iRiver Previews WiMax Media Players

iRiver has given us a glimpse of two new products that are still under development -- and we have pics!

The G10 is a portable media player that offers video, photos, music and radio but can also browse the Web, check email and stream or download content.



The G10's hottest features are its integrated graphics chip and mobile network content abilities. It will support wireless broadband services using forthcoming WiMax technology to maintain an always-on connection to the Internet, video streams and games to download. iRiver wouldn't confirm who would be supplying the graphics chip to power the games but was clear that it isn't intending to take on the likes of Sony's PSP.

iRiver is planning to roll out the G10 in Korea later this year to work with Korea Telecom's WiMax-like WiBro service which incredibly, will offer a constant 30Mbps wireless broadband connection. iRiver is watching the development of infrastructure in the US before it announces any plans to launch locally.

The company's upcoming V10 media player on the other hand, which is essentially a scaled up G10, should be available in the US in some shape or form later this year.



iRiver is still deciding on most of the final specs: the V10 could ship with high density flash memory (for 8-16GB capacities) or a hard disk (for 30GB capacities using a 1.8-inch or 1-inch drives).

The company would like to offer the product in the US as a WiMax media player but if such services aren't available in time, the company may drop the V10's sliding keypad and position it as more of a larger version of its existing U10 device.

iRiver is also looking to increase the V10's chip horsepower to allow it to playback 640x480 video at 30 frames per second. Other possibilities for the V10 include GPS and digital free to air TV functionality. We'll be watching with interest to see which directions iRiver goes in.

Source: PC World