Thursday, April 12,2007 @ 2:30pm
iRiver releases Nano rival in US
iRiver today brought its minimalist Clix 2 media player to the US as a new entrant in the hotly contested flash media player field. Previewed at CES, the device keeps its size small by embedding directional buttons around the edges of the 2.2-inch screen. The player is more flexible than the rival iPod nano through support for MPEG-4 videos as well as Flash Lite-based games, FM radio and voice recording.
It also becomes one of the first US-bound devices to ship with an AMOLED organic display: the screen both improves brightness, iRiver says, and maintains a strong 24 hours of battery life despite being larger than the 1.5-inch screen of its challenger from Apple.
iRiver currently lists a single model with 4GB of flash storage that should be in stock today for $200 and currently requires a Windows-based PC. A basic 2GB version should be available soon for $150, and a more capacious 8GB model will follow in June at a price that will also match its Apple equivalent at $250.