New Toy - iRiver H10
Ok this is probably a bit late, but I have been using my iRiver H10 for about a month now and thought I'd blog and brag about it. Heh. I know there are so many Apple fans out there, and I give it to Apple, they are in a different league in terms of their marketing. But iRiver still remains the best audio-quality mp3 player on the market at the moment, in my opinion.
After about 2 years of using iRivier IFP795 512mb flash player, I decided to upgrade my storage. So I finally found a secondhand iRivier, at nearly half price of a new one in Singapore. I dont' know why iRivier decided to discontinue the 20gb H10, but they seem to be pushing their portal media players and mp4 player more than their H-series mp3 players. But nevertheless, after I found a great seller on ebay, I got my blue 20gb H10 iriver within a week, in great condition.
For audiophiliacs, the iRiver provides some extremely good audio output with numerous EQ settings as well as SRS WOW and custom setting features. The controls aren't as snazzy as iPod's, but hey, what's more important: quality of the music or how your thumb has to move to scroll through them?
The player has an FM radio function, text browser. The H10 does not support video, but has a great colour screen that allows photo viewing, though personally I see no point in being able to view photos on an mp3 player. I foresee no circumstance where I must view a particular photo on my 2" screen. I have an anti-Swiss knife approach to gadgets. Currently the iRivier firmware does not support album art during playback, but the folks at Rockbox.org have come up with an opensource replacement firmware for iRiver (among many other players they support), which allows for users to create their own themes and build in functions. There's even a plug-in that allows you to play Doom on your mp3 player! But I am not about to jump in, as I learnt that Rockbox does away with some functionalities. I can't remember which it was now and why I decided not to install it. The customizable theme is tempting though.
Ok, the other thing is the player syncs with Windows Media Player and Winamp. But each software seems to sync with it differently, as on Winamp some of my playlists are missing, while I can see them in Media Player and vice versa. So I usually just use the emergency connection setting, which allows you to connect the iRiver as a drive rather than a media player, and just drag and drop my song folders. Much faster that way too. The battery life on the player is decent, it lasts me about 4-5 days. I haven't tested out continuous playback yet, but perhaps I should.
The main problem missing from iRiver is the support. Their firmware updates come out once a year or sporadically, and it's nigh to impossible to find accessories and protection cases for iRiver in this iPodLand of Singapore. The only accessory I found was the remote control, but I don't really need it right now, and I can't afford to fork out 50 bucks just so I won't have to move my hand 1 feet lower to reach the player in my bag.
All in all, this is one solid player. Extremely happy with it. Finally I can transfer my forgotten CD's to my h10 and listen to them. Radiohead's what I've been missing, but too lazy to be changing cd's on my PC.