IRiver Readies WiBro based Game Player

[Deepak]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20051107/tc_pcworld/123443

"Reigncom, the company behind IRiver-brand portable music players, is to work on a game-focused portable multimedia player based on the WiBro wireless Internet standard, the company said Monday.

WiBro can support data transmission at speeds of around 3 megabits per second at distances of about 0.6 miles for devices traveling at up to 37 miles per hour. It's based on the same basic technology as WiMax, another emerging wireless Internet standard, and both are part of the IEEE802.16 family of technology standards. Compared to WiBro, WiMax works over a longer range but not as well with moving receivers."

 

[Lazy8s]

By the projected launch in August 2006, they should be able to pick from production SoCs of G30, G40, and Mali 110 alongside MBX and maybe even, if Intel's Stanwood lands quickly, SGX for a graphics solution.

 

[SiBoy]

By the projected launch in August 2006, they should be able to pick from production SoCs of G30, G40, and Mali 110 alongside MBX and maybe even, if Intel's Stanwood lands quickly, SGX for a graphics solution.

What SoC's would those be?

 

[Lazy8s]

I don't think Bitboys and Falanx's respective semiconductor partners have announced their SoCs yet, but the guidance on timeframe from the IP companies has indicated a goal of 2006 I believe. Of course that's easier said than done with the challenges posed by the market.

 

[Lazy8s]

From Reirom Age: 4" widescreen 800x480, HDD

 

[pixelbox]

From Reirom Age: 4" widescreen 800x480

so it has more pixels than psp? wellpah, that just about raps it up for psp. i better take it back...seriously!

 

[Phil]

That actually looks quite nice.

 

[RussSchultz]

That actually looks quite nice.

Just don't bother to notice that the screen shot in both 'photos' is identical.

so it has more pixels than psp? wellpah, that just about raps it up for psp. i better take it back...seriously!

The problem with making it in the game console environment is content. Will iRiver have content enough to compete with Sony? I dunno.

 

[Xmas]

It should have a D-pad instead of separate buttons, but that's probably a thickness problem. The design looks nice, but more important is how it feels (the back part looks as if it could be too thin to me), and of course real game content.

 

[pixelbox]

it's all over for psp i guess. ds got it in japan, and now this. This has a harddrive and a better screen. It is done. maybe it's more powerful?

 

[pixelbox]

Also psp doesn't have a harddrive to keep cost down i beileve. Maybe things will workout for it, no? It's just that psp is going against ipod and ds. it doesn't need anymore.

 

[see colon]

holy gloom and doom batman!
i can see some multimedia based consumers jumping ship from psp to iriver, but most serious gamers will stick with the PSP or own both.

about the screen, it better have better response time than the PSP, because the gosting drives me nuts in both movies and games.

 

[mckmas8808]

The problem with making it in the game console environment is content. Will iRiver have content enough to compete with Sony? I dunno.

Oh course it won't. Sony's 1st and 2nd party will make more quality games that this iRiver will ever have. What's up with the doom and gloom?

 

[Ty]

(Concept?) Unit looks quite nice. I like the way the screen goes all the way to the edge but fear that when opened, the screen will make the unit top heavy and thus tiring on the hands.

The ghosting drives me nuts too. I wish they hadn't switched to this panel version. One of the previous versions on the dev kits had a much better one (lesser viewing angle but it was good enough imo).

 

[Lazy8s]

I figured the reason that the exact same game image was in both shots could be because they're mock-ups but might just be because they were framed uniformly for presentation. With the game's identity looking unfamiliar but suggestive, its authenticity is still arguable.

Which processors beside MBX would be practical for potentially running 3D games at 800x480?

 

[Bobbler]

pixelbox, you need to lay off the negative juice. You're bipolar doom and gloom for the PSP is kind of annoying -- I can't tell if you are just playing or are actually serious.

iRiver has no support, simply. What reason would anyone have to buy it? Who's going to be making games for it? It's an another useless Ngage type system that nobody is going to care about.

It's going to cost and arm and a leg, no doubt. Even if it was only as powerful as PSP, it'd cost them more simply because they can't amortize the cost of production over several million units and several years. Then there is the whole licensing royalties (UMD/Games) stuff which PSP would probably have a rather heavy advantage in (to help offset production costs). I'd bet they are targeting a couple hundred thousand sold, not millions. All of a sudden iRiver's future doesn't look so rosy.

I'd be surprised to see this product anywhere but Korea (which I believe it's being made for, seeing the WiBro stuff).

 

[cloudscapes]

so it has more pixels than psp? wellpah, that just about raps it up for psp. i better take it back...seriously!

Yeah, but it will probably be more expensive. I'm guessing around the same price as those nice Archos video players, at least five or six hundred. Then again I may be totally wrong. They may do like a real console developper and sell the unit at less the manufacturer's price, and make more money on game licenses.

Huge screen, HDD, and if it's not too expensive and can be hacked (for homebrew and emus) I might just get one! I have a PSP, but I don't use it for official games. If this iriver unit will be like the PSP but with the addition of a large (>20GB) HDD, then it wins hands down, at least for people like me.

Though realistically, I don't think it will kill the PSP or the DS in marketshare. iriver don't have what it takes to gain support from as many devs as Sony and Nintendo. Hopefully I'll be plesantly surprised though. If the API and dev environment isn't too bad, some major houses might pick it up, maybe.

 

[pixelbox]

pixelbox, you need to lay off the negative juice. You're bipolar doom and gloom for the PSP is kind of annoying -- I can't tell if you are just playing or are actually serious.

iRiver has no support, simply. What reason would anyone have to buy it? Who's going to be making games for it? It's an another useless Ngage type system that nobody is going to care about.

It's going to cost and arm and a leg, no doubt. Even if it was only as powerful as PSP, it'd cost them more simply because they can't amortize the cost of production over several million units and several years. Then there is the whole licensing royalties (UMD/Games) stuff which PSP would probably have a rather heavy advantage in (to help offset production costs). I'd bet they are targeting a couple hundred thousand sold, not millions. All of a sudden iRiver's future doesn't look so rosy.

I'd be surprised to see this product anywhere but Korea (which I believe it's being made for, seeing the WiBro stuff).

yea, see that thing is that i really like sony waaayyy before the playstation brand. Their products are just yum and i don't want it to go anywhere. And with the recent decrease in sells from sony, things are looking grim. Ipod took over walkman, samsung is taking over sony's tvs, DS over psp, i can't help but think the worst for my beloved company.

 

[Lazy8s]

The storage was said to be around 4 to 8-GB, so I assume HDD.

 

[SiBoy]

I figured the reason that the exact same game image was in both shots could be because they're mock-ups but might just be because they were framed uniformly for presentation. With the game's identity looking unfamiliar but suggestive, its authenticity is still arguable.

Which processors beside MBX would be practical for potentially running 3D games at 800x480?

MBX is not a processor. Are you suggesting Intel's 2700G? Seems pretty underpowered at 800x480. Maybe a new ATI or Nvidia handheld chip?