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Unfortunately, SONICblue did not have a clear game plan with how to promote the Rio Car. Rio did little to market it and soon left it to languish. Despite their owners' strong devotion to the product, sales of new units were modest and on
September 24, 2001 SONICblue discontinued the line. Fewer than
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Prices started at $ 1,100 US for the 4GB version, reaching up to $ 2,400 for a 28GB unit that utilized two laptop drives (which was considered very large capacity at the time). The Empeg Car garnered quite a following and became beloved among the small group of users who bought one.
50:, and serial port connections. Initial production was limited to 400 units, after which the "mark II" version of the product, suitable for larger scale production, was to be offered from late 2000 onwards at an estimated starting price of around £900.
133:, including all of the Empeg technology, and all of the patents, source code, and designs related to the Rio audio players. The former Empeg employees as well as other Rio technical employees are now employed by SigmaTel at their
38:-based operating system, employing a 150 MHz Cyrix processor that was later upgraded to a 166 MHz Pentium, the Empeg Car was built around a system employing a
80:. The original British development team was rolled into the company and eventually took responsibility for all audio software development at SONICblue.
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players developed. Originating in a personal project to build an in-car system that could perform MP3 playback in software, a
British company called
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72:- took notice of the unit and decided the Empeg Car would fit into its plans. On November 1, 2000 Empeg was acquired by
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Most of the resources, including people, code, and design work, behind the Empeg Car went into the following products:
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was formed in July 1998 to build a commercial version of the concept, this becoming available for sale in August 1999.
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129:, and several recent flash memory players. In 2005, D&M sold all of their audio player technology to
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to MP3s and stored them on an internal hard drive. Supported Rio
Receivers as clients.
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Although the original project employed an embedded PC board from
Advantech running a
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processor. Transfer of MP3 tracks to the player was facilitated by the provision of
94:- Network enabled client for streaming music off a computer to anywhere in the home
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line of MP3 portables by purchasing
Diamond and the Rave-MP line by purchasing
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Three Years in
Embedded Linux: A Talk with Hugo Fiennes and Marc Merlin
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SONICblue went bankrupt in 2003, but the Rio division was purchased by
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121:. The former Empeg employees still with Rio went on to produce the
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The Mark 2 player used the SA-1100-DA variant, according to the
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214:"MP3 meets Car Audio: Empeg Mark II in-dash Car MP3 Player"
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Heffernan, Cameron; Crotty, Cameron (November 1999).
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367:- Home of the empeg FAQ, and other empeg information
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391:- Article about Hugo Fiennes's Career (from 2009)
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389:From Warwick University to Apple Inc California
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268:"Sonicblue picks up audio manufacturer empeg"
158:"Engineers drive craze for MP3 audio players"
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64:company that had already acquired both the
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385:- About the empeg and Rio Car (from 2001)
373:- Hugo Fiennes's first in car MP3 player
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345:Diamond Rio Buys Car MP3 Player Company
187:"Whatever happened to... Hugo Fiennes?"
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212:Lal Shimpi, Anand (September 2000).
294:"Rio owner quits MP3 player market"
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360:unofficial empeg discussion boards
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266:Shim, Richard (5 November 2000).
84:6000 players were ever produced.
241:"You Say You Want a Revolution"
100:- A home stereo component that
321:
292:Smith, Tony (30 August 2005).
1:
185:Bailey, Alasdair (May 2000).
156:Clarke, Peter (2 June 1999).
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76:and the unit was renamed the
113:- Portable 20gb music player
23:was one of the first in-car
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247:. pp. 199–203, 206–207
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16:Early in-car MP3 player
379:- (rather out of date)
377:Hugo Fiennes home page
74:SONICblue Incorporated
405:Digital audio players
410:Linux-based devices
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119:D&M Holdings
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355:empeg home page
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349:MP3 Newswire
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301:. Retrieved
298:The Register
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165:. Retrieved
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92:Rio Receiver
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98:Rio Central
399:Categories
365:Riocar.org
329:user guide
303:14 October
277:14 October
191:Acorn User
141:References
135:Austin, TX
127:Rio Carbon
371:MP3Mobile
218:AnandTech
137:offices.
123:Rio Karma
111:Rio Karma
58:SONICblue
40:StrongARM
21:Empeg Car
245:PC World
224:13 March
131:SigmaTel
48:Ethernet
351:article
162:EETimes
78:Rio Car
251:22 May
197:22 May
167:22 May
125:, the
102:ripped
315:Notes
272:ZDNet
36:Linux
29:Empeg
305:2022
279:2022
253:2022
226:2023
199:2022
169:2022
19:The
105:CDs
66:Rio
44:USB
25:MP3
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62:S3
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