iriver E10 (6GB)

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Features
Prior to the E10's launch, the reported remote control function was mired in speculation; no one really knew what it was supposed to do. Well, it's a TV remote. Preinstalled into the E10 are the remote profiles for 182 different TV brands, so it should be able to cover most households' displays. However, if your TV is not included, tough. There's no remote learning capability on the E10 and, while even obscure brands like Teknika are in the mix, Thomson was surprisingly omitted. As of press time, iriver had no plans to update new TV models via firmware upgrades.

	We love free games

Though we did not have the opportunity to test every single TV brand, we had a mixed bag of results for those we did. On the Toshiba TVs we tested, the E10 hit the jackpot, but that's not the case for JVC sets; out of three we tried, one failed to turn on. The remote functionality is also limited to just the powering on of the TV, channel skipping and volume control. However, the fact that a remote control is hidden in an MP3 player makes it deliciously suited for pranks on the unsuspecting.

Supporting Macromedia Flash Lite 2.0, the E10 makes for an interesting multimedia MP3 player. The Flash-based games are a plus, though the bundled entertainment bordered on the simplistic. Minesweeper, anyone? We tried loading Web-based Flash videos onto the E10 and they work� to a certain extent. Animation was choppy though the audio carried through okay. But do note, Web-based flash animations are not formatted for the E10 anyway.

	Be warned, the site is in not in English

The lack of bundled content does not really hamper the user experience. The official iriver site carries a section where U10 and E10 users can upload their own homebrewed Flash contents to share with others. Best thing about it? It's all free. And it's all made for the E10/U10 display. The free files include themes, games, movies and music. We even had the chance to sample the Bitamin music therapy service. Meant only for the Korean market, it claim to reduce stress by delivering alpha waves to the listener. Someone has kindly uploaded a Flash file of the Bitamin.

The limited video format support cramps the style of the E10. It accepts only MPEG-4 simple profile files and the videos would have to be size-optimized to take advantage of the 128 x 128-pixel display. The bundled iriver plus 2 software does not come with video conversion or resizing features.

	Funny themes to perk up your day

The E10 includes FM/voice recording as well as a text/picture viewer. Some quirks to note include the lack of a zoom feature for the picture viewer and the inability to add songs to the on-the-go playlist if the tracks are transferred using Windows Explorer drag-and-drop instead of iriver plus 2. We also noticed that while the E10 allows for multitasking during music playback (viewing pictures at the same time), this duality is not extended to FM radio.

On the music side of things, the E10 provides on-the-go playlist generation as well as 10 preset equalizers, a five-band user defined equalizer and SRS WOW audio enhancements.

If cosmetic touchups are your thing, the E10 offers two options for the user to jazz it up. One could use JPEGs to change the wallpaper or download a Shockwave Flash-based (.swf) theme from the Web. However, in terms of accessories, unlike the iPod universe, the E10 will not be similarly supported by third-party manufacturers.

Charging on the E10 is conducted through USB. Since the E10 will be recognized as a storage device when connected to the computer, the user will not be able to able to use it while it is being charged.

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