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Rio, The Special Edition
Dan Guisinger writes
"To match the NOMAD from Creative
Labs (Which is ugly as sin and has worse battery performance), they
released the Rio PMP300 Special Edition available from their website
only. It has 64MB of Flash memory and a translucent Teal
case. It sells for $249. " Getting closer.
Better yet, just add MP3 player functionality and the ability to take any size flash memory card to the Palm IIIx...
Rio SE: $249
Palm IIIx: $295 (www.pricewatch.com)
One other thing. I see a lot of talk here about mp3 players overpriced, but the cheapest Sony MD player is $250 MSRP, with recorders priced as high as $600-800, and the last walkman I bought (Sony EX614 in 1997) was about $150
You can get a MD player for $150 (if you know where to look), now. You can get a Sharp 702 recorder for around $250. I got Sony's MZ-R50 at Christmas time for $300. I suspect the 702 and MZ-R50 will come down as Sony rolls out their new recorder which takes on a square form factor and is the same thickness as the MZ-R50. MD's are great. Give them a cheaper interface (optical's cool, but pricey) like USB or FireWire and make em play MP3's, and they would be awesome. You were a bit mistaken about the price, but that can be understood. Sony DOES make an $800 model, but it's got VOR and all that neat stuff.
Try "Snowblind Alliance"
The Nomad is the exact same product as the Yepp was supposed to be. It has the same features and looks and for some reason samsung has given it to creative. A couple of weeks ago, MP3.com showed pictures of the nomad from a Music and Internet expo in New York and it looked much different from the yepp, in fact, much better. I hear that that model will also be released at a later date.
See screenshots of the original nomad at mp3.com here... Nomad Pictures
Creative say they will release the story behind y nomad now is yepp once the player is in stores.
ahhh but i have $250 to spare on a Rio and $5 for a pack of smokes....i like my Rio just like i like my Palm Top III that i have used once
the one that dies with the most toys wins
thanks 8-)
> I wonder if they will have any upgrade paths from the regular rio
> to this new one
I don't really care about the teal case, but the 96MB would be nice.
Any Ideas out there, how to upgrade those beasts to 64 MB. Taking them apart is not the big thing...
Confused, but heating up the soldering iron.
They are deliberately avoiding making a "device that records and can play back digital audio" because then they'd come under the stupid laws which have been drafted to enforce music copyright monopolies.
It would act just like a tape recorder, so that probably not the reason.
My two guesses,
Those freaks who want/wanted royalties for the MP3 algorithm.
And/or processing power needed for Encoding.
1.Can you record minidisc from AWE64 gold's optical out?
2.how about shock resistance on sharp MM702?
So the initial velocity of impact now depends on the weight of the object hitting the ground?
Whirrrrrr.... (Galileo spinning in his grave)
iRio would probably get Steve Jobs in a hissy fit about his ownership of the letter 'i'
Let's call it the oRio!
heheh
you can get a decent Sony , the inventor of walkman for $20. not the best model, but definitely much better quality than PiMP.
I seriously think at $250, PiMP is an expensive useless toy for portable music, since even cassette has better quality for 10% the price.
and what i wonder why is that the smallet walkman or minidisk are still smaller than PiMP, not to mention more expensive?
isn't PiMP suppose tobe the size of a credit card by now?
Ok, here's my take on the entire translucent thing...
Companies that make computers and their accessories MIGHT have a chance of cashing in on the single biggest spike in computer sales in the last 5 year by matching colors with the iMac units. Consumers who respond to such marketing tripe remind me of those birds that collect blue things for nest making (the only possible way that I can imagine that this improved survivability before man started making blue things is that the birds were avid shellfish eaters (which sometimes have blue shells on the inside); building a blue nest would be an active demonstration of the ability to collect food stuffs to a potential mate).
However, things are really starting to get out of hand when you see translucent printer covers, 10bT cable, extention coards and even the power cord that plugs into the iMac itself.
