The H10's biggest problem is it's reliance on MTP, Media Transfer Protocol, and on Windows Media Player 10. The first part of this equation, MTP, eliminates anything non-Microsoft. This means MAC and Linux users are SOL if they want to connect their iRiver H10 to their boxes. The second part of the equation is the hook into Windows Media Player 10. According to MSDN, the MTP driver can run on Windows 98 through to XP, but iRiver have chosen to impliment it on Windows XP with SP1 installed and Windows Media Player 10. I had these all installed and my player still didn't work until I did all updates, and updated to SP2.
Another disappointment was the battery life. It's advertised as up to 12 hours. Realistically, it's more like 4, and that's not using it every day.
The H10 also has some major design flaws. The power button is located on the side of the player. Every time I try to slip my player into the included "condom" case I end up shutting off the player in the middle of a podcast. The power would have been much better on the top where the lock is. I also don't like the placement of the fwd, play, and back buttons, with the case on I often reset a podcast.
On to the software side. What can I say, except I hate Windows Media Player 10.
Why couldn't the dummies at iRiver have just made this another hard drive mp3 player instead of selling out? Yeah guys, the image of Bill holding your product says it all. And the condom case might appeal to some, but it really has limited functionality, and in the case of the H10, it hampers proper use.
Resources
- MSDN info on MTP
- IRiver Link excluded because I don't recommend this product at all!
