Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

Product Description
From the Manufacturer
The Rio Forge is designed for people that like to play hard and use music to play even harder. Rugged and compact, the Rio Forge Sport player uses no moving parts and stays solid even when your body is moving fast.

The Rio Forge series is our latest generation of flash-based sports players. The Rio Forge is designed for people that like to play hard and use music to play even harder. The new design integrates the protective rubber grip from previous models with a stainless steel face plate for added durability. Up to 20 hours of battery life allows you hours of non-stop work out time. Comfortable Sport Clip earphones and a newly designed case with armband keep your player and music secure and accessible. Simple menus and intuitive controls make for easy one-handed operation. Stopwatch and Lap Timer make the Forge the ultimate gym or running companion.

Features

256 MB of memory stores up to 4 hours of music

Sport Clip Earphones

Sports Case with Armband

USB 2.0 for Fast Transfers

Stopwatch & Lap Timer

FM Radio

Audible Support

Up to 20 hours Battery Life

MSC Compatible for easy drag and drop of music and data files.

Rugged Design Provides Skip Free Music

Expansion Memory Slot Lets You Add up to 1 GB of Additional Memory

Includes Rio Music Manager -- the most intuitive way to create and manage your digital music library

Box Contents: Rio Forge 256, Carrying Case with Armband, Sport Clip Earphones, 1 Energizer AAA Alkaline Battery, USB 2.0 Cable, Installation Disk, Quick Start Poster, Warranty Card

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Product Description:
The ultimate gym or running companion, the Rio Forge Sport combines rugged design and practical flash-based technology. With 256MB of memory, you can store up to 8 hr. of music, or up to 120 songs and a 24-hour battery life ensures a non-stop work out. Features grippy, protective rubber and a shiny stainless steel faceplate; simple menus and intuitive controls with easy drag and drop of music and data files. Available storage capacity may vary.

Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

Average customer rating:

Nice product, really use full

Poor until Software Upgrade - Now Great ! ! ! Best for books, podcasts, travel.

Not so good...

It's good enough for me

Best sport player I've found

Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

Manufacturer: Rio
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

Gadgets for Fitness Fanatics | Gift Ideas | Gift Ideas | Specialty Stores | Electronics Features | Electronics
Under $100 | Gifts by Price | Gift Ideas | Specialty Stores | Electronics Features | Electronics
MP3 Players | Portable Audio & Video | Refurbished & Used | Special Features | Electronics Features | Electronics
Audio & Video | Refurbished & Used | Special Features | Electronics Features | Electronics
Up to $75 | by Price | Gifts | Specialty Stores | Computers Features | Electronics
MP3 Players | by Type | Gifts | Specialty Stores | Computers Features | Electronics
128 MB to 512 MB | Flash Drive-Based | MP3 Players | Audio & Video | Categories | Electronics
Accessories:

Rayovac 824-24PP Alkaline AAA Batteries (24-pack)

Rayovac I-C3 15 Minute NiMH AAA Size Carded 2 Pack

NETGEAR Wireless Digital Music Player

Verbatim 3.5 Rewritable Optical 230MB 512 B/S Mac Fmt 1-Pack

Product Features:

Sports-oriented digital audio player with stainless steel faceplate and protective rubber grip

256 MB of flash memory for up to 4 hours of MP3 and 8 hours of WMA storage

Includes stopwatch, laptimer, and FM radio

SD expansion slot of up to an additional 1 GB of memory

Up to 20 hours of battery life

ASIN: B0002UB2PU

Product Description

Rio Forge 256MB Sport MP3 Player 90260558 - The Rio Forge series is our latest generation of flash based sport players. The Forge was designed for people that like to play hard and use music to play even harder. The new design integrates the grippy, protective rubber from previous models with a new shiny stainless steel face plate for added durability. Up to 20 hours of battery life allow you hours of non-stop work out time. Comfortable Sport Clip earphones and a newly designed case with armband keep your player and music secure and accessible. Simple menus and intuitive controls make for easy one-handed operation. Stopwatch and Lap Timer make the Forge the ultimate gym or running companion.

