MP3s and iPods Are you tired of holding on to all those discs? Mp3 players are devices which hold a large amount of your music. Being that they are portable mp3 players they allow you to have a great selection of your music at your fingertips. They come with software that can help you create your music to take anywhere. Using portable mp3 players to download a large amount of your favorite music and without taking up alot of pocket space is what you are looking for.
There is a lot of information online about mp3 players on how they work the different storage capacities and the features that will satisfy even the toughest critics. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. The MP3 player is the most recent in an evolution of music formats that have helped consumers enjoy their tunes.
MP3 players are as varied as the people who buy them. Choice is based on several factors, including how you plan to use it, the amount of music you want to carry in your MP3 player and how much you are prepared to pay. The audio MP3 player has changed our world. Each generation has its own revolution and ours is occurring right now. The introduction of the wonder music gadget iPod by Apple brought an absolute revolution in the world of audio entertainment and forever changed the way we listened to our favorite music.
The iPods helped us get rid of any kind of external storage device like tapes or CDs and gave the convenience of loading our music directly in to the player and listening from it. Since the launch of the first iPod on October 23, 2001 their technology has been forever changing with new and more advanced models being launched constantly. The Apple iPod MP3 player as become an event bigger than anyone could have ever anticipated. No other MP3 player has achieved such status, and the invasion of white earpieces has spread worldwide.
The iPod is a portable media player designed and marketed by Apple and launched on October 23, 2001. Apple introduced the iPod, an MP3 player with the unheard of storage capacity of 5 gigabytes. The product line up includes the hard drive based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the video capable iPod Nano, and the compact iPod Shuffle. Former iPod models include the iPod Mini and the spin off iPod Photo. IPod Classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all others models use flash memory to enable their smaller size.
Storage capacity varies by model, ranging from 2GB for the iPod Shuffle to 160GB for the iPod Classic. IPods with color displays use anti-aliased graphics and text, with sliding animations. All iPods have five buttons integrated into the click wheel an innovation that gives an uncluttered, minimalist interface. The buttons perform basic functions such as menu, play, pause, next track, and previous track. The iPod Touch has no click wheel; instead it uses a 3. 5″ touch screen along with a home button, sleep/wake button and volume up and down buttons.
Video games are playable on various versions of iPods. With third parties like Namco, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Hudson Soft all making games for the iPod, Apple’s MP3 player has taken great steps towards entering the video game handheld console market. All iPods except for the iPod Touch can function in disk mode as a mass storage devices to store data files. The third generation iPod has a weak bass response, as shown in audio tests. Similar capacitors were used in the fourth generation iPods.
The problem is reduced when using high impedance headphones and is completely masked when driving high impedance loads, such as an external headphone amplifier. Users report that in the 6th generation iPod, the maximum volume output level is limited to 100 db in EU markets. Six iPod generations later, the iPod plays songs, movies, games and photo slideshows, and you can store up to 160 GB of any type of file you want. The 2007 iPod release, the sixth generation iPod classic, is a digital audio player, video player, photo viewer and portable hard drive, making it a full fledged portable media center.
It’s available in 80-GB and 160-GB capacities and has a color LCD screen. In addition to the iPod classic, there are several other devices in the current generation of iPod players. IPod touch, announced in September 2007, is a touch screen iPod with an 8-GB or 16-GB capacity. Although the iPod is an Apple product, it works with both MAC and Windows machines. Since it’s the top selling media player in the United States, probably the big question is: What makes it different from any other digital media player? Some might say it’s the form factor the 80-GB iPod classic is less than half n inch deep and weighs about 4. 9 ounces. Other people might tell you it’s the Apple Click Wheel, a touch sensitive wheel that makes it incredibly easy to navigate through the various menus and options with just a thumb. The 160-GB iPod stores up to 40,000 songs (20,000 for the 80-GB model). The search function lets you type in keywords (song name, artist, album) using the Click Wheel to locate a song on the iPod hard drive. It supports MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless and Audible audio files. You can connect your iPod to your home stereo through a mini to RCA jack.
The 80-GB version holds up to 100 hours of video, and the 160-GB version holds up to 200 hours. You can play video podcasts, music videos, feature films and TV shows on the iPod, plus your own DVDs and home videos that you encode using QuickTime Pro and download to your player through iTunes. The player holds up to 25,000 photos. It supports files converted from JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG, and PSD. IPod automatically downloads all new contact/calendar data added to Mac iCal or Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express since the last time iPod was connected to your computer. IPod comes with pre-loaded games.
