Well if they bring along the dj related thingy again i would like to see how that is doing it was a nice toy, would never want one but it was impressive.

The main reason i am going is incase a karma turns up

The main reason i am going is incase a karma turns up

Oh, I think you can count on that.

Okay, so the first month has gone...just three more at most to go.
Fingers crossed.

PS Any additional info on the Slate? other then it using a 1.5GB drive.

Will it run linux? WIll I be able to play with it?

1 to 4 mos sounds like 03 xmas sales season for sure. I'll take the day after thanksgiving in the pool.

Are there any problems with the betas that would cause any delays?

Nah...it'd take me more than a month to convince my wife to buy me one for Christmas, and I doubt that I'm alone in that boat. I also figure that if I were to buy myself one 1 month before Christmas then I'd probably be in the doghouse too. If, however, they released it 3 months before Christmas, then it gives me 1 month to see whether the Christmas thing might work, and failing that, another month to buy it myself before the pre-Christmas budget takes effect. So my guess is sometime in mid-September. I'll take the 15th in the pool

I heard that the betas were buggy and that the release is postponed until further notice.

I heard that the betas were buggy and that the release is postponed until further notice.

Who'd'ya hear that from?

It was posted on another forum by a pretty knowledgeable person of HDD-players but not affiliated with any companies. His name is Robert and he's the European staff member of dapReview.com, otherwise known as one of the only comprehensive Digital Audio Player Review sites. He and his American counterpart keep up with this type of stuff, and I assume he received that information from one of the developers or someone close to this project. Unless you are a total Rio-enthusiast, check it out and look around. There are more competitors to the iPod than you may think. One that is going to be released probably sometime in August is the iRiver (famous for their CD-MP3 players) iHP-100, which has only a drawback of capacity size (10 GB only for now, there is speculation they'll be releasing the iHP-200, which boasts 20 GB). But the features are extraordinary: 16 hour battery life, pretty much the size and weight of the iPod, included remote with an LCD screen on it, FM tuner, built-in recording capabilities, optical line-in/out, 8-line screen display, USB 2.0 transfer, etc. You can find out more about its specifications here. There are also other competitors joining in the HDD-player roundup including Philips, Multichannel Labs, Samsung, Now Evolution, and so on. Seems like soon enough there'll be an HDD-player to suit almost everyone (because of each player's diversity in features, cost, size, etc.)

Are any of the competitors going to allow you to build a playlist on the fly ? (insert and append)

That is a feature that has been lacking on every player I have looked at except my empeg and my rio central.

I'm not exactly sure but I thought that the only one that I've known not have this feature is the 2nd generation iPods.

I'm pretty sure it's an important feature that Apple has now implemented it in their newer 3rd generation iPods, and other companies allow them as well.

I didn't even know apple added that I knew the first gen ones didn't have it. All the reviews I have seen (not too many) don't mention that feature has been added all they seem to care about are the new touch sensitive buttons big wow. I'm starting to think many people don't want / can comprehend insert and append.

... and there are plenty of people who actually hate the new touch sensitive buttons because they now have to always put it on "Hold" mode to prevent it from activating any buttons...

Anyway, yeah, they added it, here's an excerpt from an article from CNET: "... the On The Go function--our favorite addition--enables you to create a new playlist even when the iPod isn't attached to a computer..."

We should know soon, since we have several members of the board mingling at the Europe meet with the developers.

And sure, while other players might be on the market, one of the big reasons we like the empeg is the software. Nothing comes close to it, and I won't be able to tolerate a portable HDD player that is less flexable next to my empeg.

I wasn't a total Rio enthusiast until the empeg folks became the only Rio engineers left.

I'll leave you with a fair warning. Most members have an almost religious fanacisitm about the empeg. With that said, no matter how heated a discussion gets, we are all mature here, and so don't take anything personally :-)

The eDigital Odyssey 1000, Bantam BA1000, and the iPods from the 2nd generation do not have on-the-fly playlists. The Creative Labs ones (Nomad Jukebox 3 and Nomad Zen) both have on-the-fly playlists. I believe that the Neuros, Multichannel Labs (Xclef) should also have it too, but not sure. The ones I'm not sure about are the iRiver iHP-100, Philips HDD100, and Rio Karma? I'm sure they have playlist support, just not sure if it's on-the-go. Oh, MamboX products (not sure if all, but at least some) also have on-the-go playlists. This information is probably not that much help to you, but anyway...

I think there are many ipod fanatics on here. How many of the empeg guys have ipods now

Yes, I don't personally own any Rio or Empeg products, but I have heard that the software is the best. I think I've read from IGN that the Rio Riot (which the developers of the Rio Karma have forgotten about haha) had great software, but not so great hardware (I notice, it's huge).

I can't wait to hear any news about this player. I like competition.

I'm not one of the "Empeg guys" but I'm receiving an iPod soon to give to someone as a gift hehe (but not before I play around with it first hahaha).

I have a Riot. It's ok but it doesn't have insert / append. The software for the riot was made by different people than the Karma.

Oh, well then I guess it's just a coincidence that they both have great software, just one is a bit further on the hardware side.

Yay! I got the 200th reply in this thread!

I think I've read [...] that the Rio Riot [...] had great software

I don't think I ever heard, during the entire development of Karma, anyone saying "it's got to be loads better than the Riot software". I think we all just took it for granted...

Peter

Another feature that the Rio Karma won't have (initially) is nested playlists like the Empeg. However, there has been some hinting (has there really? Am I being wishful?) that it may get them in the future. This will really set it apart from the pack, I believe, but I suppose we'll just have to see.

For me, I don't need a portable yet. But if I do buy one it'll be from these guys. I have never been as impressed with anything I've ever purchased as much as the Empeg an it's software, so they've earned quite a bit of goodwill from me.

It was posted on another forum by a pretty knowledgeable person of HDD-players

..who doesn't know what he's talking about. The project is on schedule.

Rob

Are any of the competitors going to allow you to build a playlist on the fly ?

Yes, Pearl has two different interfaces to do this. One is like the Riot playlist builder, and the other is like the car player but with a "Save running order as playlist" feature (which is what I think you're talking about).

Rob

Did you miss the competitors part

I was talking about being able to do insert and append like on the empeg/central. The only players I have found that do this are made by you guys.

But I guess the ipod does it too now.

Ah okay that's good to hear.

By the way, how shockproof is the unit going to be? Both in playback and just in physical condition... and what materials will it be composed of? Plastic? Rubber? Just stuff I'm wondering about.

Bump? Haha.

Yes, plastic and rubber. It will be as shockproof as you would expect from a hard disk player with a large cache.

Rob

OK - I'll bite. Just how large will the cache be?

-jk