Yeah, we know our overseas brethren have been toying with their 8GB clix 2 DAPs for awhile now, but as these things usually go, we Americans are celebrating late. Nevertheless, the US iriver store is now offering up the 8GB clix 2 for purchase, and it still touts that lovable 2.2-inch AMOLED display, an FM tuner, integrated voice recorder, up to 24-hours of battery life, and USB 2.0 connectivity. All yours for $239.99.

It always warms our hearts to see some solid device / service integration on the non-Apple side of things, and now iriver and Real are getting all cozy with the new clix Rhapsody player. Based on the gen 2 clix PMP, the player includes Rhapsody-specific functions such as album art and editorial reviews, along with features to let you to rate songs on the device and discover new music via personalized channels that get loaded each time you hook up to the service -- similar to what can be found on the Sansa Rhapsody. The player costs $190 for 4GB of storage and is available now online, but the best news is a firmware upgrade available at iriver's site that brings all these functions to your current second-gen clix for free.

With a pretty snazzy looking gadget like the Clix 2, you'd rather display it prominently than set it among all the papers, fast food wrappers, and other crap on your desk, so iRiver has come out with an affordable dock that does just that. And not only does the Clix Charge juice up and sync the pocketable PMP, it also sports a speaker on the bottom for annoying fellow mass transport passengers or providing tunes at a very small party. The 29,800 won ($32) accessory will hit Korea on the 15th, and we'd expect a stateside appearance to happen shortly after.

It's a good time to be on the lookout for a new DAP: there's that LG FM37, SanDisk's Sansa Connect and Sony's new NW-A800, and of course all that new DRM-free music from EMI on the way. Now iriver's getting in on the action, releasing its redesigned second generation clix in the States for pair of hundies. The pricetag is comparable to other 4GB flash players on the market, but the 2.2-inch QVGA AMOLED screen, fancy looks and support for 30fps MPEG-4 video and Macromedia Flash Lite make it a bit of a standout in North America. If $200 is too pricey for you, you can grab a 2GB version for $150, or wait until June for the $250 8 gigger.

We got a good eyeful of the iriver clix 2 at CES, but those dagnab Koreans are already doing the unboxing honors, and the little dynamo is looking just as fresh as ever. No real in-box surprises, but first impressions are looking good: that 2.2-inch AMOLED display seems to be a real charmer, and you can't go far wrong with 30fps video and software updates aplenty. You can pick up the 4GB player in Korea now for 199,000 KRW (about $212), or wait until March to see this thing in the States for some undisclosed price. An 8GB version will follow in April.

[Via I4U; thanks Seweryn]

We got the skinny from the RealNetworks folks on some of their plans for continued hardware integration in pursuit of the celestial jukebox holy grail. They're going to be partnering with iriver on a couple of new audio players that will both integrate Rhapsody software -- one an update to the clix and one a Wi-Fi enabled MP3 player allowing users to both download and stream music from the Rhapsody catalogue over the air. The Wi-Fi player (pictured above) is apparently not going to be the W10, as RealNetworks sources tell us the new player is yet unnamed; it's going to come with a 3-inch touch-sensitive QVGA display with a flash-based UI, include support for VoIP and roll out in 2GB and 4GB capacities. The clix 2 (pic after the break) is going to update the clix with an improved screen and slimmer design and launch in 2GB and 4GB capacities. Both of the players will offer FM tuners, in-line and voice recording, photo and video playback, and 25+ hours of battery life. No word yet on price, but these players are expected to roll out in the US in Q1.