Two years ago, the Internet Governance Forum was formed due to a compromise between world leaders, consequently the forum decided to meet yearly to discuss matters concerning the information medium. The first meeting concluded that the US should maintain control of the internet, but the position was agreed to be open to discussion on an annual basis. At present, the US government is responsible for the nomenclature of internet addresses. This point is resting increasingly less easy with other world leaders, as the naming system really defines how users make use of the internet. With the internet's increasing power as an information source (propaganda tool), governments globally, understandably, all want a piece of the action.

As the US government funded much of the internet's development, it holds veto rights against Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (the California based nonprofit organization it selected to manage domain names). The event is unlikely to make any fundamental changes to the infrastructure as it stands, yet the voices of dissent signal an unsettling future for the governing parties that wield control over the internet's current direction. Is it time for a change to the original system? What do you guys make of the underlying discourse? [Yahoo News]

Apparently, songs from the Zune marketplace can be dragged onto PlaysForSure devices such as the Rio without any problems. Whether or not this is a goof on Microsoft's part or a quiet new effort to make somebody (anybody!) care about their new player and store is currently unknown.

Either of you out there with both a Rio and a Zune Marketplace account want to try this and confirm that it works? –Adam Frucci

Zunerama [via Crunchgear]

Sometimes we still cry a little when we think about poor Rio, but thems the breaks. – John Biggs

Woot Page [Woot]

The Cowon iAudio U3 gets picture-reviewed once again, Creative's Zen Touch gets a firmware update, and we find the last remaining remnants of Rio's last beta test.

Cowon's new iAudio U3 seems to be getting pretty good English previews so far. The Koreans have been playing around with this little gem for a while now and have given us several reviews. Sadly, only a few of you will be able to understand a word of what they're saying, so, for the rest of us, they are merely picture-reviews. EblueSun provides us with the review this time around. Hopefully, we will get our hands on U3 shortly and give you our own perspective.

Creative has released some many players in the last year that it has been sort of hard to keep up with. The Zen Touch seems to often be forgotten, as it came at a time where the iPod Photo had been released, and the general consensus of the Touch was "that would have been good 2 years ago). Creative did update its firmware (2.11.01) and it simply corrects an error with the Custom Eq.

Many of us mourned the day in which we found out Rio was dead. Sadly, I bring no news of a rebirth. We simply found the last remnants of Rio's beta testing for the "Cubic" and the "Avalon". They seem to have been testing GUI themes/schemes on July 24, only two days before word of their demise.

That's the news for today, see ya next time!

Prices and Reviews for Creative Zen Touch [CNET]

Prices for Crown iAudio Products [NexTag]

Prices for Rio MP3 Products [Amazon]

Today we'll show you some nice shots of Sony's hot new NW-A1000/3000 DAPs, a patent that could hold the key to the latest iPod feature, and a triple-capacity Rio Karma. Plus, an Mp3 player has received a perfect review, and surprisingly, it's not an iPod.

The latest and greatest Sony players are here (by "here" of course I mean Japan). Anyway, ATRACLife took some excellent photos comparing the new DAPs to the legacy Sony models. An important thing to note; next-generation devices are usually smaller than their predecessor, but here, the A3000 is actually larger than the previous NW-HD5 player.

Another iPod rumor has passed by our ears, but this time it's not related to video. A little patent research has shown us that Apple employees have applied for a patent relating to a method for approximating an on-screen graphic equalizer. Is this the next big iPod feature? We may find out tomorrow.

Rio may be dead, but their revered Karma is not. In fact, it has just been successfully modded by a user to hold a 60 GB hard drive (one that is much larger than the stock 20 GB drive). Okay, so in order to make room in the case the guy had to use a smaller battery, which halves the battery life, but it might be worth it. Or you could just grab a 60 GB iPod, if you roll that way.

So, how does an Mp3 player no one's heard of get a perfect rating in a review? That's a great question, especially since in our review we felt the Nex3 from Frontier Labs (who?) was very average. Maybe the reviewers mistook it for an iPod. That's understandable; the Nex3 is small, it's yellow, it's...eh, nevermind.

Thanks folks, see you next time.

Today's DAP Headlines:

Ever wanted your iPod to boast a simple, elegant, and fruity look? Your wishes can come true with Griffin's new Chameleon line of cases. We've reported on the 60 GB brick known as the Incoder HD E1, which shows that slapping a wheel controller on the front doesn't automatically make it look cool. It's also day of the deal in DAPland, where you can score a 2.5 GB Rio Ce2100 (AKA Carbon Jr.) or a 512 MB Lexar LDP-600 for the same price as an iPod Shuffle.

iPod accessory guru Griffin Technologies is at it again, this time with a product they call the Chameleon case. It's a series of sticker-like cases made of polyvinyl, available in 16 different designs. If you want a kiwi-clad iPod Mini, these guys are the only guys in town.

The HD E1 from Taiwan-based Incoder is a mammoth DAP that feels like a 2002 device in today's world. Sure it's got a CF slot, IR receiver, and line-in recorder built in, but at 28mm (1.12 in.) thick, you won't be taking it very far in your pocket anytime soon. Plus, it's 2005, an 8 hour battery life doesn't cut it guys!

Rio may be dead, but they still have stock left in electronics stores, and it's likely to be on the way out fast and cheap. The Ce2100 model (basically the Carbon with a smaller 2.5 GB drive) can be found for just $ 99 online. For the same price as a 512 MB iPod Shuffle, you get blessed with outstanding features like an LCD screen and drop-and-drop databasing capability. Looks too good to pass up.

