iriver H10 5 GB Digital MP3 Player Trace Red

I have had this now for about 4 months and it seems like every day some new issue arises that makes me wonder if I made the right decision in purchasing the H10.1. The unit freezes up on a regular basis. At least every couple of days. The only way to fix this is to do a hard reboot (remove and replace the battery). This always works, but I wonder if the time will come when it doesn't.2. There have been times when I had the unit hooked up my computer to transfer music, and after I disconnected the USB cable from the player, I got a message that said "initializing please wait". Well , I waited at least 20 minutes and nothing ever happened. Again I had to do a hard reboot, and when I turned it back on, all my music had been erased. But when I hooked it up to WMP10 it showed all my music, again when it wasn't hooked up, no files showed. To correct this I had to do a firmware upgrade that erased all the files that were supposedly on there.3. This player is slow in everything. Everything from changing songs to turning the damn thing on and off.4. What's up with only being able to in-line record anything with a cradle you have to purchase separately? (for 40.00 bucks no less)5. I know some people think the controls on the side are user intuitive, but I really think they are in a horrible place and can never find them...when I do, I usually press the wrong button. Maybe this issue is just me.6. Album art is not shown at all, despite what Amazon.com says. Iriver doesn't advertise this feature though.7. You can't add playlists to this. Not a major drawback, but I listen to music often, so for instance, I'd like to have a playlist of music that I can listen to in the gym. Then I'd like a separate play list to listen to while in bed to fall asleep to. Then maybe a separate playlist to drown out my annoying co-worker who snaps her gum all day and sings (badly) with every song that comes on her radio. Get the picture? A playlist would be a bunch of songs organized on WMP10 and given a name like "Songs to drown out my idiot co-worker". The quick list function is ok, but that's just what it is. A quick list made on the fly.This does have some pluses to it. First it is compatible with a plethora of download sites. Check out [...] All have unbelievably low prices to download music. For me that is the major drawback of the Ipod, only being able to use Itunes. Actually, that is the only plus this unit has over Ipod. Would I buy another Iriver. Most likely, I have a flash memory player that has been excellent and I give HIGH ratings to that. They just need to work out the kinks on their hard drive players. It seems like most of us are having some sort of issues with them.

I have had my h10 for about two months now and have had no problems. The first thing I did was upgrade the firmware to v2.03. The sound is great. The built-in mic and FM recording are great. Navigation is simple, and it easily sync's with MP10.What's up with all of the bad reviews? Many of the statements are just wrong: I run with mine 4 times a week, it never skips. There are no long pauses between songs as some have suggested. Songs are put in order by track #, not by alpha. It is easy to navigate, took me about 10 minutes to figure out the navigation. Syncing doesn't just add songs, but removes songs as well; You just need to know how to set up syncing in MP10 (I've had it setup from the get-go to automatically sync). Playlists are easy to create and sync with MP10.My guess is that many are using Napster and Rhapsody-to-go subscription services, and the problems are from these services, not with the h10.

This device basically doesn't work and is poorly thought out. If you don't believe me ask yourself why the first insert you see when you open the box is a bright orange piece of paper saying "STOP! Do not return this product! Call us first..." I don't see IBM needing to put those sorts of inserts into their ThinkPads...because they work.My background is that I have had an iPod for 18-24 months and bought this so that I could use a subscription music service (Rhapsody to Go). This experience has made me appreciate the many features I took for granted in iPod.Generally, the H10 operates like a computer that is being asked to run an application for which it has insufficient memory (if you have ever tried to play the latest computer games on a non-latest PC you'll know what I'm talking about). So essentially this means it acts like it has been hit in the head, being jerky at best and nonresponsive often. For instance, it takes forever to load up a new song on the H10. Whereas on iPod you go from song to song seamlessly, on the H10 between songs you get a whirring and it stops...I guess it's loading it up...and finally, if you're lucky, it will play the song. There is never less than a 30 second break between songs. That's feeble. That stuff needs to be invisible to the user. It would be faster to go from single to single on a real physical jukebox playng vinyl 45's. Also, it doesn't always play the song you expect. Also, the little slider control is frequently nonresponsive. Also, the fast forward, rewind, play controls are hard to distinguish from each other (you have to focus on them, which is hard to do while jogging). When scrolling, you frequently overshoot your target (too sensitive). That's aside form the fact that often it just crashes and won't do anything at all.I guess I should call this number on the "STOP!" insert before I return it but I get the feeling it's going to have to go back. This just does not come up to the level of an acceptable mp3 player. This is a protoype. (By the way I did the firmware upgrade first thing so that won't help.)Now that I realize how great the iPod is relative to the H10, it really makes me appreciate the thinking that went into it. To be honest, would anyone take a job at iRiver if they could get a job at Apple? I don't want to be harsh but probably not. And I think that collective personnel advantage at Apple probably translates into a better product for them in a million ways. One dumb decision was to include several features like photo display and text display that I suspect 98% of users don't care about at all. Basically, people want an mp3 player to play music. Looking at your photo collection on a one in ch screen probably is not a key feature. Instead of devoting time to creating a phto and text service, they should have made sure they had the basic music player working. Duh.[Update: bought a Samsung Yepp and it works well. Very happy now.]

The H10 is a nice looking device that doesn't work. I have a constant reoccurring problem where the device will hang when you select a song or playlist. The hourglass (initializing) will remain until the unit runs down the battery. The only solution is to reinstall the firmware which also deletes all your files. You have to use Windows Media Player to transfer and sync files. WMP is clumsy to use. It is not user friendly at all. Anyway, after the firmware reinstall it will work for a while and then just start hanging again. I used to be a faithful iRiver customer, but not any more.

It works, but is sort of hard to use and the battery dies in about an hour and a half. It is also bigger than I tought it would be.