Now, on to my critique of the asthetics for the design trend itself. Why couldn't have Apple actually been CREATIVE and, well, "thought differntly"? Instead they chose to palagerize some third rate designer of lawn furniture (those of you who actually read design publications will know; those of you who saw it on TV? well, at least you don't have to worry about rushing out to buy lawn furniture that matches your iMac.). http://www.sectionweb.com
Personally, I'm still waiting for the anodized aluminum cases with personalized fractal designs based on a genetic sample of the owner. The case could double as serial number and be beautiful at the same time. or here's a though... why not wired up some phase change polymers in the plastic so that the case could CHANGE color and have dynamic designs that change from hour to hour or miniute to miniute. Kinda' like a computer case mood ring for the 00s. Combine that with a wirless blood gas/pressure sensor piercing thingie and bingo all those anti-social, genXers out there with more piercings that god-given orifices can be wired up the their computer case and tell the world what they really think of it in a natural, psychological, polygraphic sorta' way.
Executive Summary :
Flashy color is a crappy way to sell memory; ditch the flashy colors and give me more memory for my money. (give me value or give me asthetics, or give me BOTH, but DO NOT offer me the banal death mediocric compromise).
Is that really news to nerds?
It certainly doesn't matter to me.
From the info on Creative's site, it seems that the "64 meg" Nomad follows the same configuration as a vanilla Rio -- 32 megs built-in, 32 megs removable memory. The Special Edition Rio, on the other hand, supports a grand total of 96 megs -- 64 built-in and a 32 meg expansion.
As far as I know, no other companies currently offer the storage capacity of the Rio SE, so I'm probably going to buy one as a little gift to myself for a hard week's work. Too bad the case is transparent, I would've liked a couple of more traditional options such as black or metallic.
AC
Please, not another religious TNT vs. Voodoo argument. Every discussion board I visit these days is ruined by this same argument. Who cares which card can piss farther? It comes down to which card best suits your needs for the next few months, fits your budget right now, and works best with the games that you play. Besides, take Tom's reviews with a grain of salt, he receives sponsorship from nVidia.
I purchased a Voodoo Banshee card (which turned out to be a mistake due to me beginning to use linux) and it came with a mail-in rebate for $30. Cool I thought, and I only have to wait for 6-8 weeks. Here it is 8 weeks later, and I have no refund, and calls to the 888 help line result in an answering machine. Jesus people, support your products already.
BTW if anyone happens to read this, yes I have Darryl Strauss' XSVGA server and it works great.
I got a rio. loved the idea. but my diamond multimedia had no customer service whatsoever when i tried to contact them because my rio only taked Duracell battery! not Energizer, not Rayvac, only Duracell. So my rio has a duck tape on the battery door right now.
Have you guys ever wondered why rio is so big? I mean, there is NO machanical part, the entire thing is nothing but circuits and a battery; Why can't they make it smaller? ( I usually clip my rio on my wrist watch.)
And about the 16 megs SmartCard only. That is
Simply un-thoughtful design; If diamond has any foresight, it would have released a version which can store most every SmartCard capacity right now! It is NOT that hard to do the circuit so that it can take 8, 16, 32, or 64, 128 megs cards, even if they don't exist yet! Especially now that Diamond is making a shitload of money on it.
You know what's the difference between USR/3COM PalmPilot and DiamondMM rio? USR/3COM cares about thier customer and make genuin effort to improve the product. Diamond MM just want to grab all the money before anybody else catches up.
MD compression technology is old... Its great... don't get me wrong. The newer revs (ATRAC 4.0) sound much much closer to cd quality than MP3. It is meant to be less processor intensive so the decompressors are less expensive. They also consume way less power. MD players have close to 16 hour play back on a pair of AA batterys. I would guess MP3 would be better than ATRAC if given the bandwidth of MD. By the way MD is around 120meg for 74 mins.
Oh yeah.. MD DATA drives suck! You can only use DATA discs (about $14 a peice)... Audio discs are not accessable via the hardware. All you can do is play them.
