PERIPHERAL Rio's comeback falls short with Nitrus music player

The Rio can store only about 375 songs and costs $299.
By MATTHEW FORDAHL
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER
So far, no gadget has come very close to mimicking the style and simplicity of Apple Computer's top-selling iPod digital music player.
Now, the name that started it all in 1998 -- Rio -- is trying to recapture its past glory after the financial blowup of its former parent company, SonicBlue. Recently acquired by Digital Networks North America, Rio is pumping up the volume with seven new models.
The first new release, Rio Nitrus, looks like a real contender. Like Apple's player, the Nitrus stores tunes on a small hard drive. The Rio is more compact and runs longer on a single battery charge. And its sound quality is excellent.
But Nitrus doesn't recapture the music player crown for Rio. The sleek black gadget is too pricey, its software lackluster and hard drive too skimpy for the price. It simply doesn't offer as much bang for the buck as the iPod, which itself isn't cheap.
At $299, the Nitrus offers 1.5 gigabytes of storage, enough for about 375 songs. The $299 iPod, Apple's low-end model for either Macintosh or Windows computers, has 10 gigabytes of space -- enough for 2,500 songs.
Pluses and minuses
At just 2 ounces, Nitrus is slightly easier to handle than the 5.6-ounce iPod, and, shaped roughly like a wedge, it easily slides into a pocket. Still, button placement on the iPod is easier on the hand, while those on the Nitrus seem randomly scattered on the sides and front.
Navigation on the Nitrus is primarily controlled with a tiny red joystick -- dubbed RioStick -- that protrudes from its front. It nudges up, down, left and right to forward or skip back by tracks as well as to play and pause the music.
Rio has always had one of the most intuitive and clean user interfaces. The Nitrus is no exception -- once you figure out the gadget's button scheme.
Songs can be played randomly or by album, artist, genre, year or track. A five-band equalizer, with several presets, can be easily adjusted even while the music is playing. A liquid crystal display, the size of a postage stamp, shows details on each song.
With a Universal Serial Bus 2.0 connection to a PC, songs load about 40 times faster than older players that rely on USB 1.1, which also is supported. Though theoretically faster than the iPod's FireWire, USB 2.0 has greater overhead that wipes out the performance advantage.
The Nitrus, which ships Wednesday for Windows users, includes a copy of the Rio Music Manager software that falls short of being a one-stop shop for burning, ripping and organizing music.
On my primary computer -- a home-built Windows system based on Intel's latest processor and chipset -- the software immediately crashes. On another computer, which also runs Windows but has an AMD processor and different chipset, it ran fine.
The software found my music and loaded it into a library with no problem. It also automatically generated play lists based on the various criteria I set, such as genre, year and artist. It moved the music to the player.
Unlike Apple's iTunes for Macintosh computers or even MusicMatch's Jukebox, which Windows iPod users run, Rio Music Manager cannot convert CD tunes to the MP3 format.
Instead, users can choose Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format or buy an upgrade. The upgrade link, however, gets you Rio's home page and provides no information on upgrading to MP3 ripping (Rio says it will be fixed).
Glaring omission
Oddly, although Rio Music Manager supports the Ogg Vorbis format, which is increasingly popular especially among fans of open-source software, the Nitrus can't play such files. (The upcoming Rio Karma player will, and Rio officials say support might be added later to the Nitrus.)
Rio ships Real Networks' RealOne software, which does encode MP3s but has a tendency to take over computers with pop-up ads and upgrade reminders. Songs also can be transferred via Windows Media Player.
Once the music was loaded, the Nitrus ran continuously on its rechargeable battery for 13 hours -- three hours shorter than advertised but about five hours longer than the latest iPods. Thanks to a 16 megabyte memory buffer, it never missed a beat, even at the gym.
Five years ago, Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. invented the portable digital music player with its Rio 300. The recording industry failed to bring it down with a lawsuit. It survives today despite the mismanagement and neglect of its former parent companies.
Now, its new owner seems serious about reinvigorating the brand, and a half dozen more Rio models are slated to be launched in the coming weeks. The Nitrus is a good start and would be a competitor if its software were more fully developed and its price cut in half.
Perhaps one of the upcoming Rios will be the next iPod. Then again, maybe it's time to aim higher and do something that hasn't been done before. Like Rio did in 1998.