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iRiver H10 Wins Best MP3 Player Technology at Semiconductor Insights Awards

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 12:50 PM - by Staff

iRiver's 5GB H10 MP3 player beat out Apple's 4GB iPod mini, 20GB iPod and 1GB iPod shuffle to win Best MP3 Player Technology at Semiconductor Insights' annual awards.

Semiconductor Insights, which conducts in-depth technical analyses of integrated circuits and structures, said in a statement that the winner "shows distinct technical advantages over other competitors. It is easy to use and interface with a PC.

"From a component point of view, the H10 integrates the best components with PortalPlayer and Wolfson Micro to provide the audio. Samsung and Silicon Storage Technologies provide the memory necessary to store the music. There are no unnecessary components that increase the bill of material cost.

"Additional functionality, such as FM radio and voice recording, add to the convenience."

Other nominees in that category included Creative's 5GB Zen Micro and 1GB Muvo Micro, iRiver's 20GB H320 and 1GB IFP-999 and Rio's 5GB Carbon and 512MB Forge.

Semiconductor Insights has also handed out awards for Most Innovative Non-Volatile Memory and Most Innovative DRAM. Awards are still pending for Best Handset, Most Innovative Image Sensor, Most Advanced Process Technology, Best Logic -- Mixed Signal Integration and Best RF IC.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 612 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:29 pm

Me thinks the gearheads at SI got this one wrong. They say that "Samsung and Silicon Storage Technologies provide the memory necessary to store the music," but in fact, this uses a Seagate 5GB hard drive, as shown in the "tear down" image on their own site:

http://www.semiconductor.com/insightawards/images/iriver_teardown_image.jpg

Sure, there might be volatile (RAM) memory from Samsung or SST in there, but that is hardly used to "store the music" for more than the few minutes that a song plays. The hard drive is used for the persistent storage.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:07 pm

Why is a radio so important on an MP3 player? The idea is to get away from radio as you want to listen to your own collection. How many times do you actually record yourself? Certainly not worth anything to me just like the radio. They obviously

didn't judge the player by ease of use and connectivity. The iPod blows away the competition.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:15 pm

""Additional functionality, such as FM radio and voice recording, add to the convenience.""

Irrelevent features that the majority of consumers don't care one whit about, considering the numbers of iPods sold versus the numbers sold of competing MP3 players packed with extranuous features like those.

When will these clueless gimps take a look at Apple's quarter reports, then take a look at their own quarter reports, and realize that adding a built-in FM tuner or voice recorder to a turkey of an MP3 player doesn't stop it from being a turkey of an MP3?

H10? iRiver, Creative, Samsung and the rest can't even figure out that maybe, just maybe, they should give their MP3 players coherent names instead of arbitrary combinations of letters and numbers. How can they ever expect to compete when they can't even manage that?

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:17 pm

Or, when will these clueless gimps take a look at Apple's quarter reports, then take a look at their own quarter reports, and realize that adding a built-in FM tuner or voice recorder to a turkey of an MP3 player doesn't stop it from being a turkey of an MP3 PLAYER?

I'm so hot with the typing, today.

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Rainy Day said:

member since 07 Jun 2005 with 607 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:38 pm

Quote:
How many times do you actually record yourself? Certainly not worth anything to me just like the radio.

When Apple adds audio record to an iPod, i’ll buy one. There are lots of applications for audio record, although it may not be for everyone.

I go to a lot of meetings i’d like to record and upload to the web to make available for others.

Could also be used for dictation.

If i were a student, i’d record all the class lectures i attend too. Could be a valuable study aid.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:17 am

But iPods already record audio with the help of optional accessories. Why wait for Apple to build their own iPod-microphone attachment?

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:09 am

I agree recording is the one add on that I would find really useful. Radio is a waste of time the quality and reliability of this makes it simply unusable in practice.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:16 pm

Guest wrote:
I agree recording is the one add on that I would find really useful. Radio is a waste of time the quality and reliability of this makes it simply unusable in practice.

Are you guys overlooking that the iPod comes with many add-ons?!?!?

This is one of many:

http://griffintechnology.com/products/italk/

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Sep 02, 2005 4:41 am

word. the ipod has a bunch of add-ons including fm radio attachment and microphone for recording, so obviously its not completely unwarranted in the iriver. i like the radio from time to time because it has variety, and if i hear a new song i like i can record it with my h10 and then dl it later at home. the built in mic is quite useful to record lectures that i often fall asleep in. the color screen is a nice touch, too. the iriver h10 was a great value for the price i got it at (6gb for $239), and the cost-benefit over the ipod mini is undeniable. all u ipod guys need to stop hating so much and realize theres more to audio players than the mass conformity that has become the ipod. ipods are all well and good, and i cant say that i didnt drool over them too when they first came out, but technology is about innovation, and the h10 gives me a lot more bang for the buck. try the iriver h10, even if that notion scares you; you might even like it.

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