Is it me or all this portable MP3 player are design for those suckers for the new and stylish?
at $250 there are much much better solution for listening portable music. cassette, minidisc, even CD. they all have record function and the player is so much cheaper. there even exist some software which reverse MP3 to wav or CD sound.
so what I don't understand is why are so many intelligent people insisting that Rio is better solution for portable music compare to cassette or minidisk, when it cost twice as expensive and only carries half hour of FM quality music?
with such dubious quality I might as well go to Walmart, get a walkman for $19, and revive my cassette collection again. hell I will even pull cable from computer to stereo for recording MP3.
so go walk around with an MP3 and I will laugh at a stylish sucker. Current MP3 portable is neither usefull nor stylish.
(if you are a runner and listen to music while in training, than you are not a serious runner, and I still laugh at you as a stylish jogger)
Saehan, the makers of the Mpman plan on releasing an HD based solution sometime this year. According to the published specs, it's going to be only marginally bigger than the current crop of MP3 players.
Personally, after considering waiting for a while to get the new Mpman, I decided to go with the Rio SE, because 1) it's unclear when Saehan will release their new product, and 2) the price is going to be more than what I'm willing to pay for a spruced up walkman.
One other thing. I see a lot of talk here about mp3 players overpriced, but the cheapest Sony MD player is $250 MSRP, with recorders priced as high as $600-800, and the last walkman I bought (Sony EX614 in 1997) was about $150. I don't know why paying $250 for a player capable of playing back 45 minutes of CD quality sound (mp3 at 160 bits) and offering "recording" capabilities without encumbering you with flaky media is so absurd.
AC
I've owned a minidisc for four months now and have had it skip one time and that was because I shook the hell out of the thing to try and force it to skip. Sound quality not good enough? I dare you to tell the difference between a minidisc and CD. Battery life? Eight hours isn't good enough eh? It recharges when plugged in. I have CD's that I have made from Mp3's and have put them on minidisc as well. It's perfect for working out at the gym. I take one extra disc for a total of 178 minutes of music. I also would disagree with your opinion that minidisc players are just as fragile as CD players. I've accidently dropped mine from more than four feet and it still works great. The discs are also practically bullet proof. Too long to transfer music? I just listen to the MP3's while I'm at work and hit record on the minidisc so I guess I don't even notice the transfer time. If you can get a rio for $90 bucks fine but I still think people who pay anything over that should get a minidisc instead. If you want to waste your money go right ahead.
jeeez..not another zealot.....
I do like the orignal poster point about just diamond just making it good enough. I remember the original voodoo2 cards diamond made - the 8 meg version. It seemed when creative was releasing the 12 meg version that diamond had to make a 12meg part as well. Guess the 8-meg version just wasn't quite good-enough..
I have to disagree with some of your points:
:)
>Walkman: $20 or less
>PiMP300: $250 for SE
Just exactly what kind of crap can you buy with $20? This is about as valid as saying that Porsche sucks because you can get a used Ford Escort for one tenth of the price.
>Walkman: up to 120 minutes of rec. time
>PiMP300: up to 10 hours of AM quality shite
Can't argue here, the mpg of the Escort is definitely better than that of the Porsche.
>Walkman: can be smacked around carelessly
>PiMP300: eggshell delicacy with portability
Both are wrong. A good thin walkman is probably more fragile if for no other reason than its extensive reliance on moving parts. From personal experience, a walkman is a pretty weak little device.
>Walkman: cassettes can be played nearly anywhere
>PiMP300: get me to the nearest computer
True. That's going to be a problem until memory cards become a commodity.
>Until technology gets as cheap and widespread
>as we all wish it was already, things like
>portable mp3 players are geek toys.
Well, hey, nothing wrong with that.
AC
have a look at yahoo with the keyword RIO PMP
...
and you will find third party soft.
(If you dont get anything, try "SnowblindAlliance")
There are Windows, Linux, DOS and other programs.
