What help we can or cannot offer with such projects is unaffected by the announcement today. Such things are more influenced by whether or not you can excite Hugo and Mike with them!

Rob

Hmmm, in other words, we need to figure out what we can use to bribe them ...

What about a supply of red bull ?

Cheers.


Mk2 - Blue & Red - 080000431

Red Bull? You may get more leverage with a nice stout or porter.

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

Red Bull? You may get more leverage with a nice stout or porter.


....or a crate of OREOS!!


|| loren.cox ||

Yay we're back! That was a fun slashdotting.


|| loren.cox ||

Any and all of which can be arranged...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (96GB Smoke)

Rob,

To be pedantic, it would require also that SonicBLUE permit you to help in such an effort, no? Now, this might continue to be the case, but with the purchase, all the intellectual property that you guys came up with belongs to them now, so they could (in theory) say "no, you may not make a nice modular interface for those users that want it", and even if Mike or Hugo might be sufficiently excited by the idea, it would still die of crib death.

That said, it'd be nice to know that either your previous message really is "the voice of the company" on that topic (I know, I know, no official voice of the company, just to know that if there WERE a voice of the company that it'd be saying the same thing ), or to know that the modular interface/API being talked about really is coming.

There isn't really a them and us anymore. We're closely integrated with the rest of the company, and decisions regarding our development effort are dependent upon many factors. Given our extremely good track record for delivering to schedule (don't laugh, its true) we get a great deal of flexibility in how our time is organised.

Ultimately there must be a reason for everything we do, and I don't think anyone would expect it to be any different. The reason for continuing to develop the car software is simple - we're striving to secure contracts with some of the largest players in the industry. Having an installed userbase willing to test ideas and provide feedback is a huge advantage that our competitors do not have.

Rob

42 anonymous users - gosh we are busy.

I got so bored while the BBS was down I actually resorted to posting to /. but I feel better now. Hmm, mustn't knock them, I doubt there would have been a car player as we know it without them.

Rob

God Damnit.

That does it. Dad's coming by the planet to pick everyone up next week.

Jesus Christ
Queue #9666, Mark 2:7

Rob, when will the replacement serial number stickers be sent out that say "Certificate of Authenticity, No. 1304 of 3000"

I was shocked and greatly saddened by the news of the Empeg's EOL. I have a Mark 1 blue unit installed in my ML320 truck and its both my favorite tech toy and the thing I show off when people express interest in my truck. In fact, I just (today) purchased a Mark 2 unit from the US Rio store to put into the "shed" just in case (unless I am seduced to the dark side by its Ethernet port...)

Thank you to Hugo, Rob and everyone at the former Empeg Ltd.

A few questions please:

1. What is the expected lifetime of these units? (Both MK1 and MK2?) My assumption is that the buttons and the hard drives will go first. How long will there be ways to repair these? (I added a second, 18GB hard disk to my existing 6GB drive in my Mark 1, so I know how to swap the drives, and I have backups of my music, so the main concern is hardware repair -- soldering buttons, replacing displays, etc.)

2. Is there anything I should do to the Mark II I just ordered to make sure it is OK before I put it in the shed? (I'd hate to find it doesn't work a few years from now, when my Mark 1 wears out.)

3. Barring an accident or a voltage spike frying the components -- is there anything I can do to the Mark 1 to make it last longer now? Presumably this would apply to the Mark II as well.

One more observation -- you'll never know in advance if Rio decides to pull the plug on software development. I'd like to put in my request that a way to downgrade the software from the latest version always exists -- in the case that a last build comes out with major bugs and there isn't a chance to release a fix before the walls come tumbling down, we'll have a way of recovering to a stable build.

I'll continue to read the BBS (I'm mostly a lurker though) and will look forward to improvements and suggestions of new products. I wish all the Empeg people luck
in the future. -Gary

It's amazing just how few Slashdot users "get it". I guess that's the whole problem...

I did a bit of "fanatical" empeg defending there tonight, but I got bored very quickly.

__
Unit serial number 47 (was 330 in the queue)...

Dunno about that, but I was rather pleased when we were able to buy back (or rather, swap back) player serial number 00001 recently.

Of course I have a Mk.1 with a name (Jemima) which is even better

Rob

your puting in some o/t tonight Rob

THANKS!

andrew butler
sn 08000176 6G amber

just waded thru some fo the /. topics.

jebus there are a lot of heathens out there! I've never seen so many anonymous folk log on here. This is the type of publicity the empeg needed. Funny how things only really become famous after their death.

Well, only a lucky few wil find out the virtues of the empeg!



