I really want to buy some kind of remote MP3 player like the Rio Receiver or the Audiotron for my living room and bedroom, but I keep reading hints that Empeg may be working on something similar or related. Should I wait and see, and if so, for how long?

All the hints that have been dropped by the people here, and the CEO in an interview point to a more expensive unit that will also rip/encode your music, store it internally, and serve the RioReciever. Another feature I believe it will have is the ability to sync music to the Rio devices, hopefully including the empeg. I'm not sure of other features beyond that, but existing ones on the market have features like CD burning, internet radio and other things.

Depending on your existing setup, buying one of these plus a RioReciever might be best, or just buying two RioRecievers. With Rob's hint about CES, the device should be shown there, and would probably go into production soon after.