Bye,
Is this nomad just a renamed YEPP product, or
is it just my imagination?
http://www.yepp.co.kr Well I guess I answered
my own damn question of 6 months ago as to who
would distribute yepp in the US...
Now if only people started using Compact Flash
type 2 so we could use those IBM micro drives...
da fly
I view people who buy portable MP3 players like smokers. How fu*king stupid can a person get? Against all the overwhelming evidence they still make a mind numbingly dumb decision like spending $250 on a big mistake. Minidiscs are cheap, store 74 minutes of excellent quality audio, are extremely portable, only skip with a great deal of effort on the users part, can record MP3 directly from comptuers as well as audio from CD players or any other device that has sound out and on and on and on. Before you do someting stupid, do youslef a favor and check this out. Minidisc.org
I can't understand what kind of gadget freaks would want/need a device like these mp3 players. They have no advantages over a typical walkman, really. Let's compare:
Walkman: $20 or less
PiMP300: $250 for SE
Walkman: up to 120 minutes of rec. time
PiMP300: up to 10 hours of AM quality shite
Walkman: can be smacked around carelessly
PiMP300: eggshell delicacy with portability
Walkman: cassettes can be played nearly anywhere
PiMP300: get me to the nearest computer
Until technology gets as cheap and widespread as we all wish it was already, things like portable mp3 players are geek toys.
Uh yeah, you're not funny.
Not even mildly amusing, really.
You should go out more.
The specs have been adequately reverse-engineered. Do a search on Ashpool Systems.
I don't think so. unless maybe you wanna open up the thing and iron a new chip on it.
There go my weekend plans! Their web site does say "pre order," but for some strange reason I assumed it was going to be, like, real soon now.
Oh well, I might check out the MD players a few people seem to enjoy.
AC
I would rather see Sony(tm) open up their
minidisk format. It is a better standard than
mp3 (yes I know it dosen't compress as far) but
lets see:
CD RAW 650 Megs = 72,74 or 80 Minutes
Mini Disk 80 Megs = 80 Minutes
CD mith Mini Disk technolgy 650 Minutes
Now that would be cool.. Think about a DVD
Der Shaten
Currently looking for one of the old Mini Disk data drives for a computer.
mail://donaldlf@cs.rose-hulman.edu
>
no, I just didn't find it funny...
For that matter, when you drop a walkman, the tape will sometimes pop out which reduces it's mass, however since the tape pops out upon impact rather than before, it's initial velocity remains unchanged and it sustains the same amount of shock from the impact. This applies if you're talking about a non-elastic collision. The secondary shock might be lessened due to the unloading of the cassette tape, but the velocity is so low at this point the smaller mass and the impact of the smaller mass is irrelevant. So my friend, you have a moot point.
AC removing his extra thick glasses.
This is almost the set of features and price point that I want. The trick is, for a device like this you have to find the right target audience, and for the most part, geeks aren't it. We know that these things aren't as effective as a good palmtop/laptop and headphones so we're waiting for something amazing.
On the other hand, my motorcycle riding brethren are starting to really dig this stuff. Its much easier to tuck one of these inside your jacket than trying to deal with a CD player strapped to your gas tank or the frequent retunning of a normal walkman radio. And the cost? Hell, you're talking to a group that routinely pays >$50 for a pair of gloves and thinks $300 for a jacket is a bargain. $250 for a radio? Sure, why not. Ever see how much it costs to get a good radio in a Goldwing?
If you make it use CD's you're back to a mechanical device that soaks the batteries and has a poor form factor. Blah!
Posted by freakycreep:
CD-ROM MP3 player is already released.
Yeah. Xeenon Mp3 Shuttle from Korea!
I doubt if it is saled internationally.
However,
You can install it only in your car and design's kinda dull. But IT REALLY WORKS! You can store all your mp3s in a CD!
