Bad news for Rio fans

[Steve]

Firstly, it was reported on Friday that Rio is no more. However, rubbing salt into the wound, Engadget has pictures of the Rio Carbon C, which was nearly ready, and looks rather swish.

So what was it going to sport? Well, to start it was going to have 20 and 30GB drive models, a high res screen, theme support, scroll wheel, dock, remote (sigh), USB charging, mass-storage compliancy, line-in/FM recording, PlaysForSure, picture viewer, and, of course Audible and MP3 support. (FLAC and OGG support were not mentioned in the manual.)

[Xenctuary]

Oh dear. I guess everyone goes Apple in the end, it's like destiny

[streetster]

I'm still trying to RMA my faulty Karma.. After 3 months of emails, turns out I've been speaking to the US customer care, and need to speak to the UK ones. blooming typical. and now they're gone?

Oh dear.

[Norky]

Just been to PC World!

Rio Carbon 2.5gb = £99
Rio Carbon 5gb = £119

[directhex]

i think this might be a good move in the end.

rio's firmware is great. the karma is STILL the best, most USEFULLY functional portable music player around. but what it isn't is sexy, or the most reliable piece of hardware ever. and the reliability hardly spoke volumes for denon/marantz

now, if other vendors take full use of the technology licensing being offered by sigmatel, then that's GREAT for the market. but that's a big if. we may keep players with absolutely abominable software like the iriver forever.

[autopilot]

Indeed, shame their units where pug fuggly. People want sexy kit these days, i have to admit paying attention to looks more than i should. That’s why I like most Sony stuff, even if they are the grand masters of incompatible proprietary technologies.

[skuzgib]

Dang it! I was gonna buy a karma soon as well!

Grrr >

[MiNiMaL_FuSS]

shame, im still waiting on ana mp3 player with decent quality, lets face it ipods etc are lackign horrible in music quality. Although most people use them for mp3s which also lack in quality....its a shame i've become addicted to v-DVDs