Rio Brand Closes Doors 377
Castar writes "In a press release today, D&M Holdings announced the end of the Rio brand. Rio had a troubled history, but were responsible for the first mass-market MP3 players as well as more recent popular players such as the Rio Karma. This closing follows the sale of Rio's IP to Sigmatel, maker of chipsets for many audio players, including the iPod Shuffle." From the release: "The company's decision to exit the Rio business followed a determination that the mass-market portable digital audio player market was not a strong enough strategic fit with the company's core and profitable premium consumer electronics brands to warrant additional investment in the category. The original goal of strategic advantage with wholly-owned and branded portable client devices was reconsidered in the context of the costs required to effectively scale and compete in this sector, where competition has grown intense. D&M Holdings will now focus all its resources on the core Premium AV business and advanced content server products."
Why I didn't buy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why I didn't buy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Thanks a lot Apple (Score:2, Informative)
Take the CD's you ripped into iTunes, transfer the songs over to a Sony PSP (renaming the extension to mp4), they'll play.
Re:Thanks a lot Apple (Score:5, Informative)
That's great. There WAS NO substantial market for this stuff before Apple came along and did it in a consumer-friendly way that made it easy for non-geeks to download and buy music. They practically created the market that you're accusing them of ruining. That makes sense. I guess.
I'd rather use a player where I am not limited to closed formats like aac.
Silly troll. I have 1000+ songs on my iPod and it has no AACs on it. I have all mp3s that I've ripped from my own CDs or bought from (gasp!) non-Apple music stores. Try knowing what you're talking about before posting. It makes these forums a little more useful.
Re:One fan sorry to see them go (Score:5, Informative)
They offered several features which were compelling to me (and not found in Apple products):
Gapless playback
FLAC support
Vorbis support
That's why I don't want an iPod at any price, and why I just ordered a spare Karma in case mine (now 18 months old) ever dies.
Re:Thanks a lot Apple (Score:5, Informative)
You're probably thinking of iTunes music store songs which is AAC in a DRM wrapper. Would you hate mp3 and call it closed if Apple managed to put a DRM wrapper around the mp3 format? Do you rail against the umpteen million models of Windows Media players out there?
The iPod also plays mp3's. So, unless you limit digital audio to a player that plays OGG and FLAC you present yourself as not really knowing what you're talking about.
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Disposable computing. (Score:5, Informative)
"Two Circus tents" is a complete bullshit metric, and, regardless, 1.94lbs of coal @ 1.55g/cm^3 (2) equals about 568cm^3 of coal.
In a whole year, a computer requires about 20 cubic meters of coal. That's a lot of coal, but it's still orders of magnitude less than "two circus tents".
Oh, and, by the way - optical mice are far from "useless", and at http://www.ncgreenpower.org/elements/pdfs/Calcula
2: http://www.mcelwee.net/html/densities_of_various_
Rio Karma: Yet to be surpassed (Score:5, Informative)
The Karma is a technical masterpiece. Any audiophile or Linux geek who doesn't own or yearn for a Karma is quite crazy.
Reviewers and market analysts unvariably bestow the title of "iPod Killer" on a new DAP based on one or two big features. Maybe it's size, or maybe it's Ogg Vorbis playback that makes a player an iPod killer. In my opinion iPod Killer isn't a feature but an overall package. The iPod is exceptional in no particular area (except perhaps design). It is so successful because it is a solid overall package that performs everything at an acceptable level.
The Rio Karma was the one player that, from a technical standpoint, I believed could be the iPod killer. (Of course, the marketing strength of Apple prevailed, which says a lot about the market). But technically the Karma defeated the iPod on all fronts. Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback were the big ones, but it's the little things that really make you appreciate it as a player.
Gapless: My Karma is getting long in the tooth, but there's nothing out there, even today, that comes close to the Karma technically. I couldn't ever go back to a player that doesn't have gapless playback (i.e. automatic elimination of the gap between subsequent MP3 files (inherrent to the MP3 format), and playing gapless Vorbis and FLAC files back gaplessly). None of the HDD players do this (if you know of one that does, please let me know! I want one!)
97dB S:N RCA Line Out: The RCA ports on the dock provided an amazing sound on high-end equipment via the true line out. Using a 3.5mm->RCA adapter in the headphone port just isn't the same.
100Mbps Ethernet port: Not having USB2.0 at the time I, and many others bought the Rio Karma, the ethernet port on the dock was a great way for not only uploading files quickly, but uploading them from a distance, e.g. with your Karma sitting in it's dock on the stereo or hooked up to your car stereo in the garage (using a laptop with wifi to bridge the connection).
Java app: The Java app made uploading and managing music on Linux and MacOSX as well as Windows easy. A lot easier to download a Java app from the built-in web server than to pull out the install CD, run the install, reboot for every computer you want to upload files from (assuming it runs Windows).
Embedded Web Server: OK this one isn't really crucial to the player (it's really cool to show off) but it sure is convenient for downloading the Java app to control the unit. The web server had a lot of unrealised potential (e.g. adding a web interface to control the player) but the Rio developers never added that, and now they never will.
The Dock: The little marvel of a dock, included with all Karma's sold, was cool in its own right. Aesthetically it fits in with most stereo equipment better than the iPod and its dock. Not only does it have a 100Mb ethernet port, stereo RCA outputs, USB2.0 and power port, but it glows blue and flashes in time to the music!
So to say the Karma was ahead of its time is not entirely accurate. The Karma's time never arrived.
Re:One of the coolest products... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:AKA (Score:3, Informative)
Cheap. I paid $58 + an add-on SD card.
Lightweight
Skip-proof
Playlists (usually no need to mess with buttons while running)
Bookmarks (especially good for books on tape)
FM tuner (I like listening to the news sometimes... also for the TV audio feed at gyms)
Stopwatch (I don't wear a separate wristwatch... no need)
Backlight (imperative if you run at night or predawn)
Standard, easily replaceable battery (AAA).
A hold switch to prevent accidental button pushing.
IMHO, this cheap little player has almost the perfect feature set me. Though I can't compare it to an iPod because I don't have one.
Re:One of the coolest products... (Score:4, Informative)
I realize some day I'll have to retire mine, I still brainstorm about what the perfect mp3 player for the car would be like, and it always looks something like an empeg.
Re:Why I didn't buy (Score:3, Informative)
I always wanted to swipe it.
Re:One fan sorry to see them go (Score:2, Informative)
Besides "looks", the iPod has a huge third-party addon market and the largest online music store to supply users with music.
Re:AKA (Score:3, Informative)
iTunes can live without iTMS (the iTunesMusicStore). In fact, iTunes predates iTMS and even the iPod.