Diamond Multimedia is now shipping the Rio 500. What makes the Rio 500 stand out from the other MP3 players is its explicit Mac support. According to their press release:
The Rio 500 device is the first portable MP3 player to support the Macintosh platform, connecting to iMac and G3 systems through the USB port. During its debut at the 1999 MacWorld Expo, the Rio 500 product was awarded the "Best of Show." The player includes Casady & Greene’s SoundJam MP digital audio system, which provides a powerful suite of digital audio tools, including MP3 encoding, playback and downloading, for Macintosh users.
With Pine Technology’s CD-MP3 player and the Handspring Visor having an MP3 module on the horizon, we’ll soon have more choices for portable MP3-players that we can use with our Macs.
So it looks like the Mac is getting some respect from the MP3 world. With USB catching on in the PC world, hardware developers only need the right software to make it Mac-compatible. Way to go, Rio!