You can also download games from the iTunes store, from third party companies or even create your own. If you have an iPod and you’re in the market for a new car or a new head unit receiver, you can get one that fully integrates your player into the sound system. There are manufacturer built car stereos that support iPod integration to the level that you can control the device through the head unit or steering wheel controls. To add to the joy, there is an iPod available for every kind of usage. You want an exercise campanion? Take the iPod Shuffle. Need a high capacity travel mate? Try the latest iPod Nano.
The thing to note however is, that there are a few basic models of the iPods and technological advancements made in them are defined by their growing generations. That is the reason why you will hear about a 1st generation iPod Nano or a 3rd generation iPod Shuffle. Every increasing generation of an iPod will signify advancement in features, looks capacity. The first iPod that was released was later named the iPod Classic and came as a large, bulky device capable of high storage capacities. The latest iPod Classic has mammoth storage capacities of 80-GB or 160-GB and a suitable battery too.
The iPod Shuffle is the one which till recently was popular as the tiny rectangle with a large jog dial and eye catching body colors. The last generation (2nd) iPod Shuffle worked on a flash memory and could store up to 500 songs. The 3rd generation Shuffle is an even smaller device with a sleek, slim body and button control only on the headphone wires. This latest cool offering by Apple can store up to 1000 songs and is almost un felt in your pocket. The iPod Nano was introduced as a device capable of both music and video playback and yet packaged in a neat, small, light weight body.
The latest generation of Nano gives storage capacities of 8GB or 16GB, comes in attractive colors and has path breaking technology like automatically selecting a play list of songs which have the same mood of music or shuffling the songs in your library just by a mere shake of the device. Next in line is the iPod Touch which is operated through a cool touch screen and is capable of high storage, games, music, full length movies, TV shows and other applications. Apple claims it to be the funniest iPod ever and its slim body and swanky looks add to the appeal.
With iPod Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go. IPod has been updated twice and now comes in three versions, all of which improved on the original’s songs per space ratio, and are priced at $300, $400 and $500, the most expensive holding 10,000 songs. For the months of July and August, the iPod claimed the No. 1 spot in the MP3 player market both in terms of unit share and revenue share, by Apple’s reckoning. Apple was not ahead of the curve in recognizing the power of music in digital form.
It was practically the last computer maker to equip its machines with C burners. It trailed others in creating jukebox software for storing and organizing music collections on computers. The immediate predecessor in the market place of the digital audio player was the portable CD player, or portable audio device. One of the chips making it possible to create portable MP3 players before market for mass produced devices took off was the Micronas MAS3507D ASIC MP3 Decoder chip. Several electronics DIY projects used this circuit. As a software based approach would have limited battery time severely.
This chip allowed the microcontroller to read data from a flash memory and feed the decoder chip, creating a low power solution. The world’s first mass produced hardware MP3 player was created in 1997 by Saehan Information Systems, which domestically sold its MPMAN player in the middle of 1998. The flash based players were available in 32MB (about six songs) storage capacity. The Rio PMP300 from Diamond Multimedia was introduced in September 1998,, a few months after MPMAN, also featuring 32 MB storage capacity. It was a success during the holiday season, with sales exceeding expectations.
Interest and investment in digital music were subsequently spurred from it. Because of the player’s notoriety as the target of a major lawsuit, the Rio is erroneously assumed to be the first DAP. In 1998, Compaq developed the first hard drive base DAP using a 2. 5″ laptop drive. The player had an initial capacity of 4. 8 GB, with an advertised capacity of 1200 songs. In 2000, Creative released the 6GB hard drive based Creative NOMAD Jukebox. In October 2001, Apple Computer unveiled the first generation iPod, a 5GB hard drive based DAP with a 1. ” Toshiba hard drive. In July 2002, Apple introduced the second generation update to the iPod. The iPod series, which grew to include flash memory based players, has become the market leader in DAPs. In 2002, Archos released the first portable media player the Archos Jukebox Multimedia. Manufacturers have since implemented abilities to view images and play videos into their devices. In 2001, the first MP3 players were installed into mobile phones in South Korea and the first artist to sell songs as MP3 file downloads directly to mobile phones was Ricky Martin.
