iRiver SPINN MP4 Player

After CES, I saw a lot of coverage on iRiver’s new line of products, but I was surprised that there was little on the new SPINN MP4 Player. Perhaps this was due to the SPINN being under a glass cage at the booth. Unfortunately, I do not know if they ever took the player out of its display case at any time during the Expo.

Therefore, I wasn’t able to see the biggest selling point on what iRiver calls its flagship model. I would have liked to see the easy-to-use SPINN System Toggle Wheel, which I was told uses 3-D technology for a truly unique interface.

The thing that iRiver wants to promote with this new type of toggle wheel is that it has the “warmth of analog technology”. Personally, I never saw a dial as having any warmth whatsoever, but I think I see what they are trying to do. Too many Portable Media Players have too many buttons and confusing scroller wheels, so perhaps it was time to go back to the old-fashioned dial method for ease of usage.

The features on the SPINN are many including a photo viewer, FM tuner, recording capability, Flash games (including Flash 2.0), a text viewer, and even a dictionary. The screen is a 3.2 inch WQVGA TFT-LCD with 480×272 resolution. All this, and it is Bluetooth compatible.

The iRiver SPINN should be available sometime in the Spring, but a price has not been set as yet.