Or altinatively, how 'bout this HDD-using MP3 player? It is not yet available. But it is just good. REFER www.mpman.com
Suggestion: Make the next "Special Edition" of the Rio (or any other player) fit into the Palm3 or Palm5 cradle, and have a hotsync module that identifies the "user" as needing to load .mp3 files just as the default user profile would load apps into the Palm.
The slowdown from using the serial port instead of the parallel port would probably be offset by the convenience of popping the player into the cradle and pushing the hotsync button (just before I go to bed). One of these years 3COM will come out with a USB cradle, and the speed problem will disappear. I predict that any mp3 player vendor who designs their product to piggyback off the Palm (the de-facto pda standard) will reap great reward. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate!
I think not...(*poof*)
By the time you add a faster processor, good background processing to the Palm OS (so that it doesn't skip when you change apps), sound in/out jacks, volume contrrol, and a couple extra AAA batteries (or some Li-ion rechargables), you're gonna be paying more than $295. Not to say I wouldn't buy one... I'm just looking forward to the next step; simple improvements. What I really want (and will hopefully get by the time I'm 90) is fiber into my cortex with a couple of terabytes of holographic storage parked conveniently in my sinuses, and a 2ghz cdma-based local hotsync with the people around me. That way I won't have to complain about artifacts in the music D-A conversion; the MP3's will play directly in my brain.
I think not...(*poof*)
That'd be really kewl... To have an MP3 player, sound recorder AND a stereo radio...
Sanity.html - Error 404 not found
- Beastie Boys: Hello Nasty: 64.1 M
- Dave Matthews Band: Before These Crowded Streets: 64.4 M
- Rush: Different Stages (Disc 1): 67.2 M
- Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik: 67.7 M
All 128k stereo. (No sense sampling higher with this corporate-issue Ensoniq POS!)There are still too many fidelity/size trade-offs, even at 64 M built in. 72 M looks more like a sweet spot for a CD's worth of 128k audio. Unfortunately, that would drive up the price, and Rio's already too expensive.
Keith Russell
Whatever happened to peaceful coexistance?
This sig intentionally left blank.
As long as there are geeks, there will always be quality reverse-engineering to produce software, adapters, etc. My point was more to say "hey - it's a cheap consumer device. As fun and cool as it is to go find all the neat software people have written for it, I don't necessarily _want_ to." I also want USB, but that's besides the point. The Rio would be perfect with 64MB of base RAM, USB (and maybe serial or parallel until Linux supports it), and Win/Mac/Linux drivers ready to go, with a little cheatsheet explaining the protocol for the roll-your-own crowd. And for half the price.
I'd buy several of 'em, use one and give the rest away as holiday gifts to my non-geek friends. But as far as this model goes - if it looks like an iMac it ought to work with one out of the box.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Oh boy. An MP3 player that looks just like my wife's iMac but won't work with it. Yippee.
Tell Diamond I'll be interested when they start using USB instead of the dead, useless, cheesy parallel port and include Linux and Mac support.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Well, I'm using a Mac (well, a clone) and I do find it funny.
A couple years back I would have expected people to say 'Apple who?', but instead everyone is making fun of them just like old times. That's a Good Thing, it means they're not going anywhere.
The better Apple does, the less defensive Mac users need to be. So bring on the jokes...
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
- Jeff
1) Yup. I do it all the time. You can build your own coax -> optical S/PDIF converter for a few bucks, or go out and buy a MidiMan CO2 bidirectional converter for around $80. It's built *very* well, and I love mine. I make many copies of stuff via my AWE64 onto my '702.
2) The shock resistance is great. The only way it skips is if you shake it (and I mean *shake*... like, the to the point that you hear the mechanism inside smacking around the inside of the case) for a good 20 seconds or so, and even then, it only interrupts for a second or two.
