Iriver’s Wave Home Wears Many Digital Hats

For tasks that don't quite require busting out a full computer, iRiver hopes its Wave Home will do the trick.

Move over Chumby, there’s a new tabletop do-everything box in town. Iriver’s tent-shaped Wave Home may look like a digital picture frame, but it’s actually a VoIP phone, video-conferencing machine, music player, clock, calendar, bank, and a whole host of other things.

Phone capability comes from a removable handset plopped into its back, video conferencing is courtesy of a 1.3-megapixel CMOS sensor in the top, and everything else is executed through the 7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel resolution touch screen, which looks clear and bright, and responds to touch promptly.

Like every gadget in the latest crop of connected wireless devices, the Wave Home delivers weather, stock and traffic updates through widgets. That’s only the beginning though. Iriver has packed it with so many other uses that it’s hard to even categorize. For instance, a bank application will allow users to pay bills and do online banking from it, but you can also scribble down notes with your finger and zip them off to your friends, or listen to Internet (or FM) radio on the built-in speakers.

The intent, it seems, is to place the Wave Home in highly trafficked place in the home to do quick Web tasks rather than using a notebook computer. Answer the phone one minute, turn on some music, then check the weather quickly before you leave the house.

Iriver plans to bring the device out in its native Korea within the next few months, but its fate in North America is still undecided. It will retail for around $400 USD.