Don't ya love the way old info hangs around on the web.

Looking at the rio site it still states the empeg has voice recognition.

And persuing that link to the geek site you posted:

The car player has a bright future ahead!

Following our acquisition by SONICblue the car player is scheduled for integration into the Rio range of digital audio products. Production will be significantly stepped up from January 2001 and the player will become available from specialist stores as well as from internet stores.