Empeg was founded in July of 1998 by Hugo Fiennes and Steve Sanders. Hugo Fiennes answered some questions I had about their Empeg car player.
Craig: Why is the timing right for an MP3 player for cars?
Hugo: Many people (like me) now have large MP3 collections and find it frustrating to go to a low-tech medium like CD or tape to get music into our cars. It's much more elegant to have a music repository to take along and use in the car or at home. That way, we've always got our favourite music with us.
Craig: Why did you choose Linux to run the MP3 player?
Hugo: We needed a powerful, flexible OS to support our applications: the Empeg does much more than just play tunes—it has an integrated database and uses glibc threads and IPC quite heavily. As the Empeg is hugely overpowered for its current task, we wanted an OS that would allow hackers to add their own code to the system—no point letting all those cycles go to waste.
Also, I'd already ported Linux to my previous home-brewed ARM setup (which used an arm7100) and was impressed by how easy it is to get running on new hardware. Luckily, Phil B's (and others') work on the ARM tools and Russell King's (and others') work on the kernel means the ARM architecture is fairly well-supported, especially in 2.2.
Craig: Will you be releasing any tools for desktop machines to help manage MP3s on your Empeg player?
Hugo: Yes, it comes with a Windows 98 application to download tunes and organize your database. The unit will also ship with Linux tools (which we use ourselves) to download tunes, although the categorization and database management isn't currently supported on Linux hosts. We have a small software team and can't attempt everything at once, although we've had many offers of help from third parties for GTK, KDE and other versions, which we'll try to support as much as we can.
Craig: On what platforms and under what type of license?
Hugo: The Windows 98 version is commercial and comes with the Empeg. The Linux tools will have source and transfer specs published. We haven't yet decided what license this will be under.
Craig: How difficult was it to design and build the Empeg player?
Hugo: It's a 100% custom hardware and software effort. There aren't any off-the-shelf parts in there (simply no room). Our team has spent about the last six months on it, and we're all experienced commercial programmers/hardware designers with many commercial products behind us.
Craig: How expandable is the Empeg player? Can I add a larger disk drive?
Hugo: Yes; although opening the unit will void the warranty. This is mainly because of the fact that it's very tightly packed in there.
Craig: Can I add custom software?
Hugo: Yes, we're planning to offer a “development” image that can be downloaded into the player so you get shell access and so on. The UI is written in Python to allow for easy changes, skins, etc.
Craig: How many units have been pre-sold?
Hugo: The queue has over 6000 people in it.
Craig: Are these people who have expressed interest or actually sent money?
Hugo: Expressed interest—we're expecting many to drop out, but these are not people on the mailing list—that's separate—these are people who have reserved a place in the queue.
Craig: Where will you be able to purchase the player?
Hugo: Direct from us, at the start. We've set up a US 800-number support and service center. Distribution sales are planned for when we've cleared our backlog.
Craig: How difficult is the unit to install compared to “traditional” car stereos?
Hugo: No more difficult than a traditional stereo which doesn't have an internal amp. There's no room for this in the Empeg, so you need a power amp between the unit and your speakers.
Craig: What's next for the company after commercial release begins?
Hugo: More software development—we expect the software to progress and change quickly from user suggestions. We're sure we won't please everyone with the first cut, but as the unit is easily upgradeable by the user, this isn't a real problem. We have some other projects in the pipeline (some of which redefine the term “techno lust”), but we're not going for low-end stuff. We're more interested in making the cutest, most full-featured Linux toys that can be made.