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The Rio Carbon is a line of
digital audio player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...
s that was produced by the now defunct Rio from 2004 to 2005. It was similar in size, capacity, and cost with Apple's iPod Mini which debuted earlier the same year. This was Rio's second player to use a miniature hard disk for storage, after the Rio Nitrus, which was first to market with a 1.5 GB drive in late 2003.


History

The Carbon was announced on August 2, 2004. The first 500 Carbons were produced as a Limited Edition with a unique serial number (1-500) that was laser engraved into the polished steel (back) side of the player. The initial Carbon was silver with a 5 GB drive and retailed US$249.99, same as the iPod Mini with 4 GB. An off-white version called the Carbon Pearl was next, with a 5GB drive at first and then a 6 GB drive later as the price of Microdrives fell. This was followed by the 2.5 GB ce2100 (black) and ce2110 (light green) which offered reduced features and cost. An 8 GB model with a colour screen was planned, code-named Avalon, but was never produced due to the demise of Rio in August 2005. Rio officially exited the portable music player market in August 2005 and is no longer providing firmware updates for the players. The last officially released version of the firmware (1.95) supports subscription-based and purchased PlaysForSure licenses. A previously unreleased version of Rio Carbon firmware, called "The Developer's Cut", was released in January 2006 by enthusiasts, and offers several new and updated features


Features

The Carbon features a microphone and a bidirectional wheel, which is used for scrolling and adjusting volume, along with a 5-way navigation pad. It is small in size (82 x 61 x 13 millimeters) and weigh 3.2
ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight, or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States ...
s, and is powered by a non-removable rechargeable lithium ion battery that has up to 20 hours of playback time. The wheel is notched. Either the 5-way navigation pad or the scroll wheel and the menu button can be used independently to navigate through menus or they can be used together. The two have different behaviors, and are therefore complementary, not redundant. Since the wheel is used for navigation as well as volume control, one must leave the menu to adjust the volume. The Carbon can play MP3 and WMA audio files as well as Audible.com
audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...
files. It is
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and
Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
compatible, since it is usable as a USB mass storage device. It is also PlaysForSure compatible. Other features include: * 5 GB of storage on a 1" microdrive * 5-band equalizer with several presets * Built-in microphone for voice recording * USB mass storage device compatible, allowing for simple
drag-and-drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, it can be used to ...
ping of files * Built-in rechargeable battery offers up to 20 hours music playback * Charge from the USB port or the included power adapter * Windows and Mac compatible (the player itself is Linux compatible as well, but not the included software) * Includes Rio Music Manager software to manage the digital music library * Can carry non-audio files like a
USB flash drive A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and u ...


Included software

Included with the purchase of the Rio Carbon and Rio Karma is Rio Music Manager, which can be used to transfer music to the Carbon. It only allows transfer of music files that are totally compatible with the player.


Carbonising

The Carbon, at the time of its release, had the unique distinction of costing less than one of its own components, its
hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
. This distinction led to an activity known by the slang term "carbonising," whereby customers purchase a Rio Carbon, only to dismantle it and sell the disk drive for a
net profit In business and Accountancy, accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and Amortization (a ...
.


ce2100/2110

The Rio ce2100 is a relative of the Carbon that features a 2.5 GB hard drive. The ce2100 (sometimes mistakenly referred to as the ce2500), does not have a microphone, but retains the microphone hole since it shares the same case as the Carbon. The ce2100 comes in black. The green version has model number ce2110, the only difference being the color of the plastic piece on the front and its limited retail availability (Target and FYE stores only). The ce2100 is also compatible with the "Developer's Cut" firmware update.


Firmware

*Version 3.04 supports both MTP and MSC connections.


CF Modding

The Rio Carbon, along with all of Rio's Microdrive-based players, can be modified to run on Compact Flash cards instead of hard disk. This requires a partial disassembly of the unit, removing the Microdrive, replacing it with a compatible CF card, and then formatting the memory and loading the device firmware. Compatible CF cards must be 8GB or less, and must have TrueATA/TrueIDE mode capability. This mod will increase speed and responsiveness of the player, along with making it more durable and increasing battery life. The 8GB limit is due to the 24-bit addressing in the firmware.
Some confirmed compatible cards: *Sandisk CF Ultra II 1GB/2GB *Sandisk CF Ultra 8GB *Sandisk CF Ultra II 4GB


See also

* Trekstor Vibez * Rio Karma * Empeg Car


References

{{reflist


External links


Rio's list of hard drive audio players

Rio Audio Expands its Award-Winning Lineup of MP3 Players
- press release
Forum thread about unreleased Rio firmware "3.02 and 3.04 The Developer's Cut"
via the
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3.04 Download link 1

3.04 Download link 2
Products introduced in 2004 Digital audio players