Well... here's a review to give you all some food for thought.
o vsmd.shtml
http://upgradecenter.net/reviews/peripherals/ri
I'm a happy user of the MD-MS702 for a year now, not an employee for Sharp or Sony. =P
/Andrew
Creative's wAb-site stinks. Anyone have a link to the Nomad?
duh. it's right on the front page of creaf.com
They've brought it up to now support as much as one full cd! And only at 2.5x the price of a portable cd player! What a deal. Is it just me, or is the rio absolute crap aiming for the "more money than they know what to do with" crowd? Personally, I'm waiting until a portable $300 or below laptop hd (2 gigs or so) based player to come out. It shouldn't be too big, so portability wouldn't be much of an issue.
I'm basically waiting for a player that can read CD-ROMs - having 650mb worth of MP3:s is a lot of music, and besides, I store all my MP3 files on CD-ROMs anyway.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
The MiniDisk uses a compression technology similar to the MPEG Level 3 Audio format, i.e. eliminating parts fo the music that can't be heard due to 'technical deficiencies' of the human ear.
So you should rather compare CD RAW and MiniDisk RAW (around 80MB,don't know exactly), or better:
CD-R with MP3s: ~800min
MiniDisk 80min
The important thing with these compression algorithms is to know a lot about how the ear and brain handles audio information, and this means doing a lot of experiments, empirical research (as opposed to creating mathematical algorithms like wavelet compresseion et al).
World leader in this area is the IIS Erlangen, which created the MP3 format and is currently working on the successor.
This also explains why it's not so easy to come up with a new -and better- "standard" format, as MS and the music companies would like to...
Some points about the two posts above;
* Moving parts suck. Suck power that is. Ignoring the shock-proofing (Pro-MD people with say it's near impossible to skip a good MD player), moving parts really drain power. Not that where I live is the best example, but a MD player the same approx. size at the Rio, that runs off a single AA, only goes for 6 hours, the Rio goes for 12. (the MD player is also noticably heaver, particularly when loaded with a disc)
* It's all about infrastructure. If you've already got a library of MP3 files on your hard drive, buy a Rio - If you've got a library of MiniDiscs in your bookcase, but a portable MD player.
And yes, someone PLEASE make a solid-state MP3 Player with a USB connection.
Kris.
Win a Rio (or join the SETI Club via same link)
There is no device that will give you a personal collection of near-CD quality music with the small size, light weight and 12 hour battery life the Rio offers, at any price.
* The minidisc players are typically half the battery life and a little heavier.
* Normal CD players are much larger
* Tape players are poor all-round, but especially in the quality department.
* Radios don't give you control of the music.
This says nothing about the shock-proof-ness of the Rio. Solid-state rocks.
What's so insane about wanting to carry a personal selection of music around in such a small, light, long-battery-life, package?
Kris.
Win a Rio (or join the SETI Club via same link)
The magnesia-something that the Sharp Actius case is made from is probably the best of all worlds. I've got one of those cute Nokia phones, and the fingerprints - oh, man.
Anyway, it's nice that companies are producing electronic stuff in _anything_ other than black and cream these days - I say, take what you can get. (and if anyone knows an on-line place that'll ship the RioSE & 32MB cards to Australia, please drop me an e-mail.)
Win a Rio (or join the SETI Club via same link)
How can it be an answer to the Nomad, when all it does it equal the 64MB?
The Nomad apparently has both FM tuning and Voice Recording. It's still my choice for now...
+LO
I don't know if you've read tom's hardware, but the TNT2 benches faster that the Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 SLI in most cases. This hardly qualifies the TNT as crap...
check out www.tomshardware.com
... and include Linux and Mac support.
I'd rather see them just release the specs on how to communicate with the device. This is an itch geeks can't help but scratch.
All the information and images you want. From Creative's marketing department, of course.