Murray
Go-Wit-Da-Fro

Rob
So im presuming that warranty/repairs will be honored right up till a year after the very last unit is sold?

Also what about spare parts would they be available for purchase? i.e. buttons, display board....etc

so there are more MK1's without a serial number but a name !?

my Mk1 is 000020 :-)

and I have no money for a mk2 until it rans out of stock :-(

bobo

This is the type of publicity the empeg needed. Funny how things only really become famous after their death.

It was origionally a post on Slashdot that attracted me to Hugos MP3 Mobile page, back when I was dreaming up a car player, (and had some of the interface done on my HP48 calculator). And there have been many posts on it since then, and usually the same response in each. Oh well, we do all have to face the facts and accept that the empeg was aimed at a niche market. I'm just glad I had the chance to buy two of them. I guess tomorrow it's time to pressure a few "on the fence" people into a decision. Is the fleece offer still valid?

>sigh< Just tried to purchase an extra remote & color faces for my empeg - the estore sucks - claims that my billing address doesn't match my credit card's address, even though I've purchased gazillions worth on this same credit card going to this same addrss:(
-mark

...Still (barely, pending 1.1/2.0/TeAsE release) proud to have owned an Empeg since 00287

That thread on slashdot was ridiculous. Most of those people knew nothing of what they were talking about and even fewer could see the true value you got in your investment. I've never seen such a high level of satisfaction with a product before. And something is obviously flawed with the moderation system-- the posts by Rob himself were rated 1, 1, 1, and 2. Who could give greater insight?

On an entirely different note, I don't think I've vocalized the incredible sense of gratitude and appreciation I have toward the entire empeg team. Your product makes my day that much brighter every time it turns on. I wish there were something I could do to repay you, but even if I weren't a poor college student, nothing I could do would seem enough. Thanks for all you've done, and best of luck to you and the company.

John

30 GB - Mk2a (Rio Car) - BLUE / RED

Ah ha! So we're the guinea pigs for SBs development efforts are we! Well I suppose if there is a v3 and v4 of the software I could maybe forgive them , and how about short test runs of extremely inovative car audio products to test market acceptance for the OEMs ... ? Oh well, dreams are free I guess

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 26GB blue)

1. Expected life is limited by HDD life (spin up/down cycles, probably), but these are off-the-shelf parts and easily replaceable. The buttons are unlikely to wear out. The display may get burn in after a long while if you stick to one info display.

2. Load up some tunes and check it out. Run it for 24 hours at least. They're all given a thrashing in the factory test rig, so there should be no issues - and we're not going anywhere! Even many years down the line I would expect that at least one of us (eg, me or Patrick) would still be selling spares and doing repairs as a hobby :)

3. The mk1 has more issues with the design than the mk2, the display is the most likely thing to have problems (due to voltage spikes). The mk2 PSUs are better protected. Again, not hard to fix and mk2 display boards will fit onto a mk1 if you remove the rotary control :)

You can currently downgrade software if you want, I suspect this capability won't be removed.

Hugo

Ahh.. The rationalizations most companies are going through...I was wondering how SonicBLUE actually had the guts (while being a company to product for the masses) to offer the market a high-end car mp3 player (which needs an external amp); probably it was more due to the codebase (maybe also human resources) as Rob pointed out..

Sad to see this happen, especially now that the tuner is finally available. Most of my acquintances were waiting for it to be released before purchasing an Empeg...guess we never can know now, huh?

The RioCAR player was a viable product, yes.. but only as far as it is (or was) being distributed "through the Internet" by a small company with a light monthly burn rate. Breaching into supply chains with such product is plain madness as it is years (although the technology to us may not be so brand new anymore) before its time and totally out of its fit in that league.

I also trust that no other company will be formed of what Empeg once was, as the code is "hogged" by SonicBLUE into other (lighter) products.


Amarth of BatMUD, mk2 something owner

Oh no, the codebase is going into other "heavier" products too :)

Hugo

I bought one a year ago and loved it - except for the fact that it didn't have a tuner unit. I ended up selling it to my brother and he didn't fit it to his car - because it had no tuner unit! All our friends were waiting until the tuner came out to buy, as it won't be useful without it. He's just bought the tuner today. We all have cars with enough dash space for 1 module and we don't want to hide the empeg display or do without our radios. The price was reasonable to all of us and it is by far the best way to get vast quantities of music cheaply into your car. I have to say SonicBlue should try marketing this with tuner module (at least in the UK!) and see just how well it sells before pulling it. It should be advertised everywhere as it isn't just a geek toy - it is a plug'n'play device, and I'm sure that's what most people want.

You can currently downgrade software if you want, I suspect this capability won't be removed.

