Tenth Anniversary of First Commercial MP3 Player

Pickens writes "The first commercially released personal music player capable of handling MP3 files was launched in March 1998 — the MPMan F10, manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems with 32MB of Flash storage, enough for a handful of songs encoded at 128Kb/s. In the US, local supplier Eiger Labs wanted $250 for the F10, though the price fell to $200 the following year prompted by the release of the Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300. The Rio was released in September 1998, but by 8 October had become the subject of a lawsuit from the RIAA which claimed the player violated the 1992 US Home Recordings Act. It was later ruled that the Rio had not infringed the Act because it was not responsible for the actions of its customers. Thanks to its lesser known name, the F10 avoided such legal entanglements, but at the cost of all the free publicity its rival gained from the lawsuit."

Lame

[Kesch]

No Wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

32 MB is enough to get you broke, with the RIAA

[aleph42]

At about 10,000$ of damages per song, 32MB doesn't seems that small!

In fact, it should be "engough for everybody" ;)

Happy birthday

[Anonymous Coward]

Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear mp3 player.
Huh, is that the RIAA at the door?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Ahh, 1998 was a great year...

[Anonymous Coward]

It was an innocent time on the internet, when you could download mp3s from the web, and nobody cared if you didn't upload.

Liars

[martinX]

The iPod hasn't been out for 10 years. Stop trying to rewrite history.

Re:Liars

[martinX]

Before Steve Jobs, the phone was not smart.

Re:Ahh, 1998 was a great year...

[phreakincool]

Leech!!!

Re:Rio PMP 300 = divorce

[siddesu]

You're one step ahead of yourself. You need to marry a gf before you can get a DIVORCE.

Re:I actually owned one of the first Rio 300s...

[Marcos Eliziario]

So, if you live in TX where gun laws are pretty much liberal, would u probably feel the urge to buy an ICBM just to stay on the illegal side? ;-)

Re:Rio PMP 300 = divorce

[Warll]

And seeing as how this is /. you'll likely also need to take step 0, get girlfriend. Wait scratch that, I forgot step -1, find female willing to stand your presence.

Re:Liars

[kitsunewarlock]

You can pay for Razors? Everyone I know who owns one just got it free with the overpriced, non-VoIP agreement they paid for with their major cellphone carrier.