For anyone who was actually there to watch the great MP3 player revolution, you all know that Apple did not invent this niche. In fact, one of the companies who were in it long before Apple was iRiver (you could even say Apple "borrowed" the whole "iXXX" naming scheme idea from iRiver). Way back in the dawn of technology (pre Y2K. . ) iRiver's iMP100 hard drive based MP3 player was one cutting edge piece of technology. Sadly, while they were around before Apple, they did lose a lot of market share over the next couple of years and to be blunt we honestly thought they were long dead and forgotten by all but hard core geek's like us. Well it seems that we were wrong; iRiver is not dead. Heck, they are not only not dead but they have just announced a new product. The all new U100 is of course not hard drive based and in fact is flash based (after all hard drive PMPs are about as dead as disco). While the 320x480 3.1" touchscreen is not exactly high definition (and is down right yawn worthy), the fact that the U100 with built-in speakers only weighs 82 grams (it is only 106 x 56 x 8.9mm in size) and that has an impressive battery life of 50 hours for music (11 hours for video) certainly is noteworthy. Add in support for basically all the big (and not so big) audio & formats (including MKV), WiFi and AM/FM tuner abilities, a microSDHC slot for added storage abilities and the iRiver U100 may just help reinvigorate this mostly forgotten company. The U100 is expected to debut in Korea latter this year and we hope it makes it across the pond to North America. (In the meantime, we will continue enjoying our iPod touch.) Video demo of the U100 after the jump.
Via AnythingButiPod