I thought removing downgrade capability was impossible - by design.

Anyway, a sad day.

Borislav

Back? I wasn't aware we went anywhere!

Regards

Paul

ya know what's scary.... i'm SERIOUSLY considering buying a new one and storing it in my closet just to have a backup

Me too; actually, I'm seriously considering buying a Mk2a to complete my collection (in addition to the idea of having a backup, which is a good one - after all, what if it gets stolen or something despite taking all possible precautions?)...

It's sad to hear that the hardware - at least as we know it today - has been discontinued. I glanced at the Slashdot thread, even though I knew what I would find - a bunch of clueless people who all think that they can do it better, but haven't the slightest idea of the kind of work that's gone into the Empeg/Rio Car product over the years; or who think that having a pile of CDs in the car provides just as good an experience, when the experience of the Empeg is totally different from that of any other car audio product on the planet. There's just something about being able to say to a passenger "so, what do you want to hear," and then being able to just find it, almost instantaneously; or being able to play whatever you're in the mood for, without digging through piles of CDs. Thank you very much, guys@empeg, for changing forever the way I listen to music in my car; it's been worth every penny.

And of course, in addition to the wonderful experience of the product itself, there's the user community! We've got a bunch of great people here, and it has been (and will continue to be for quite a long time, I hope) a pleasure being here since September '99, even though most of the time I'm content to read what everybody else has to say... :)

Anyway, I just had to say something about the discontinuation - call it venting my frustration, or whatever. Can't wait to see the new software and continued development on whatever else the guys@empeg have in the pipeline...


-----
Daniel M. Zimmerman, Caltech Computer Science
Mk.2 #060000058, 36GB
Mk.1 #00101, 10GB

This news seemed likely about the time Empeg became Rio/SonicBlue, whatever. I feared something so horrible would happen. Having worked for companies that buy other companies, I've seen it all first hand. I wish all the Empeg'rs the best of luck!

I'm certainly not mad at the Empeg folks... In fact, the first time I had to use their tech support was just this month and I've owned my Empeg MK2 40GB since before they where bought. (I think I bought my Empeg in December) I've loved it from day one and wouldn't want anything else in my car stereo system for playing music. (Sorry guys, $2000 for on demand MP3's vs. $300 for some CD MP3 player... I don't think there should even be reason to compare, the $2000 is well worth it...to me!)

Amazingly, I haven't killed the MK2 with my subs (seven 10" subs in my truck, my car rattles *ALLOT*), so the shock proofing they did has paid off. In fact, one of the main reasons for the switch to an MP3 hard drive system, in my car, was because the high end Alpine skip proof CD head unit I have can't handle my car's massive amount of bass... the CD's would always skip on competition bass and quite a few "normal" songs!

As for keeping the code closed source, I'm ok with that, on one condition, they release updates. If it gets to the point where they are going to abandon support for us 3000 owners, then they need to give back to the community that built them into what they are/were. I guess only time will tell, but it's sad that the most likely option is that we will never see source code.

My only other concern is warranty, and upgrades. I'm sure soon enough, 40GB is not going to be enough. What are the limits to upgrading the drives in the unit? What is entailed, and how can we go about obtaining the necessary information to upgrade our units at some point? Obviously, this isn't something I'll think about until my warranty is void, but after that, I'm pretty much willing to have the largest capacity Empeg on the planet! Anyone have the information I'll need to accomplish this? Any of the Empeg guys willing to share the in's and out's and how-to's of swapping/replacing hard drives?

On to SonicBlue/Rio, I really have no respect for the belligerent assholes that run that company. I don't see how they can sit on a gold mine and throw it away because it's not cheap enough for the general populous?! The products they make (Rio Portable MP3 player for example, which I happen to own) are complete pieces of sh^H^Hcrap! I can't stand their pathetic tech support, crappy software, and poor product design. The Rio handheld scream poor design, and I don't know how they even got $200 for them when they came out. If any market could use digital audio, it's definitely the high margin car audio market. It's a shame that they didn't do a little more market research and technical partnering to turn the Empeg into the next "killer app" for car audio. It wouldn't have been hard... I'm sure companies like Alpine would jump at the chance to buy up OEM agreements for value priced components, like an Empeg-MP3 Jukebox to plug into Alpine's AI-Net. Maybe I'm just dreaming, but I know allot of people into car audio, and I know ever more people who love my Empeg... It's always the center of attention... Piss poor move SonicBlue!

Oh, and to that guy who was talking about GPS, etc, I'd love to support effort into that! I drooled over the Empeg geek site listing of the Palm/GPS solution, but I assume that never materialized! :(


MK 2 - 40GB - Green