screen bezel has become more prominent, and iriver just doesn't seem to care. However, the software has certainly come a long way from those electronic dictionary days, with widgets, advanced multimedia features (like DMB and radio recording), handwriting recognition and PIM functions -- all of which we have little idea as to the functionality, since the spec list is in Korean, and we don't imagine iriver plans on shipping this sort of stuff to the States any time soon. Still, we can dream.
[Thanks, Alex]
Read - iriver D31
Read - iriver D35
posted Mar 13th 2009 11:02AM
Dell netbook with 8GB SSD can be had for $250 US...
Why would anyone want to buy this iFAIL!
Looks like a nintendo DS with a Keyboard instead of the second screen.
irviver must have a "free and open" release to manufacturing policy. "sure, looks good, send it through. What's one more pmp?" god bless them. :)
That Dell netbook doesn't come with 20 dictionaries or whatever. If this comes stocked with good-quality dictionaries, the licensing fees are expensive and will make up a decent chunk of the cost. Also, does it have a touchscreen? Won't be so great for handwriting recognition if not.
As for the look I think it's pretty damn stylish (continuing iriver's pattern of great design without just following the me-too trend)... certainly a hell of a lot better-looking than my Japanese dictionary (which also cost the same as your Dell, but quite a few years ago). I'd be a bit concerned about battery life with that nice backlit screen - then again, a backlit screen is the main thing I'd like that my own dictionary doesn't have! (My one lasts about 30 hours on a pair of triple-A rechargeables, meaning that I always have spares ready-charged as well...)
by the way I don't disagree that using a netbook rather than an electronic dictionary might be a good move, in fact i've considered it. but in addition to being a bit big, it is definitely a lot more expensive when you include the cost of the dictionaries, and the battery life is really low - one more reason why I'm hoping ARM9-based netbooks will arrive before hell freezes over and be a good performance option.
IMO, this thing looks awesome. My design tastes are obviously affected from living out of train depots for so long, but still, go iriver
Dream for what?
Dicple?
Dick People?
Dick Pimple?
"How much ram you got there in you Dicple?"
Enough for your mom!
*badum pish*
Hells bells, look at that thing. Come on, UMPC designers, you have no excuse now. Make them look like this.
To my eye the previous versions and this ones bezels look exactly same.
And for the looks, i prefer this to former incarnation, it looks more.....peppy. :)
I am guessing this one's bezel has more to do with making a usable-sized keyboard.
IMO this device is hella sexy. Not everything has to have an aerodynamic, stealth radar-proof design to be attractive. I'm not sure what the keyboard is doing on there but otherwise, it looks pretty sweet.
Hmm, looks like a half assed DS to me. I know let's swap the touch sensitive screen for a keyboard.
Progress Rocks
JC
Seriously - how do you say that? Dick Pull?
That's my question! Perhaps this is another indication that it is most certainly NOT for the U.S. market. Either that, or we name it The Unpronounceable.
Electronic dictionaries are very popular in Korea, because having good English skills is very crucial for success there - for international business, etc.
Kids have to be at school till 9 PM, and then they have after-school tutoring till 2 AM. Then they have to wake up at 7 AM and go to school all over again. During this time, I'd say about 25% of this time is spent on studying English, so they need to have a good electronic dictionary.
It's even better when these dictionaries come with multimedia functions, so that kids can watch TV or listen to songs during recess. It's so much better to carry one device that does everything well, rather than to carry a dictionary + a DMB tuner + an MP3 player + a PDA...
As for the name, it stands for "Dictionary + Player", incase anyone was wondering. Good thing they aren't selling these here, lol.
Really? 13 hour schoolday and 5 hours sleep?
If you cut sleeptime that short theres no point to study as you need sleep to learn.
I thought only Japan was hardcore like that. No wonder you see so many young Koreans abroad...
It's what happens when you have a population of 50 million on a land that's smaller than some of the States in the US. People become over competitive, and everyone tries to get more schooling and extra tutoring.
The longer school time was implemented to prevent kids from going to tutors after-school, because that takes away the importance of paying attention in school and it's a financial burden on parents, but that totally backfired... kids just ended up going to tutors at later times. I hear that Japan and some cities in China are like this as well.
Kids in North America should be really thankful for their easy schooling, but Obama was talking about increasing school hours to get American kids to be more competent... He said Korean kids get approx. 1 month more of school hours than American kids. Maybe every country will have crazy school hours like Asian countries in the future.. LOL
dicple?
just lool
It's uninspired.
Dicple? Sounds like something your mom did to me last night!
I like iriver. I hope one day they will make an mp3 player again
yay! engadget posted what i recommended! I feel so special! :D