Rio adds 6GB Carbon MP3 player, support for Microsoft PlaysForSure music subscription program

Even though there's a lot of news related to iPods this week because of a MacWorld convention in Boston, other companies are still making headlines as well with the usual product announcements. Case in point: Rio announced Tuesday they had released the latest in their Carbon MP3 player line, the Pearl 6GB. It's priced at $229.99 and available now.

The Rio Carbon Pearl 6GB offers up enough space to store and play up to 1,500 MP3 or WMA songs. Playtime is up to 20 hours on a single charge of the rechargeable battery. Other features include a built-in mic for voice recordings, drag and drop of music files from the computer into the player's memory and support of USB 2.0 for high speed file transfers.

In the same news release Rio also said they had upgraded the firmware (the software which resides inside the player and tells it what to do) of their Carbon and ce2100 lines to support Microsoft's subscription music program called PlaysForSure. The firmware upgrade, which will appear in new players as they ship, can also be downloaded here.

"We are pleased to provide our customers with the ultimate digital music solution through the portable music subscription model," says Dan Torres, Vice President of Product Marketing at Rio. "For the customer who wants freedom of choice in where or how they legally explore, discover, and purchase music, the Rio Carbon and Rio ce2100 product lines with the choice of size, from 2.5GB to 6GB, are the best solutions, offering a sleek and stylish design, long-lasting battery life, plenty of memory capacity and the promise of being subscription service upgradeable."