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January 08, 2004 - I kicked off the day with a visit to Rio's suite at the Hilton. The appointment was both really good and really bad. It was really good because they showed off a string of incredibly cool devices. The downside is that most of the info is under NDA until this spring. I found it odd that the company would bring product to CES and then prohibit press coverage. That is, after all, the whole point of the show. Worse still, the one product I can write about without trashing a working relationship was announced two days ago.
The Nitrus 4GB is Rio's new one-inch drive portable. The only difference between the new version and the original Nitrus is a color scheme change. The Nitrus is an excellent little fellow, so nothing else was necessary. Upping the drive from 1.5GB to 4GB will get a lot of folks interested and will help the new Nitrus stand out in an increasingly popular market. Rio is also pricing the new Nitrus very aggressively. It will retail for $249.00 and will ship this month. You can see it in the following pictures. The shots aren't very good because the silver is so reflective. In person it looks great.
Now for the stuff I can't write about. Firstly, Rio will be announcing a new Karma this spring. It will get a redesign and is very small. I can't tell you how much smaller it is than the original, but it is a good deal more compact. It also looks really awesome. The new Karma also has some solid new features. It will get a color LCD and an SD expansion slot. I can't say anything else, but it was one of the most exciting devices at the show. Rio is on the right track.
The other product I can't talk about is a new Nitrus. I can only tell you that it is very, very compact and very, very cool looking. Sorry.
Other players included a few flash-based models, including a drastically redesigned Chiba. Of course, I can't tell you anything about them.
Look for some really slick products from Rio this spring. For now, check out the pics of the Nitrus 4GB.
