For those of you that might not yet know of this company, iRiver has been making digital audio music players since 1999. iRiver first made a name for themselves with their “SlimX” line of MP3 CD players in the days before flash memory was large enough to be considered practical. iRiver then expanded into flash and HDD based players as well. Today I’ve got a look at iRiver’s 256mb flash based MP3 player, the IFP-190T.
The unit itself is…one of those weird automotive colors that there isn’t really a good name for, “champagne” or some such, with other colors available depending on the particular model and memory size. iRiver has since updated its line with more sleek looking players, but all of the basic controls and functions are the same. If you don’t mind the 190T’s rather simple triangular appearance, you can save yourself quite a bit of cash over the sexier newer models.
In the box bundled along with the player are some Sennheiser earbuds, a neck strap, and a software CD. Don’t let the Sennheiser name fool you into thinking these are better than the usual garbage earbuds that come with these types of players, they are not.
As for the software, it is for the most part, useless. You have to install it when you first hook up the player to Windows in order for it to be recognized. After that, a quick visit to iRiver’s website to download the “UMS” firmware, and the software is no longer needed. This UMS firmware essentially makes the player act like a USB pen drive that can play MP3s. Any windows box will recognize it as a removable disk, and there is, get this, ZERO DRM. With the UMS firmware installed, you are free to do with the player whatever you wish. You won’t be seeing Apple or Creative doing anything like that. Another thing I like about iRiver is that they continually release new firmware upgrades for their players which add more features for free from their site.
As you can see from the picture, the player supports MP3s, WMA files, and also has a built in FM tuner. (Newer models also support OGG.) As if that wasn’t enough, the player can also act as a voice recorder. It’s not exactly stellar at that, but considering a good DVR can cost over $100, and plays no MP3s whatsoever, it’s a pretty screaming deal. iRiver has, through firmware updates, also greatly increased the capabilities of the VR function by adding a mode that filters back round noise, and also a mode that pauses recording when there’s no voice detected, just like most high quality DVRs have.
Power, programming tracks, changing EQs and play modes, and changing the player from MP3\FM\DVR are handled with the top three buttons. Everything else is handled by the 5-way stick on the front. The player has quite a bit of functions, so the user interface can take some getting used to. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty straight forward though.
