It's just charging now (3 hour recommended intial charge period). My first few kudos:

1. She's wee! Slightly wider than my Motorola StarTac, but thinner and about the same length.
2. Charges from USB - excellent!
3. AC wall unit has a USB 5V/1A outlet - no need to carry 2 wires. Sweet.
4. Good pleather case - leaves top connectors & buttons exposed (headphones, power button, USB, mic(?), wheel & side button). Doesn't leave 5-way controller or screen exposed though, which seems odd. Miles above the Karma 'Felt Case O' Crap' baggie.
5. W2k did everything correctly and it shows up as a mass storage device w/o needing the CD. Joy!

Rio MM previously installed with the Karma doesn't see it, so it looks like I'll have to install something.

I'll post again later this afternoon after I've played with it a bit more.

WOOT!

-Zeke

ps: Best Buy's 2 year replacement warranty is about $40. Hopefully it won't be needed.

You may also want to keep an eye on the support site of Rio for upgrades as they occur. In fact, it would probably be good to check there first before loading the CD...

RMM V2.90 will be online soon but its main purpose in life is to add several languages (international shipments are about to get under way). Version 1.1x firmware is in RC right now and as well as the languages will include several bug fixes, the main one being UI sluggishness during caching. It also adds a charge indication to USB Connected mode.

Rob

Thanks for the info guys. I did pop in the CD on Friday and got it working no problem. I transferred a few hundred songs which went off w/o a hitch (although the back side did get mighty warm). I just got back from 3 days in Acadia NP, Maine so I've barely touched it in the iterim. I hope to put a few hours on her this week. I did flip through the menus. Aside from lacking an 'insert' function (can we have it in a firmware update? pretty please with sugar on top?), it looks pretty normal. No creating playlists on the fly, but I'm a 'random mode & forget it' kind of person so that won't bug me much.

-Zeke

so i take it the carbon has similar firmware to the karma? or is it not a product of the empeg guys?

The Carbon is likely an evolution of the Nitrus firmware. Both the Carbon and Nitrus have reduced CPU chips in them, hence deep down they run very different firmware then the Karma.

Every Rio branded player since the S10 I believe has been made by the empeg team, or rather the Rio UK group. They have a few employees now that joined after the empeg days.

The Carbon is more like the rio flash players than the Karma. It doesn't have the ability to build a playlist on the fly and only displays the currently playing track.

On the good side it has unreal battery life (20 hours) and is very small. You also can transfer files and music to it without additional software.

That pretty well sums it up except that the Carbon has a voice recorder and the Karma does not. One thing I like versus the Karma is that the wheel does volume. The side buttons for volume on the Karma never really gelled for me the few times I've used it (Karma belongs to the lady). I've only got a smattering of .ogg files (perhaps 10) so not playing them isn't an issue for me.

One minor point WRT the manual. I don't think the following really applies well to the Carbon:

Quote:
"Use only with a cart, stand, tripod, bracket, or table specified by the manufacturer, or sold with the apparatus. When a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart/apparatus combination to avoid injury from tip-over."

It would be one tiny cart.

-Zeke

<choke> <laugh> <sputter>

Please tell me that that phrase did not make it into the final past all of the alpha and beta and location testers!!! Where?!?!?!

DNNA's web page, page 51 of the pdf.

I got a pretty good chuckle out of it too.

-Zeke

...okay... It just goes to show how hard it is to read boiler plate text... I like the "Do Not Tip" icon! Could you imagine the horror of someone being flattened by a Carbon!?!?!?

'Oh! The humanity!'

-Zeke

Maybe they used the warning from the Riot manual

Heh.

There's a very nice review at Gearlive.com. I think the author pretty much hit the target on this review.

-Zeke