Apple's iPod may have the expensive, hard disk-based end of the digital audio player market tied up, with a high percentage of all players sold. At the cheaper, memory-based end, though, things are a lot more volatile. The iPod Shuffle, while an effective player, is not exactly feature-rich. Rival player makers have been quick to see an opportunity.

One of the best known of these rivals is iRiver, whose latest S10 player offers a lot of extras in comparison to the Shuffle. For a start it has a colour OLED screen. OK, so the 128 x 96 pixel display only has a 30mm diagonal size, but it enables the player to be controlled exactly like bigger and more expensive units. The player itself is only 30mm by 42mm, about the size of a raffle ticket... if raffle tickets were 12mm thick.

Because of the lack of space around its case, iRiver has devised a novel way of operating its player. You press on each edge of the screen surround to select menu options and to play, pause and skip tracks. It's a very natural technique and means the only other controls are volume and power, which are on mini buttons around the sides.

The iRiver Plus 3 software is supplied so you can find and organise music, pictures and ebooks on a PC. This it does quickly and efficiently and you can play and view your media from within it. Downloading to the S10 is simplicity itself: a small adapter is provided with a USB plug at one end and a four-way jack at the other. Plug the jack into the top of the S10 and the USB into any port on a PC and a single click shifts the media from Plus 3 to the player.

Sound quality is excellent, both for playing back music and for the built-in FM radio, though the latter depends on reception strength. You can also show photos, though the display's a bit small, and make live recordings via its integral microphone.

The earphones supplied with the S10 are fine acoustically, giving a good, broad spectrum of sound and a positive stereo stage, but are not so good physically. Designed as part of a simple, black, padded necklace, the two earbuds sit comfortably in your ears, but the S10 hangs from the end of its cable at around heart height. This makes it difficult to hold up and operate while still round your neck. It's much too close to view comfortably and many people would rather put the player in a pocket than have it hanging like a medallion.

If you were offered an iPod Shuffle or an iRiver S10, it's hard to see how you could pick the iPod. There's so much more the S10 can do and, just as important, you can see what it's doing. The control system is very intuitive and its playback of MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG tracks gives it true versatility.