Toy almost makes running enjoyable

For my birthday, my parents got me an MP3 player, the iRiver iFP 799. My mini review is that it rocks. The controls are easy enough to use (though adjusting volume without skipping ahead/behind in a song can be tricky), and the functionality is exactly what I wanted. The radio reception works well, and the software to put music on the player is easy to use.

I took it jogging today, and at times I was able to (mostly) forget I was jogging and just listen to the music. The volume is plenty loud (Mary's MP3 player, MPIO's DMK sometimes doesn't go loud enough), and, thanks to the flash, it didn't skip a beat.

One feature that is kind of unusual is the playback speed control. You can adjust the playback speed in increments of 10% until the songs play about half or double the speed (Alvin and the Chipmunks or a drugged Barry White). I doubt I'll ever be using that, but it was fun to find.