so what do you guys think of the future ifp line(s)

[exely]

http://www.irivernordic.com/products.php?prid=15

I'm looking at the 7xx and 8xx lines (cannot tell the subtle differences between the two).

are there any substantial improvements from the ifp 3xx line? I noticed the sleeker body shape, usb 2.0, longer battery life/playing time, and an alarm clock/time keeper....

as for the higher up lines, I personally would not buy an mp3 player for an oled/lcd display, or to use as a digital camera (what was it 1.2 megapixel w/ no flash?).

so what about these models? when will they be coming to the US and what are their price points? would you be upgrading?

[JohnnyTest]

I will not buy anything from them until they show me they provide firmware for their products on a timely basis. I have had the ifp for a while now, and we have not gotten a new firmware in a very long time, that would be fine, if there were no bugs, but this place is infested with bugs.

I think they will release new firmware for the lower models once they write it all for the new models,and they just work it down.

[tristan]

I'm with JT on this one. My iFP390 just needs a few INTELLIGENT firmware upgrades to be perfect - ie gapless playback, more logical menu navigation, >96kbps mp3 encoding under UMS, proper ogg support.

I've gotta admit, USB2 would be nice, no more 20 minute waits while I fill the bloody player with music. Longer battery life would be another plus, but to be honest does me just fine. I couldn't give a rats about colour screens and other gimmickry.

Then again, I'm such a sucker for sexy gadgets I'll probably just buy one as soon as I see it in a shop.

[FlameGrilled]

Same here, i got sick of the forever-waiting cycle that iRiver go through - as far as their firmware fixes go and the simple fact that their QC on the stock firmware is definately getting worse.

I'd rather have no firmware upgradability, stick to one advanced codec and one legacy codec (ATRAC3/3Plus and MP3) and discard the firmware upgrade in favour of longer battery endurance - which i did.

The iFP-390T, apart from being a non-purchase (i just paid the import duty.. around 25 UKP on a pre-release supplied deck), was a lovely deck (i aint an FP fan mind) - but the Ogg firmware was just the beginning of the downward spiral of firmware QC. When a flash player kills it's batteries quicker than a CDP.. something is well and truely ferkd - cue, iRiver and their lovely Ogg firmware which most of us didn't bloody want.

[audioathlete]

Hi
Although there are no photos of the ifp 799 1gb flash player yet, it all looks quite exciting. Being someone who almost imported a mini ipod to the UK until I saw all the fuss, the 1gb seems excellent for my outdoor pursuits. A few sites in Europe are taking orders and have priced it up. One actually has a release date of the 799 as the 10th of May.....
You can place an order already on quite a few European online stores.

[JohnnyTest]

I can olny imagine the price, if a 380 goes for $130, the 799, goes for what $350-400, and the kicker is that even after spending that insane amount of money for a freaking mp3 player, you still will not be hapy with it, because the software for it is horrible. Sorry for the rant, but it amazes me how iRiver is all about getting out new products and forgetting about the old. (and their not really that old at all)

I just hope that with the new ifp line, they kick back some of this firwmare to the 300 series.

[AndyH]

Originally Posted by audioathlete

A few sites in Europe are taking orders and have priced it up. One actually has a release date of the 799 as the 10th of May.....
You can place an order already on quite a few European online stores.

Which stores? I had a look around the other day and didn't come up with anything.

[seadzz]

When the ifp-5XX first was released in my part of asia it was north of $500 USD. The 7xx and 8xx will be even higher. Since the average factory worker here earns less than $300 USD per month here I expect those new players to fly off shelves...not.

I tend to agree with everyone with respect to iRubineRiver and where they are headed. IMHO they will not be happy until the retail price of both flash and HD based units is in excessn of $1000 USD.....will not be too long if they keep adding non-requested features like cameras and can openers to their products.

I's cough up the $1000 for a flash player if it came with a solar panel battery backup.....don't even think I'm serious.

What they need to do is get a more battery friendly codec in the works be it ogg2, AAC or MPC because the current ogg offering just does not pass the "smell test".

sdz

[FlameGrilled]

The current Ogg dec used fails both the 'smell' and compactness friendly test. After all, compactness of files and still keeping reasonable audio results vs similar sized mP3 encodings was a big part of what fuelled the 'Ogg or die' bandwagon.

And lets not even get onto ludicrous batt life (during Ogg decode)... that's embarassing for an ex-iRiver fan to want recall...

[seadzz]

From what I have been following at HA work is back on the front burner toward getting ogg2 finished. Rumor that is the new generation will be more battery friendly......but... ..it may or may not be backward compatible with rips\encodes made with the current version of ogg.

There is also the question of if iRubineRiver will addopt this new reiteration of ogg.....we can only hope.

sdz

[Ace]

I don't really understand whats up with the ifp series.... they started off with a cool looking triangle shape (the ifp 190).....then they went to this weird flute/recorder shape (the 390)....and now it appears, the design is getting closer and closer to perhaps what the final product will look like.....A BIG WEINER! what is up with that???? is there some homo designing this thing? i can't wear a big weiner around my neck!!! thats insane!
anyway, i love the look of my 190T...i just wish it was usb 2.0 and had longer battery life..... but i REFUSE to wear a big weiner around my neck!

[Vic20]

lol the case dose look like a condom tho

[seadzz]

I thing the design of the 3xx series was wanting to look like a boat hence the "craft" nickname. I don'k know what kind of boats Inno has been on but I think he is one ore short.

sdz

[Vic20]

battle ship =P

[audioathlete]

There are quite a few sites...in fact you cant fail to stumble on them in a search engine. I am no linguist though...

http://www.computerconnections.nl/nl/dept_977.html
http://www.azone.ch/load-index.html?iRiver-iFP-799.htm
http://www.directman.com/

lots more

Hope that helps