(January 25, 2005) — Did you spend your Christmas money already on an iPod or got one as a gift? So did millions of other people, causing a many electronic and online stores to have them temporarily out of stock, and so left me to just look into other hard drive based music players at the $299 price range until they had the iPod in stock. What I stumbled upon was the iRiver H320, and, believe it or not, ended up buying it instead of an iPod. The iRiver H320 is a hard drive based music player, with 20 gigs of space just like the iPod, and just like the iPod comes in a 40-gig model, the H340. The first thing noticeable about the H320 is its color. It lacks the friendly white and stainless steel color scheme the iPod has. It’s totally opposite of it, having a mix of silver lines and a carbon fiber looking frame. Although some might call it dark and dull, its 2-inch color screen makes up for it, a feature the 20 gig iPod lacks. Aside from its color, the H320 doesn’t have the infamous Apple click wheel. It has 4 small buttons surrounding a directional pad. Although that may seem inconvenient, its likeness to cell phone’s controls and a Windows folder tree music organization style make it just as easy. Just as if iRiver wanted to make a music player that makes up for everything the iPod lacks, the H320 has a radio built into it. That’s right, no 20-30 dollar attachment to buy to listen to radio. Another money saving feature the H320 has over the iPod is the capability to record radio and has an internal microphone. These features were nice, but what separates the H320 from the 20-gig iPod is that it can view pictures as well something only the much more expensive iPod photo can do. Still not impressed? How bout the fact that the H320 has the ability to play Xvid (.avi) movies. That’s right, movies. The American firmware that comes with the H320 doesn’t play videos, but a simple firmware upgrade from iRiver Europe, Korea, or Japan lets it plays videos (the language stays English don’t worry). Whatever you want to watch has to be converted to fit the size of the screen (go to www.misticriver.com for how to do this), but the video quality of the show is comparable to those media players that costs arounf $500. The H320 is slightly more expensive than an iPod, at a retail price of $329.99, but can be commonly found on sale (I got mine for $260) or around $280 from online stores. The H320 adds on to what the iPod lacks and then some, having a radio, color screen and picture capability. The sound quality is just as good along with bass thumping Sennhieser ear bud headphones and the H320 video capability is superb to the iPod’s…because the iPod can’t play videos.