Thats a nice free gift :)
My order was handled well by them, I got my 2x16MB pack within 3 days....unfortunately I was the one who screwed up and within 3 days more I lost one of the cards....so now I have a Rio carrying case that is currently being shipped by FedEx...
www.atacomm.com - The Leader in VoIP Product Distributi
I have to admitt I have smacked my Rio around alot. That includes dropping it about 10 times onto concrete from 3 feet in the air. It happens to eject the battery which decreases the amount of mass being decellerated by the impact. If you know anything about physics, you will find it is a good design.
www.atacomm.com - The Leader in VoIP Product Distributi
Uh, hey guys. I don't think anyone is going to be getting one this weekend. Or next for that matter. I called up Diamond today. I was gonna buy the Rio PiMP300 and they told me it was pre-order. Not only that, but the 32MB expansion card isn't out yet. The Rios aren't even being produced yet, and they don't have a date when the production will start and the units will be shipped. I know I don't want to chance it. That wouldn't be to smart. To hell with 96MB of memory. Oh, and is there any software to power these bastards under Linux? Thank you much... ------
aÍÍ©ÍÌÍ£Ì'̽ͩÌÍzÍYÌÍÌY
Basically all this is is a spiffed up RIO with an extra 32m base memory. A better value for certain, but not a large step.
Now, if they added the ability to record voice messages or incorporate an FM radio, that would definitely qualify as a Special Edition..
That is the sound of my point whizzing by you. I was not dissing the TNT, nor any Riva product. Rather I was trying to make a point about Diamond's apparent approach to making hardware: usually fairly half-assed. The Viper 550 could have been a lot more, as evidenced by Asus' TNT card.
:P
But why bother making something excellent, when you can make something "okay" for cheaper and still sell a bazillion of them?
It seems they've done the same with the Rio Pimp, based on what people are saying.
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
Well, they did at least make a half-arsed effort at sprucing it up, but I think they could have done a lot better. From personal experience (buying their hardware) it seems Diamond really has a "good enough" mentality. They don't try to be the best darned Diamond they can be. "Ah hell, let's just take that TNT crap and slap it on a board and ship it. They'll buy it." "Let's just dump some more memory in the damn thing, and make it all pretty-like. They'll buy it." I'm not impressed.
;)
Besides, don't they realize this thing is just asking to be called the "Rio PiMP-300?"
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
If you don't find this funny, you're probably using an apple...
;)
I found it mildy amusing, and I'm currently sitting at a Mac. I don't think there's much of a correlation between your sense of humor and the reader's machine of choice tho...
I think it's in your delivery.
\//
I used to work at Diamond while the Rio was being developed...internally we called it the "Pimp" for that very reason.
Pretend there is some witty statement here.
Hmmm, I wonder if they will have any upgrade paths from the regular rio to this new one...
If you ask me, it's bloody Apple that started all this ultra-cool-neon-looking-transparency stuff. Now everything that comes out has to have some transparent part or it's just not 'cool'...
I reckon some fancy chrome would be better, like that groovy Nokia phone that came out...oh, and maybe some extra functionality would be good too....like a photon weapon.
How am I going to play my eight versions of *The End* at a good sample rate on these babies while dancing about in a wierd drug-induced haze inevitably breaking that conveniently placed mirror lingering before me so hauntingly?!!!
I'm not.
Hopefully those IBM porta-drives get integrated soon.
and translucent plastic teal... apple has inspiried yet another revolution...
"With patience and plenty of saliva,
the elephant deflowered the mosquito."
dang! they've made the ugly even uglier. Is it a bad eighties walkman or a cheap spacey waterpistol! I'd expect this sort of design from Digitor or Goldstar -- but Diamond?
It's like those USB zip drives Iomega make. You want to shove a couple of AA batteries into it and start nailing office workmates with a thirty foot stream of tepid tankwater.
I'm really not looking forward to seeing a bad Adam Sandler movie in 20 years time with Happy Gilmore sporting a swag of deal translucentia!
schmack.
--
Rare Window - free your photos
I dobut it.
