IRiver's newest H10 5GB digital music player compares favorably with Apple's iPod

• IRiver's friendly player takes aim at the IPod Mini.
• Apple's IPod used to be the benchmark for portable MP3 players, but now everyone appears to be gunning for the IPod Mini.
• Joining competitors like the Rio Carbon and the Creative Zen Micro is IRiver's $280 H10.
• I tested a shipping version of the 5GB player, and its versatility and quality won me over.
• The highlight of the H10 is an attractive 1.5-inch display that, along with an improved hardware-and-software interface, makes the player a joy to use.
• Navigating your music library is easy with the touch-sensitive slider control, and IRiver has dropped its oversimplified folder-structure interface for one that allows you to browse by genre, artist, album, or song title.
• You can add individual songs, but not albums or artists, to an on-the-fly playlist called QuickList.
• The player does more than just play music: You can listen to and record FM radio, record audio with a built-in mike, and display text files.
• The unit also stores and shows photos, but because it offers no easy way to output those photos to a TV or PC, that ability is more a novelty than a useful feature.
• Rounding out the package is an exceptionally useful, protective rubber-skin case that allows full access to the device's navigation controls.
• Though it's a hair larger, it offers an additional 1GB of storage.
• The touch-sensitive controls aren't quite as slick as the Mini's, but they're intuitive.
• Finally, the H10 has features--including the radio, recorder, and color screen--that the Mini lacks.
• If these features are worth an extra $30 to you, consider the H10.
• Versatile audio player's friendly interface and color display should make the unit a stiff competitor to Apple's IPod Mini.