RioCar 12gb was seen as the top 25 gadgets for the summer in URB's June 2001 issue. (Urb is a magazine specializing in the Electronic music movement)

In reply to:

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Rio Car Player
Whne it comes to digital audio players, there is no such thing as too much memory. The good people at Rio understand this and have outfitted the Rio Car player with a whopping 12 GB of storage, enough for over 200 hours of CD-quality music. The car-mounted unit can be easily removed for music download via USB, Ethernet, or serial interfaces, and a shock-resistant platform for the hard drive assures skip-free playback. A pocket-sized infrared remote is also included (MSRP $1,199)
Reprinted from URB#085/Page 102

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Hmm.. so maybe I am a techno junky... I own many of the items that they're listing, such as The Ricochet Wireless Modem (whcih they misrepresented, with the price being shown as MSRP $340 plus 29.95/month - reaslistically this is $99 plus 74.99$/month for 128kb+ access (can, and has reached speeds as high as 384kb), or $39.99 for 64kb access...)

...I also own a portable DVD player - although not the one listed on this list... (it's amazing what some high-end electronics go for on Ebay...)

My work's forcing me to carry/test a RIM 957 pager right now which is listed in the same article.. (awesome technology, not worth the price..)

Hmm.. Maybe I need to put together a top list of gadgets that *I* personally can't live without?:)

• Empeg MK2 36GB


• Even more imortantly, the stereo that let's me hear the empeg in my car


• Garmin Streel Piolet III GPS - without which I had been totally lost since moving to the bay area


• Tivo! Although I need to figure out the broadband hack before it'll work again - we disconnected our wired-phone because we never used it:(


• PS2 for those 4-player gaming madnesses


• My Technics 1200SL's, mixer, stacks and stacks of records, as well as understanding naighbors


• Intel Pocket Concert 128MB Portable MP3 Player (which would be that much better w/ a gui to send tracks from Empeg into it:)


• ATT Cable Modem - despite the problems that I've constantly been hearing about cable modem services, My service has been rock-solid from day one with downloads between 3200-3700kbs (yes - a meg in less then 3 seconds...)


• My Apple Airport Base which lets my laptops work from anywhere nearby


• My rugged razor scooter for going to/through/from work


• Motorola Timeport Cellphone (sprint) - (can't find a semilar phone that catches my eyes as being worthwhile upgrading to...)


• Ricochet 128kbs Wireless modem + service (work anywhere - even from the beach which I've had to do (better then driving 45 minutes to office...)) - HIGHLY recommended for those that maintain production servers


• IBM Thinkpad X20 - for 95% of my computer work


• My personally built firehouse - dual celeron 366's running at 550mhz, 512mb memory, 80GB IDE HDD, 35GB SCSI BOOT HDD, CD Burner, DVD, etc, etc - used for one thing and only one thing lately - ripping cd's...



Also - I would like to add myself to Napster's Case and Point arguments.. Evern since getting my current job (decent sallary, NO free time..) I've been averaging 4-5 new CD's per week from amazon.com - I have to say their recommendations are actually very helpful.. (although they have recommended crap in the past - but these are few and far in between...)

SOoooo - what's everyone else's must-have gadgets already-have gadgets? I'I'm very curious...

-mark



...proud to have owned an Empeg since 00287