Rio, maker of MP3 players since before you were a rocker, has come out with a slew of new units. Included in the selection of flash-based and hard-drive-based MP3 players is the new Nitrus, pictured left. The tiny little player is just 3″ x 2.4″ x 0.6″ (about the size of a stack of business cards) and weighs about 2 oz. but packs an astonishing 1.5 gigs of music in MP3 or WMA format. It has a 16-hour battery life, and transfers songs over the fast USB 2.0 cable. Unfortunately the cable does not charge the unit. The E.A.T. on this one is high, since you’re paying for the small size and unique form: $300, which makes it even less of a bargain than buying a New Beatle just to get an iPod.
Hardware Beyond the Hype