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
I heard of one being made that will read CD's...I'll try to dig up the URL
Jack
Demona's Law - "User data expands to exceed available bandwidth." ("User data" being pr0n, mp3's, vob's,
I ordered 2x16mb for my rio 6weeks ago,
they have taken money from my VISA but i havnt recieved my memorys yet, when i mail them to comfirm my order they wont answer on my mail!!!
i just wanted to tell you al this before you order one from them!!
I ordered 1x16M flash card from them last week, and recieved it two days later. They did mess up the order though, they sent me another RIO player as well as the flash card. The shipping invoice did not list the RIO, & the total price did not reflect it either. However, my cc has not been billed yet!
No Complaints here
That's a nice, informative website. You can take comfort in knowing that because you listed that site, your post was not a total waste of time.
Now, let's compare.... Both MP3 and Minidisc sound pretty good, but neither is CD quality (and neither will replace my CD collection). It comes down to convenience and your specific situation.
In my case, I ride to work via a bike path or take a bus. Both take 30 min, so the 32 MB of memory is OK (though I'd obviously like more). I also want to have something for working out, cleaning, doing dishes, etc... I'm buying a RIO this week.
I considered the Minidisc. I decided against it because:
- The shock protection is good, but it still skips
- It's impressively small, but RIO is smaller
- Its battery life isn't too great
- It takes too long to copy music to discs
- The player is as fragile as a regular CD player
- The players/recorders are still expensive (though the media is reasonably priced)
The RIO has limitations (32 MB), but overall it's more convenient for me:
- I've already converted several of my CDs to MP3
- I use computers at work and at home
- It's small enough to fit in any pocket
- It can withstand more abuse than a MD player
- I have a CDR, so I can store my MP3s easily
- Battery life is excellent
- Costs $90 after rebate
So, explain again why I'm f*cking stupid?
I don't use cassettes anymore since they degrade so quickly, get tangled, etc... However, I agree that the RIO is not a good choice unless you need something tiny and skip free that only holds a small amount of music.
:)
However...
> Walkman: $20 or less
> PiMP300: $250 for SE
Have you,listened to the sound quality of a $20 walkman? Also, RIO 32 MB Model = $90 after rebate.
> Walkman: can be smacked around carelessly
> PiMP300: eggshell delicacy with portability
No. Both are tough, but RIO can withstand more abuse.
> things like portable mp3 players are geek toys.
Duh! You do realize you're posting at slashdot, right?
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=8^
Introducing the iRio, first MP3 player to ship with USB headphones, and it looks uber-cool...
But if you wait a few months you can get an even better looking Rio-G3 with more memory, better sound output and a faster processor. Diamond promises that the next version, the Rio-G4, will run circles around the best machines creative can put out. The G4 is expected to have the first firewire(r) headphones, and be made of carbon, inside a yellow box, inside a blue box. The G4 is also expected to ship with Rio's new MP-X format, built from the Mock microkernel, which promises to play MP3s as well as most standard UNIX audio files, offer superior multi-listening, and RioNetworking (previously known as TangledHeadphones 2.0).
If you don't find this funny, you're probably using an apple...
0 1 - just my two bits
I atleast would buy a Rio. It is light, shockproof, and can sport a reasonable collection of music. This is perfect for when I workout. I also suspect the internals hold up just fine because it has no moving parts, but the Rio looks chinsy on the outside. As for the sound quality, I couldn't give a rats ass. MP3 is extremely close to CD quality as far as the human ear can tell. The fact of the matter is that the headphones (or speakers) you use contribute far more noise and distortion than the difference between digital technologies. I'm not going to be lugging around large headphones, I'm going to be using those little cheap 'sports' type headphones for the most part.
This combined with the fact that I have a rather large collection of mp3s, means that the Rio makes far more sense than a Minidisc. The only place where i'd really use a minidisc, would be on a long trip. You are essentially bound to your PC if you wish to swap music. I also would not recommend a minidisc to the rest of the world, but for my specific needs and wants its just about perfect. I just wish they'd clean up the design a bit.
I wonder when they're going to have Tangerine, Grape, etc.?
Pretend there is some witty statement here.