Lexar may not be finished like Rio is, but there's still a great deal out there on their LDP-600 flash player. For just $ 79, you get 512 MB built-in memory, an SD card slot, FM radio/recording, voice recording, and even an FM transmitter. The kitchen sink will be sold seperately as an accessory, but with everything this Lexar DAP has included, it looks like an outstanding bargain.

That's all for now, have a great Labor Day weekend!

Today's DAP headlines:

We've reviewed everyone's favorite (and pretty much the only) cube-shaped DAP, the MobiBlu DAH-1500i. Next to that, there's a photo gallery containing some of Rio Audio's former works-in-progress. In regular news, MSI puts its Mega View 588 on the market and Creative went out shopping for their latest unit, the Creative MuVo Vidz.

Although it has been reviewed by several others before, we thought that adding another (in-depth) article on the MobiBlu DAH-1500i wouldn't hurt anybody. Our verdict:

Nothing really too much to complain about. Sure its not perfect, the buttons are a little bit cheap, the cube shape isn't ideal, and the battery life kinda sucks, but, all in all, I really like this product. Mobiblu truly has a winner on their hands with the DAH-1500i. It is incredibly unique, ridiculously small, and just so damn cool!

A steady flow of revelations has swooped across the planes of DAP land, ever since Rio had officially been declared "down and out". We've gathered the most interesting visual materials and combined them into a photo gallery that's filled with all kinds of former beta equipment.

Dark clouds have gathered over the once sleepy business of Portable Video Players (PMPs, PVRs - whatever you want to call it). Other companies are trying to keep up with the key players - next to Archos' solid new line-up there's the recently announced iStation v43, the Zen Vision by Creative and also this Mega View 588. Taiwan-based MSI has combined a lot of useful features into a reasonably compact package: there's your basic video recording, TV-out, voice recorder, SD card slot and a QVGA color screen. Should come available soon enough (in Europe, that is) at some 439 Euro.

Finally, Creative came up with yet another new flash memory DAP - the Vidz. Strangely enough, we actually recognized this MPEG4/DivX-compatible unit as something called "Sorell SF-3500". Said player, made by a relatively small South-Korean company, seems to have undergone a minor cosmetic update so it could all add up in the end. Is Creative losing it's touch already?

That's it's for today, folks!

We take a look at the MobiBlu DAH-1600, check out a weird metal box - once code-named "Rio Audio Vixen" - and peek at Archos' Gmini-500... among other things.

Yesterday, we brought you the low-down on the agonizing death of Rio Audio (a former key player in the DAP industry). Today, we're adding some additional information on the "Vixen" projects and an early prototype of the Chroma. Next to that, we've combined all of our knowledge concerning this item and put it into this nice summary.

MobiBlu seems to be on fire these days. Shortly after the successes of their DAH-1500 ("the cube-shaped player"), they came up with the DAH-1800. Now they've upgraded their existing DAH-1400 player and renamed it "DAH-1600". Very inspiring, no? Well, at least battery life has gone up to 20 hours per charge. The biggest improvement would have to be the addition of USB-Host 2.0 functionality.

The Archos Gmini-500 struck us as "a bit odd." Unlike its compact brother-in-arms, the Gmini-402, the G500 is quite a bulky machine. It does come with a nice 4-inch screen and reasonable specifications... but the G500 seems to be nothing more than a stripped AV500 (there's no video recording functionality). It better be cheap or really, really cool.

Every now and then, one comes across peculiar objects while shopping at even more peculiar stores. The Dutch retailer "Blokker"—not exactly known as a certified seller of DAP technology—decided to take the plunge. They're offering something called the "Xiron portable media player", which basically does anything you want at a mere 199 Euro. We suppose there's got to be some catch somewhere, and we've spotted one disadvantage already: it comes with only 128MB of basic storage capacity (expandable to 1GB, though).

That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

It's all about Rio's tragic demise this time. We've got juicy details on Rio's could-have-been series of super DAPs, such as the Chroma, Cubic and Avalon.

Our first post-mortem: The ill-fated Rio Audio Chroma didn't make it very far. We did, however, obtain some pictures of the Karma's supposed successor. Indeed, it looked like an enlarged Carbon. And yes: all of this gadgetry would have supported gapless playback, Ogg Vorbis, Flac and whatnot.

Then there's the Rio "Carbon C" - dubbed "Cubic" during its beta phase. Tears welled in many eyes when looking at the supposed specifications for this device. Take the suggested 30-35 hour battery life, for instance—that's impressive. Well, it would have been impressive.

The "Carbon C" was supposed to come in 3 versions: the regular 30GB edition—with its nice big screen plus a line-in jack—and two smaller ones (6GB and 8GB), both using the original Carbon's shell. This compact "Carbon C" was nicknamed "Avalon" during its beta stages and nearly made it to production. Then, Rio struck that infamous deal with SigmaTel... and the Avalon had to die with it.

We've also got some tidbits on the late "Rio Audio Vixen" and "Quartz", as well as information about a sports version of the Carbon and something we'd like to call the "K3".

Finally, there's word on a 2GB flash memory Carbon. This unit was scheduled to see its release next Christmas, as were many of the above-mentioned products.

That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

D&M Holdings Inc. (TSE II: 6735), today announced it would exit the mass-market portable digital audio player business, currently marketed under the Rio brand, by September 30, 2005. D&M Holdings will retain the Rio brand and trademark, and as previously announced the company retains access via license to MP3 player technology that was sold in July to SigmaTel, Inc.

In related news, the company will also buy Boston Acoustics, a formerly high-end audio company, in order to enable its home audio vision.

Rio was one of my favorite portable MP3 player makers. I actually feel a little misty.

D&M Holdings Inc. to Exit Mass-Market Portable Digital Audio Player Business [PRNewswire]

Rio to Sigmatel [dapreview]