It looks like Archos isn’t the only company branching away from their DAP roots. Iriver will test the waters of the mobile phone industry with the release of the A100, their first Bluetooth headset. The device doesn’t exactly stand out from the headsets already available. In less polite words, it looks like iriver just slapped their logo onto a generic headset. The headset h supports Version 2.0, and has a range of 10 metes. Iriver plans to sell the A100 in China, home to nearly 300 million mobile phone users. No word on price, or global availability at this time.
LINK
Thanks to all that sent this in!
Yesterday, Michael reported the spotting of the YP-R1, which I thought was the YP-CP3, and apparently isn’t. My good friend, Moveplayer has pointed out that Russia is getting a release of the YP-CP3, which looks very similar to the P3/R1, minus the touch screen. The device will be costing 4990 Russian Rubles (161USD) for the 4GB and 5990 Rubles (193USD) for the 8GB model.
SPECS:
Capacity: 4/8GB w/ microSD
Battery Life: 24hr audio
Display: 3″ WQVGA TFT LCD (400×240)
Audio: MP3 / WMA / WAV / OGG / APE / FLAC
Video: RM / MPEG4 / WMV / SVI / RMVB
Samsung Russia (Google Translated)
Moveplayer
I’ll be going to Seoul, Korea to give you guys a 2 month coverage of the electronics culture there. As most of you guys know, it’s the home of Cowon, iriver, Samsung and others. So I’m wondering, what would you like to see?
One of our members spotted a product page at Play UK for a new Samsung player called the YP-R1. The description lacked a photo but with a little sleuthing I was able to find one. The R1 appears to be a touchscreen device with a similar interface to the YP-Q2. It has nice set of features, as well as great codec support as indicated below:
Features:
- Capacity: 8GB
- Display: 2.7″ Wide WQVGA (400×240)
- Audio: MP3, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, and AAC
- Video: MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, Divx, Xvid,and RMVB
- TV-out
- Bluetooth
- Extras: Games, FM tuner, and an E-book reader
The product page shows a release date of July 30th, and a price of £109.99, which is about $180US. We’ll keep you updated once we find out more.
Sources:
Play UK
Portal Mix
Thanks Pondlife!
As I have reported previously, mintpass planned their US release of their first device, the mintpad for early summer. Well, I’m guessing that the release date is coming up because they have just opened up an English website. You won’t be able to find a “buy” button on the website but will be able to look at what the mintpad offers.
mintpass
It looks like the rumors of an Archos event on June 11th were true. Earlier today Archos their newest lineup of products. I was naive to think we’d see an array of new PMP’s, but it seems those days are over. Archos has transformed into a computer company that happens to sell MP3 players. Here’s a run-down of what was announced:
Archos 3
We don’t have the full specs on this player yet, but we know it has a 3.0″ touchscreen, a built-in accelerometer, extras like a voice recorder, stopwatch and calendar, and a battery life of 14 hours. It also uses a “virtual wheel” for navigating. Only an 8GB model was mentioned, for a price of 100 Euros (which likely means 100US). Considering the last player Archos released was a rebrand, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one is as well.
Update: Archos also announced two more players that we don’t have any pictures of yet. First there’s an iPod shuffle competitor called the “Clipper”. As the name implies it should have a built-in clip, and of course no screen. Second there’s the Archos 2 Vision, which seems to be a slider version of the Archos 2. We’ll update this article with more information as it become available
Archos 3 Product Page
Archos 9
The Archos 9 is a UMPC tablet PC running Windows 7. It uses an Intel Atom Z515 processor, has an 80GB HDD, Bluetooth, and two DVB-T antennas built-in
Archos 10s, 13, and Satchel
The Archos 10s has a 10.2″ display, uses a 1.6GHZ Intel Atom processor, has an 80GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, and runs Win XP. The Archos 13 is more of a full-fledged notebook, featuring a 13.2″ LED display, a 120GB HDD and a 10-cell battery. Finally there’s the “Satchel”, a computer designed for children (as the giant blue handle would indicate). It has a 9″ display, 1GB of ram, an SD card slot, webcam, and is running Win XP.
MiniPC Product Page
Satchel Product page
While I’m not surprised that Archos has gone in this direction, it does make me sad to realize the good old days of Archos PMP’s are behind us. Sadly no Android devices were announced, but
Sources:
Archos Lounge
GenMP3
Most people are probably aware of the iriver P35 that was released in Korea in March and should be arriving in the US this Fall. I was quite disappointed in the lack of a 32GB model but iriver seems to have read my mind. They have silently rolled out the 32GB P35 for about $389 USD, which is around the same price as smaller devices like the iPod Touch.
SPECS:
Capacity: 8/16GB/32GB w/ microSD/SDHC (up to 16GB)
Size: 128.3 x 79.7 x 17.8mm @220g
Battery Life: 16hr audio / 8hr video / 7hr dmb
Display: 4.3″ WQVGA @ 16M colors
Audio: MP3 / WMA / WAV / OGG / APE / FLAC
Video: MPEG4 / Xvid / WMV7/8 / WMV9 @ 720 x 480
Product Page
I haven’t even gotten my hands on the Sony X1000 yet, and there are rumors floating around about its successor. There’s news that Sony will be releasing a new Walkman (and other mobile devices) in 2010 that will be running on Android. Here’s what an analyst stated at the Japanese site Nikkan (translated to English):
“The company is working on a common software platform, a wide range of mobile devices is expected to use the OS. Utilizing the benefits of open standard software, and faster time to market, to chase the U.S. Apple’s market leaders in improving the operation of the equipment.”
I’m all for having Android on more platforms, but I just can’t see this happening. Sony and open-source don’t exactly go hand in hand. In fact, I’d say they’re high up on the list of companies that are known for using proprietary software (see: Sonicstage, rootkit). Perhaps the recession has made them change their tune?
via engadget
Iriver’s newest player, the B30 has gotten the hands-on treatment. The player comes equipped with an accelerometer, which is used heavily in the video below. From switching to a coverflow viewer, to shaking the player to skip songs. Iriver looks like they were trying for the same “magazine” style interface as the P7 and P35, but I don’t think they quite pulled it off. The B30 is currently selling in Korea, but so far there are no plans for a global release.
