if I buy an empeg, and let's say Rio comes out wiht a big software update or something important that I want, can I just download it onto the empeg

Yes, the Rio Car and the Empeg are essentially the same hardware, there are no differences as far as the software is concerned. There will only be one software update which works for both products. The Rio car will have more RAM and some minor changes to the supporting circuitry, but nothing that will affect the way the software is installed.

There is a separate download for the Empeg Mark 1, but that's the original (old) version of the Empeg, and it's unrelated to the Rio Car. The Empeg Mark 2 and the Rio Car are the same thing.

In fact, software-wise, the only thing that differentiates the two products is four bytes of flash RAM in the custom bootup logo area, and you can change those bytes with my logo editor, swapping the Rio logo and the Empeg logo back and forth at will.

Your question is a very good one, and since the Rio announcement, I expect a lot more people will be asking it. I'm going to write up a FAQ entry on this subject, even though you're the first to ask it.

___________
Tony Fabris