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Got The Look, Not The Port (4/13/99)
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We must admit, we're more than a little amused by Diamond's latest "special edition" Rio MPEG-3 player. The Rio is a solid-state unit about the size of a couple of PCMCIA cards stacked together that stores and plays MP3 music. It was, we think, the first of its kind to hit the market, and this latest version is pretty slick. It's got 64 MB of built-in flash RAM, which is enough for about an hour of almost-CD-quality music, and it can take additional 16 MB and 32 MB flash cards for additional storage. It only weighs a hair under two and a half ounces. And most significantly, it sports a distinctly iMac-like look, with its "new transparent teal case design." Think different, or something.
What's particularly galling about the new Rio is that, even though it looks like an iMac, it's still not Mac-compatible. The last we'd heard, Diamond claimed they're still evaluating whether or not the Mac market is big enough to justify making a Mac-compatible Rio. Well, let's see-- if a computer released eight months ago has been so darn popular that you steal its look for your latest PC-only product, yeah, we think the market's probably big enough. Of course, they'd have to make a USB-interface version, but given how many iMacs are out there, and the likely boost in popularity that MP3 will get on the Mac platform once QuickTime 4 hits the streets, we'd think Diamond would want to be ahead of the curve instead of stalled out behind it.
On the other hand, we've got to wonder if people who buy iMacs for $1199 or less are also going to want to shell out $250 for a matching portable music player that only holds an hour of music unless you add additional flash cards at $99 for 32 MB. Hmmm. Still, we suppose the option would be nice...
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SceneLink (1462)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/13/99 episode: April 13, 1999: The Register continues to insist that Apple is working with Intel in preparation for ditching the PowerPC, though Steve Jobs claims it's "total fiction." Meanwhile, Diamond releases a very iMac-looking Rio, which is still not iMac-compatible, and those wacky MIT students are selling "open source pies" in preparation for a Bill Gates visit...
Other scenes from that episode: 1461: Fun With Chip Intrigue (4/13/99) The Register's recent assertion that Apple is hooking up with Intel to hedge their bets against a sudden horrible PowerPC death touched off a firestorm of debate. They claimed that the only thing preventing IBM and Motorola from just chucking the chip's development out the window was "contractual obligations," and that PowerPC's future is shaky enough for Apple to start forging alternate plans based on Intel's increasingly-late 64-bit Merced processor... 1463: Hope He's Got Goggles (4/13/99) Those wacky MIT students are at it again... Only a couple of weeks after building iMacs out of Jell-O, they're back in the news for selling open source baked goods. According to a quick blurb on ZDNN, some students used Bill Gates' impending visit to the school as inspiration for creative fundraising...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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