December 1 - 12:25pm EST   Korea's ReignCom, which makes iRiver-branded personal media players, has released its first cellphone in its home market ahead of the promised March 2009 launch. The iRiver Wave handset sports a 3-inch, 480x272 touchscreen that is capable of recognizing handwriting and will connect to the Internet via its built-in Wi-Fi connection or over wireless data networks, provided by exclusive carrier KT. The handset will also support VoIP calling to reduce airtime costs. Initially, the Wave will be offered in just ten iRiver stores in Korea. [full story]

November 27 - 10:50am EST   iRiver on Thursday introduced a low-key update to its basic media player lineup through the E100 Season 2. The new players are primarily a visual change and switch from the monotone colors of the original to orange-on-silver, silver-on-orange and white-and-orange color schemes. The Korea-made player is otherwise similar but shares the same uncommon features, including a rear set of stereo speakers and a microSD card slot for loading up extra music beyond the internal flash. [full story]

November 10 - 5:15pm EST   The President of ReignCom, the company behind the iRiver brand known for personal media players, has recently announced that iRiver will bring its first handset to market by March of 2009. Due to be carried by Korean wireless provider KTF, the handset will include a large touchscreen display capable of recognizing handwriting, a Wi-Fi module for wireless network access and access to Bugs Music Service. As is typical of Korean handsets, a few dictionaries are also included in the handset. [full story]

October 29 - 1:00am EDT   Korean company ReignCom has unveiled the iriver NV mini, a personal media player with integrated GPS functionality. The device offers a 3.5 inch 320 by 240 pixel screen for viewing maps or video content. The internal memory offers 4GB, with optional expansion to 8GB. The system runs on Windows CE 5.0, with GPS software provided by Korea-based software company Gini. The battery life of 2.5 hours falls below what would be expected from a navigation aide that is designed more for the pocket than a vehicle dashboard. [full story]

September 29 - 4:10pm EDT   The wait for the iRiver SPINN personal audio player unveiled this summer is nearly over, as the Korean company announced the touchscreen device will start shipping to US customers from October 3 onward. The personal audio players are currently available for pre-order. The 4GB SPINN is priced at nearly $250, and the 8GB version at $290. In other markets, such as Korea, the player can also be had in a 16GB capacity, but all share a 3.2-inch, 480x372 active matrix OLED (AMOLED) touchscreen. [full story]

August 25 - 5:05pm EDT   In addition to the Spinn recently unveiled by iRiver, the company is also getting ready to show off new devices at the upcoming IFA 2008 exhibition in Berlin, introducing the P20 and M3 in the process. The Korean consumer electronics maker's P20 packs a 16 million color 4.1-inch AMOLED touch-screen display and 80GB or optional 120GB capacity drive. [full story]

July 29 - 7:55am EDT   iRiver today officially unveiled its turn at a touchscreen device with the Korean appearance of the SPINN. The machined aluminum player earns its name through a dial that allows quick scrolling through a radio-like interface, tuning built-in FM radio or DMB mobile TV, and scrubbing through video. However, it also hands over control in many areas to a more advanced, 3.3-inch active matrix OLED (or AMOLED) touchscreen that produces more colors and better blacks than an LCD. [full story]

July 16 - 11:25am EDT   iRiver this morning made official its US release of the Lplayer. The portable media device is one of the company's smallest and manages to fit a two-inch LCD by using the same D-click control system as the Clix, which uses taps on the edges to navigate menus. It also promises broader format support than most players with FLAC and OGG audio as well as XviD video joining more typical MP3, WAV, WMA, MPG, and WMV support. [full story]

June 30 - 4:40pm EDT   Skyhook Wireless on Monday launched a new map positioning system that will potentially solve many of the problems associated with GPS navigation today. While the company has already designed a system that can alternate between real GPS and rough triangulation using cellular towers and Wi-Fi, a new method nicknamed XPS 2.0 can combine multiple services at once to find a position even in poor conditions. [full story]

June 10 - 4:15pm EDT   iRiver today announced the launch of its newest portable digital audio player, the Volcano T7. Available in either 2GB or 4GB versions, the compact T7 features an OLED display to showcase data information. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG, which can be uploaded to the USB key-style player simply by plugging it into a computer's USB 2.0 port. [full story]

May 30 - 4:50pm EDT   iRiver's Spinn media player -- first seen at the 2008 CES show in January -- has finally received some more detailed release information, according to a UK source. The Spinn features a 3.2-inch AMOLED display with a 480x272 resolution, and plays MPEG-4 or Flash videos. Where the initial version shown at CES included DMB TV functionality for iRiver's Korean home market, a UK version appears to replace that with DAB digital radio. [full story]

May 20 - 9:25am EDT   iRiver today expanded its media player lineup and launched the P.ple P10. The device is one of iRiver's rare touchscreen devices and uses its 4.3-inch, 800x480 display as both a home for photo and video playback as well as for editing. For entertainment, owners can watch Flash, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV, and XviD videos stored on the 33GB of free hard drive space as well as watch live digital TV broadcasts in Korea through an optional version with a DMB tuner. Workers can use a stylus to edit and navigate both Excel and Word files as well as PDFs and common e-books. [full story]

April 24 - 2:35pm EDT   iRiver's first update to the E100 jukebox will also be a major refresh of the design itself, if a leak from Crave proves accurate. The update is likely to be named the E150 or E200 and will scrap the metal-look plastic for real aluminum, similar to the iPod nano's front face or the Zune's back. iRiver will also address criticisms of the LCD by replacing it with a much brighter screen. However, the new body will also drop the speakers that define the player today. [full story]

April 22 - 2:00pm EDT   iRiver today brought one of its more unusual iPod shuffle rivals to the US. Already available in Japan and Korea, the Mplayer Season 1 goes screenless but uses its resemblance to Mickey Mouse to its advantage for control: listeners skip tracks and adjust volume by twisting the Mplayer's ears. The small and light design also lets iRiver use lanyard headphones that spare the need for clips. [full story]

April 15 - 11:25am EDT   iRiver has lived up to its word today by launching the US edition of the E100, its new mid-range player that sits between the basic T60 and the more video-focused Clix Gen 2. The device ships with a relatively large 2.4-inch screen but moves the company's D-Click controls from the edges of the LCD to a pad at the bottom; the effect suits the E100 more to the vertical hold preferred for music but still presents a similar near-seamless look. This newest model adds a microSD slot to expand free space by as much as another 2GB, and boasts its own stereo speakers for listening without headphones. [full story]