To prevent even more posts on the Rio Car announcement thread, I'm creating this one for discussion of the "Mark 3" (not officially named this) that will not show up from Rio directly, but will probably appear in the future. Here is the specs Hugo posted:

The unit had USB host (but no ethernet/USB slave/serial), CD slot for ripping, face-off, 4x45W amp, AM/FM tuner, bigger VFD (but smaller pixels), and was not pull-out - but the HDD was removeable and docked with USB. CPU was a 200MHz ARM9. The audio stage was basically identical, just using a slightly newer philips DSP.

...all fitted in a single-DIN unit. Tight squeeze, I can tell you! It was far less geeky than the mk2 (eg, no visuals on tuner or aux, no ethernet, etc) but we had some aggressive pricing to hit so some things had to go.

Personally, I wouldn't have bought one to upgrade my Mark 2. I enjoy the fact that the MK2 can be used in the house as well. I can see why OEMs should like the above unit though, as it is easy to use, and has the added benefit of fitting all in the dash and not needing a seperate box somewhere. Pioneer has a similar unit in the works, but without the removable HDD and USB host.

I believe empeg is smart though moving in this direction. It's something the average consumer can easially use, but high end audiophiles and geeks should still see appeal in it as well. The recent announcement shouldn't mean to us that the empeg touch is going away, but instead going more mainstream.

I believe empeg is smart though moving in this direction. It's something the average consumer can easially use, but high end audiophiles and geeks should still see appeal in it as well. The recent announcement shouldn't mean to us that the empeg touch is going away, but instead going more mainstream

I truely hope that SonicBlue picks this line up, It is definately the 'next generation' of car players. And way more marketable to the car audio crowd. OK it can't be used anywhere but in the car but we only know the benefits cause we have one that can. You don't miss what you don't know about.

I'd love to have seen the internals, REALLY tight packaging I bet. It does have a bit more expandability with the USB host thingy. Imagine all the components in the car communicating over USB. Why would you need RCA cables? Ooh what potential!

gotta stop. my drooling is shorting out the keyboard.

Murray
new styleee

You mean something actually started to come out of that thread? It was so damn long I stopped reading it over a week ago!

32GB Mk. II in a WRX
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

OK it can't be used anywhere but in the car but we only know the benefits cause we have one that can. You don't miss what you don't know about.

Add wireless ethernet via the USB port and build a small wireless box with RCA jacks to stream to and you could turn up at parties with your car parked outside and stream music inside... :) Or maybe take it one step further and make the remote unit small enough to run off batteries and stream from your car to a personal unit with headphones and continue listening to your music while shopping... *grin*

Kim

To prevent even more posts on the Rio Car announcement thread, I'm creating this one for discussion of the "Mark 3" (not officially named this) that will not show up from Rio directly, but will probably appear in the future.

Good idea, I'm moving my reply to this thread, then.

Hugo posted:
The unit had USB host (but no ethernet/USB slave/serial), CD slot for ripping, face-off, 4x45W amp, AM/FM tuner, bigger VFD (but smaller pixels), and was not pull-out - but the HDD was removeable and docked with USB. CPU was a 200MHz ARM9. The audio stage was basically identical, just using a slightly newer philips DSP.

Wow, I thought Rob said you won't be posting specs, hope you don't get in trouble for doing that.

It seems that if all you do with your empeg is listen to music then you'd have been even happier with the mk3. On the other hand, I can't imagine sitting in the car for hours with a laptop while hacking on it. Even rigging wireless ethernet wouldn't really help - you wouldn't be able to see the display if you weren't in the car.

Ignoring hackability, it does sound really impressive. I hope some OEMs take you up on the design!

Borislav

> Even rigging wireless ethernet wouldn't really help - you wouldn't be able to see the display if you weren't in the car.

I think Frank could help us with a new version of displayserver :)

bobo