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Where can I find an MP3 player for my car?

And it's a 250MHz StrongARM RISC in the "car radio" form-factor, running the 2.2.1 kernel -- so I'm on-topic, Rob :-) -- with a Python UI.

does anyone with a collection of MP3s actually pay for them? I know i dont... so where is the MP3 economy? the players? the only one i'd get is the Empeg car player... (runs linux no less...) I dont see an economy... do you??

Firm cranks up MP3 player for the car
By Stephanie Miles
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 11, 1999, 4:25 p.m. PT

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the popular Rio portable MP3 player, a British company is about to launch what it says is the first digital music player for the car.

a href="http://www.cnet.com/Resources/Info/Glossary/ Terms/mpeg.html">MP3 (MPEG-3) is a digital audio format which allows consumers to download near-CD quality music from their PCs. Users can pick from an almost unlimited supply of legitimate and pirated music titles. Rio, manufactured by Diamond Multimedia, is a portable and relatively inexpensive MP3 player.

Diamond said recently it has already shipped over 100,000 units, since its launch late last year, despite a messy legal battle with the recording industry, which was seeking an injunction against Rio's distribution until better safeguards against piracy were in place.

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Empeg has started production on Empeg Car, according to the company's Web site. Empeg Car, which runs on the Linux operating system, is powered by a 200-MHz StrongARM processor.

The removable stereo unit includes an FM radio receiver, and 2.1GB capacity to store up to 35 hours of music. Users download MP3 files from the PC to the stereo unit via the USB or serial port.

Empeg will begin shipping in late March. The Empeg Car Player with display, car mount, remote control, cables, and Windows-based software to download music titles will start at $999 for the 2.1GB version. The company is offering larger capacity models and other display colors.

"The initial design is to go in your car, but you can use it at home, on a boat...almost anywhere," according to the Empeg Web site.

Did you notice that the picture of Slashdot has the wrong tagline?

It says "News for nerds. It matters."

http://www.empeg.com/gfx/slashdot.jpg

From page http://www.empeg.com/main.html

Cheers,
KenB

Did you notice that the picture of Slashdot has the wrong tagline?

It says "News for nerds. It matters."

http://www.empeg.com/gfx/slashdot.jpg

From page http://www.empeg.com/main.html

Cheers,
KenB

One of the things you might look into is the work done to customize Linux to work on those car MP3 players, such as the one at http://www.empeg.com. Those players are made to shut off whenever the car does.

One obvious thing to do would be to mount any of the filesystems you don't need to change (such as the root filesystem and maybe /usr) as read-only. There's no chance of corrupting anything on a read-only filesystem. As for the other filesystems, it just depends on what the system is doing at the time of the power outage. If nothing is happening, the system will be fine, but if there are many files open and/or being updated, then you could run into many problems.

A lot of folks gripe about the nearly US$1,000 cost of the empeg but keep things in perspective... the AutoPC (love child of Microsoft and Clarion, retails at over US$1,200.

The empeg also is a low production unit, totalling only a few hundred units in this run. If someone like Pioneer or Kenwood or someone like that buys them out, expect the price to come down considerably in 10,000 unit production runs. Especially once the other competitors hit the playing field.

The empeg sounds sweet, certainly. But for the money I can think of better ways to get rid of unwanted cash.

One problem that really needs to be addressed, and this is out of Hugo's hands really, is the temperature problem. Right now you need to remove the empeg from its chassis and take it with you whenever the inside temperature of the car will get very high or very low. Considering how cold it gets in, say, South Dakota and how hot it gets in Arizona, it'll be a wonder if the thing can ever stay in the car for five minutes unattended.

We need to see severe duty hard disks available cheap for this to really take off.

A lot of folks gripe about the nearly US$1,000 cost of the empeg but keep things in perspective... the AutoPC (love child of Microsoft and Clarion, retails at over US$1,200.

The empeg also is a low production unit, totalling only a few hundred units in this run. If someone like Pioneer or Kenwood or someone like that buys them out, expect the price to come down considerably in 10,000 unit production runs. Especially once the other competitors hit the playing field.

The empeg sounds sweet, certainly. But for the money I can think of better ways to get rid of unwanted cash.

One problem that really needs to be addressed, and this is out of Hugo's hands really, is the temperature problem. Right now you need to remove the empeg from its chassis and take it with you whenever the inside temperature of the car will get very high or very low. Considering how cold it gets in, say, South Dakota and how hot it gets in Arizona, it'll be a wonder if the thing can ever stay in the car for five minutes unattended.

We need to see severe duty hard disks available cheap for this to really take off.

A lot of folks gripe about the nearly US$1,000 cost of the empeg but keep things in perspective... the AutoPC (love child of Microsoft and Clarion, retails at over US$1,200.

The empeg also is a low production unit, totalling only a few hundred units in this run. If someone like Pioneer or Kenwood or someone like that buys them out, expect the price to come down considerably in 10,000 unit production runs. Especially once the other competitors hit the playing field.

The empeg sounds sweet, certainly. But for the money I can think of better ways to get rid of unwanted cash.

One problem that really needs to be addressed, and this is out of Hugo's hands really, is the temperature problem. Right now you need to remove the empeg from its chassis and take it with you whenever the inside temperature of the car will get very high or very low. Considering how cold it gets in, say, South Dakota and how hot it gets in Arizona, it'll be a wonder if the thing can ever stay in the car for five minutes unattended.

We need to see severe duty hard disks available cheap for this to really take off.

A lot of folks gripe about the nearly US$1,000 cost of the empeg but keep things in perspective... the AutoPC (love child of Microsoft and Clarion, retails at over US$1,200.

The empeg also is a low production unit, totalling only a few hundred units in this run. If someone like Pioneer or Kenwood or someone like that buys them out, expect the price to come down considerably in 10,000 unit production runs. Especially once the other competitors hit the playing field.

The empeg sounds sweet, certainly. But for the money I can think of better ways to get rid of unwanted cash.

One problem that really needs to be addressed, and this is out of Hugo's hands really, is the temperature problem. Right now you need to remove the empeg from its chassis and take it with you whenever the inside temperature of the car will get very high or very low. Considering how cold it gets in, say, South Dakota and how hot it gets in Arizona, it'll be a wonder if the thing can ever stay in the car for five minutes unattended.

We need to see severe duty hard disks available cheap for this to really take off.

Actually, according to the info at http://www.empeg.com/nowin.html, they'll have a text-mode Linux tool available when the unit ships. Undoubtedly, somebody will create a graphic wrapper for it shortly thereafter...

Check out www.empeg.com for a DIN sized car stereo running Linux which plays MP3 files stored on the internal disk. Not cheap, but it sure could answer the "which of my 300 cds do I want to listen to next" without having to remember to bring them all with you.