Customer Reviews:

Nice product, really use full.......2007-01-09

I bought this mp3 player, for some personal reasons, the 1st, was cause I wanted to train on the gym, no need of too much songs, and a good look cause I dont like the slim actual mp3 players, it's a little tough look, good for a big strong gym trainer :p

Well, only thing, take care your screen, it could get broke ;)

Poor until Software Upgrade - Now Great ! ! ! Best for books, podcasts, travel. .......2006-11-15

I feel bad so many have had bad experiences with the Forge. I've had mine since October 2005. It locked up at first, and Rio's phone-support folks directed me to firmware upgrade instructions. All has been near-perfect since then.

The expandable memory is perhaps the best feature. I load a few spare 128-meg cards with books and music, and use the on-board flash for daily podcasts.

You don't need to use Rio software, as your PC will recognize the unit as a new drive. Track play order is by ID tag data - delete all that if you want tracks sorted by file name. You can also select by artist, album, etc. Even play only internal or only MMC/SD .

The unique shape and raised button profile let you wear it in a shirt pocket and work the controls without looking. Perfect for the gym and outdoor work.

It's very podcast / audiobook friendly. Pause-to-powerdown lets you come back to the same part of a track. Same if the battery runs out. 9 bookmarks stay memorized even through a battery change. (although for some reason the date reverts back to 2005 when you replace the battery. I've given up setting the time and date for that reason. ) The search mode speeds up as you hold down the ff / rw button. You can speed through long tracks that way.

On the whole, it's very good and I'd buy it again. Can't find anything else that combines so many features for podcast, audiobook and music listening.

Not so good..........2006-08-25

I got this player as a present and ever since, I have had alot of troubles with it!

First of all...within the same month, the player got so hot and the battery was scalding hot...and it melted parts of the plastic on the player!!! I NEVER throw away warrantees, but I must've thrown it out with the bag...so that was my horrid mistake! But I didn't expect it to get so hot that it melted plastic! I still do not know why it did this...

I was still able to play it however..but over time, it would shut off like others have said, and it would freeze and it would do weird things. I had to be a magician to get the dang thing to work!~

If I could just reiterate, I would not recommend this product due to product defects and the way that mine almost caught fire a few times!! Rio is no longer around...please take this as a clue in case you want to buy a used one!!!

It's good enough for me.......2006-07-02

My first mp3 player. Well, I love it, i feel i have to, but only about 50 songs fit!!! and it is in black and white!!! well,might as well go into pro's and con's:
PRO'S:
Radio
Stopwatch
Software's good
Very affordable
Pocket-shaped
It's never given me problems, it's just inferior to others
CON'S:
Not much memory
Takes aaa batteries
Everytime the battery falls out/dies the clock resets
Black and white
Earphones broke in less than 6 months.
Weird shape
Conclusion: Good first time mp3 player, but you need lots of batteries, patience, and your own earphones.

Best sport player I've found.......2006-06-27

I bought the rio forge over a year ago for motorcycle riding when my hard drive 5GB model trashed the hard drive. I wanted flash memory, and an expandable slot for at least an extra GB of memory, and mp3/wma file playing capability.

I use it riding notorcycles offroad, desert, major dust, hard knocks and a tough life clipped to my jacket pocket with the belt clip.

Controls are a bit small but can be used even with gloves on when it's where I can't see it. Kind of important when riding.

The only real issue is the battery cover came off somewhere in the Texas desert aroud the mexican border, riding in heavy dust gets it ffiled with so much dust without the cover that it dusts up the inside glass so I can't read the display. So far just taking it apart and blowing it out has been fine. Still works like champ.

I do have to hold down the center control button while starting it now and then if doesn't want to recognize the expansion card, that's the method for resetting the unit, making it reinitialize from scratch, works every time.

Good sound (I use custome molded ear buds), and the 1GB SD card I use makes for around 270 songs which gets me through a 2-3 day adventure ride.

So far it's the only thing I've found that works for me, and has been through thousands of miles of rough offroad in Wyoming, Colorado over 13k foot jeep trail mountin passes, Texas, Carolinas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and elsewhere as well as thousands of miles of touring on a street bike clipped to my jacket.

Just came by here to see if I can still buy another one before they are discontinued so when mine finally does get trashed I'll have another one.

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