Check this out...

Sonicblue is selling the Riot for $199

looks like there was a rebate for $50 off too, but it expired on the 4th. Doh.

you would think they would wait for the new stuff to come out before they dump them.

Oh yeah and real sucks !

http://store.sonicblue.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry10?xid=25971&SP=10023&PN=1&V1=482405&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0

Still too big...hasn't anybody come out with an iPod killer yet?

There is the Nomad Jukebox, which while among the smallest of the 2.5 inch laptop drive players, is still a laptop drive player, and the Yepp, which uses the 1.8 inch iPod size drive, but it is not out yet.

And then of course, there are hints about a Rio product, but considering nothing was shown at CES, I don't think we can expect anything for a while. Anybody hear of any iPod killers appearing at CES at all?

edit: deleted references to the Odyessy

I'd have gotten one if I didn't miss the rebate. It's bigger than what I want but for $149 I'd suck it up.

So what's this "Odyssey"? Or what was it before you deleted it?

it's only 20.00 difference and no stupid rebate to send in.

Sorry, I mistakenly believed that the Digital Odyssey was a 1.8 inch HD, but upon further review it looks like a laptop HD instead, though I can not be sure. It is pretty small though regardless; about the same as the Nomad Jukebox.

Oh, I found this fascinating concept by Toshiba (which makes all these 1.8 inch drives everyone else uses BTW)

yeah

good point
hmmmm

It's bigger than the ipod but it still fits in my pockets and the belt clip works good too. The worst thing about the riot is you have to use real jukebox to put the songs on.

Can you use notmad by redchair soft with the rio riot?

Notmad Explorer currently supports the following devices:

Creative Nomad II
Creative Nomad IIc
Creative Nomad II MG
Creative Nomad Jukebox (all capacities)
Creative Nomad Jukebox C (all capacities)
Creative Nomad Jukebox 2 (all capacities)
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 (all capacities)
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen (all capacities)


Upgraded Jukeboxes are also supported.
Notmad Explorer runs on Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP.
European 'D.A.P.' versions of all above models are supported.
All available connections for each device are supported, including:
USB 1.0, USB 1.1, USB 2.0, Firewire/IEEE1394/SB1394.

Still too big...hasn't anybody come out with an iPod killer yet?

As it happens..

http://gear.ign.com/articles/382/382161p1.html

As it happens..

Sorry, but I wouldn't call that an iPod killer. If it was released today it would be the only product I have seen that could be a worthy iPod competitor though. I just don't see any features that make it better than an iPod (granted that is a short review of a prerelease product). Also, by the time the SB product arrives (6+ months) I would expect the iPod to have gone through at least one more revision.

-Mike

The software that comes with it is going to be the difference, IMO.

The software that comes with it is going to be the difference, IMO.

Maybe for windows users. On the mac I can't see it getting much simpler than the iPods method of synching iTunes playlists. The ethernet doc/internet integration might be an interesting feature, but the article does a poor job of explaining what it is intended to be used for. They make it sound like a method of recording internet radio streams directly to the player. If that is all it is than I for one don't get it. I don't listen to internet radio anymore than I listen to regular radio and for most of the same reasons (poor quality, annoying interuptions, bad music, etc).

Don't get me wrong, if the empeg guys had their hands in this I am sure there will be at least one or two impressive features that make everyone go "well duh, why didn't someone do that before?". I just don't have a sense for what would make this a better product from that article.

-Mike

Maybe for windows users. On the mac I can't see it getting much simpler than the iPods method of synching iTunes playlists.
I don't use either of them

I wonder if it will have the unfortunate iPod feature of "if you put on music you can listen to, it doesn't come back off. if you use it as a portable hard drive, you can't listen to it"

I wonder if it will have the unfortunate iPod feature of "if you put on music you can listen to, it doesn't come back off. if you use it as a portable hard drive, you can't listen to it"

The mp3s you listen to on an iPod are just in a hidden directory. They aren't really hard to get off at all and there are a lot of utilities to help. That is a good question though, I wonder how SB is handling the music pirating "issues" if they allow it to be used as a portable drive as well. Apple's method of basically saying, "we told you not to do it, and we obscured the method a little, but we aren't really going to stop you" seems like a pretty happy middle ground to me.

-Mike

They hardly mentioned any of its features in that article. In my biased opinion it will wipe the floor with iPod in terms of features, and it is (vaguely) smaller and cheaper as well. I'm not going through the features right now because I'm not sure that article was even meant to have been published just yet.