Let iRiver Guide Your Way (with Some GPS Aid As Well)

Looks like the people over at iRiver simply can't stick to just one specific market segment. Thus, after establishing a very good foothold on the MP3 player's market, the Korean company has also extended its reach towards other areas and has decided to enter the already super-crowded market of GPS navigation devices, by launching the PN100 model, a mid-range personal navigation device that provides a standard set of features for this class of devices, as well as a few interesting extras.

Thus, as expected, the PN100 provides turn-by-turn navigation options and also includes a very advanced address search system (the device comes packed with very detailed maps of the Japanese mainland saved onto SD memory cards). However, it also provides users with several functions that are not so common to PNDs, namely the possibility of choosing the lowest cost route (avoiding areas where one has to pay a toll), as well as the provision of enlarged, more detailed images of certain junctions and the exact lanes one has to follow in order to reach a certain destination.

As most other modern devices of this type, the PND from iRiver also provides a few interesting multimedia functions. Thus, it includes a very complex video and audio player module, which is capable of playing back MP3, WMA and WAV files, but also AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GPP2 and ASF (SD-Video), which is not something you see every day. Moreover, it includes a photo viewer function, which allows users to view digital photos in JPEG format on its display.

And since we've mentioned the display, it's worth mentioning the fact that the PN100 comes packed with a 3.5-inch touchscreen TFT LCD display, with an 320 x 240 output resolution. Moreover, the device sports a 1.5 W mono speaker system, and a 3.5 mm mini stereo jack, the whole thing being powered by a rechargeable battery that provides a functioning life of around 3 hours.

The device from iRiver's Siren brand retails for now only in Japan for around 335 US dollars, which is not exactly a very high price to pay for this thing, considering the fact that it can provide a relatively high number of interesting navigation and multimedia features.

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