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From the official iriver forum on July 19,2004, I see someone has translated the Korean iriver's announcement of H Series firmware update schedule. (If it turns out that there are mistranslations/misrepresentations, I'll update/delete this review here as soon as I hear). In late July/early August, they expect to have these features/fixes: 1. OTF File Deletion, 2. Propriety Format Support, 3. Playback Speed Control (not as flexible as IFP series, but will be supported)4. Gapless 5. Unicode Support in DB, 6. OGG Support for DB, 7. Hebrew Support, 8. Sub-dir support for Text Folder,9. Enhanced Shuffle Mode,11. Line Automated Lyric Support 12. A bug that occured to the remote when NAVI button is pressed in the PLAYLIST... is fixed,13. Programmable OTF Playlist,14. LCD Screen Bug in Radio Mode Fixed,15. Reduced Noise on the LCD Screen While Using the Remote,16. External Battery Support.

Due in October they are claiming: 1. Volume Control in Record Mode, 2. Recording Without the Infamous "Pauses," 3. Mono recording Support,4. SAD Support 5. Auto Sync Support (??)6. Korean Menu Support

First, for newbies/potential customers, note that iriver easily supports OGG (I'm listening to an ogg file now). The " OGG Support for DB" mentioned above merely refers to the accompanying PC software which apparently doesn't catalog ogg files correctly. Second, let me mention that I can't read Korean, so I can't vouch for the translation. Also, the firmware is really late (and owners are getting exasperated). Still, all of these are significant improvements, and even if we assume schedule slip and the usual marketing puffery, these would be significant improvements. I'm happy to see that they are updating firmware regarding recording for the October firmware update. I would feel good if this second firmware update comes before Christmas. If it comes earlier, so much the better. People on the misticriver forum are speculating that the "external battery support" that either ihp will be offering a battery pack or at least allow thir d parties batteries to be used. Pure speculation.

I got my hp-140 about a week ago, and I'm 90% satisfied. The player certainly has its pros and cons, and there are some 'catches' that you have to figure out for yourself, and it can be very frustrated until you do. All the pros have certainly been mentioned, so I'm just going to list the problems I had that prompted me to give 4 stars instead of 5.

Even though the player does support OGG files, it does not read the tags. So if you want to use the Search by Artist mode, OGG files are useless.

On MP3 tags, there is a 52-character limit. If a title is longer, the player won't read the tag, and it will not be included in the database (though the song will still be on the player.) This can be frustrating if you have a lot of classical music, and the manual doesn't tell you this; I had to find out in a user forum.

Manual good for learning basic functions, but doesn't offer much beyond. Luckily, there's a great user forum at iriver.com.

Within albums and artists, tracks are listed in a seemingly arbitrary order; neither alphabetically nor by track number. This can definitely get frustrating.

Navigation takes some (frustrating) time to learn; the manual isn't always clear. (Bad translation)

Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase. The sound quality is great, and navigation makes sense once you get used to it. The presense of a stop button is a great plus; I always got extremely frustrated by that when using friends' i-pods. I would certainly recommend this to anyone considering buying one, but be aware that, as with all products, there are imperfections and flaws.

IT'S A GOOD PLAYER, BUT DO YOU GUYS KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE BATTERY?. THE BATTERY HAS A RECHARGEABLE LIFE OF ABOUT 3 YEARS, AFTER THEN STARTS TO FAIL TO RECHARGE. WHEN I ASKED TECHNICAL SUPPORT THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE CONSIDERING OFFERING TO REPLACE THE BATTERY WHEN NEEDED, FOR A FEE AT THEIR SERVICE FACILITY. BUT THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE JUST STARTING TO CONSIDER THAT POSSIBILITY AND THAT THEY COULD NOT GUARANTEE THAT SUCH AN OPTION WAS GOING TO BE MADE AVAILABLE. I FOUND COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE TO SPEND ALMOST 400 DOLLARS FOR A PRODUCT THAT I'LL HAVE TO THROW AWAY BECAUSE I CANNOT REPLACE THE BATTERY. I RETURNED THE PRODUCT. BEWARE.