The innovation spread rapidly and by 2005, more than half of all music sold in South Korea was sold directly to mobile phones. By 2006, more MP3 players were sold in musicphones than all stand alone MP3 players together. In 2007, the installed base of musicphones passed the 1 billion level, and today more than half of all mobile phones in the world have an MP3 player. With an MP3 player in hand or pocket, a consumer can create personalized music lists and carry thousands of songs wherever they go. All of that stored music and the MP3 player itself fit into a device that, in some cases, weighs less than one ounce.
Portability is a large factor in the popularity of the MP3, considering the ease of transportation in comparison to a CD player and CD storage case. In addition, some devices provide additional technology, like video and photo viewing, alarm and calendar functions, and even cell phone and Internet service. Using the MP3 compression system reduces the number of bytes in a song, while retaining sound that is near CD quality. Anytime you compress a song, you will lose some of its quality, which is the trade off for the ability to carry more music files in a smaller storage system. A maller file size also allows the song to be downloaded from the Internet faster. All of the Portable MP3 players are battery powered. Most use a rechargeable internal lithium battery and last for approximately 10 to 28 hours on a single charge. Many of the players also have AC adapters so they can be plugged into a normal electrical outlet, and some even offer DC adapters for use in car. Let’s take a look at the four basic types of MP3 players. The flash memory MP3 player is the smallest and lightest and typically stores fewer songs than hard drive players. Because it’s small and contains no moving parts, it’s ideal for exercisers.
Hard drive players are larger and heavier than flash memory players and offer considerably more storage. For those looking for a player that can contain their entire music collection, photographs, data, and video and allow podcast recording, the hard drive is best. However these features and the hard drive consume more power, with some batteries lasting eight to 20 hours for music playback and up to six hours for video playback. The players include moving parts, which may skip. However, some players have anti shock buffers and or anti skip protection. There is a breed of CD players available that plays MP3 and other digital files.
These MP3 files are burned to CD-R/RW discs from your old CD collection and used in the MP3 CD player. SanDisk, a leading manufacturer of flash memory products, has released its latest foray into the MP3 player market with the Sansa e280, an 8GB, flash memory based player which hopes to compete with Apple Computer’s similar iPod Nano. The SanDisk player already has a significant advantage over its Apple contemporary, as it comes standard with 8GB of memory that can be expanded to 10GB through the use of SanDisk’s 2GB MicroSD cards, and the company says cards with greater capacities ar in the works.
This level of storage capacity is a leap beyond the flash memory driven Nano’s 4GB capacity for the same $249 price tag. There’s nothing better than hiking, running or even boating while enjoying your favorite MP3 player. That’s why the folks at freestyle audio have come up with a small, portable MP3 player that is not only shockproof, but waterproof as well. It includes 2GB of memory, which allows you to store up to 600 songs, and support MP3, WMA and even protected WMA files. The rechargeable battery is capable of powering the MP3 unit for up to 18 hours.
The Apple iPod mini MP3 player comes to fill in a space left for those who want an iPod but in a smaller format. Nomad 40 GB hdd jukebox mp3 player brings creative a little closer to perfection. Phillips mp3 players, that’s a mouthful. Philips invented the CDs many years ago; and has a lot of history when it comes to audio equipment. Rave mp3 players, from GoVideo, merge style and design to offer you a device that you’ll feel proud of owning. RCA mp3 players will fulfill whatever requirements you have. From flash mp3 players, to hard disk mp3 players, to CD mp3 players.
Sandisk is one of the best known flash memory storage brands. So, you can rely on their expertise in that area when they decided to build their Sandisk mp3 player. The digital music download is becoming the preferred way to get our music. Flash mp3 players are astounding devices. Being truly solid state, they can withstand environments that would incapacitate, or damage, other kinds of music plying devices. MP3 players will let you take music anywhere while not taking up pocket space. Open up a whole new world on how you listen to your music.
Since they are portable mp3 players they are still able to download large amounts of music files. Mp3 players will allow you to have massive amounts of music wherever you go while not cluttering your style. Technology is building bridges between people on opposite sides of the globe, but it is also building ever stronger walls between neighbors. Some people are surrounding themselves with modern technology while paying little attention to the needs of others. Others use technology to better understand their fellow man to overcome physical distance, establishing relationships of solidarity and sympathy around the globe.
Whether driving a car, planting a bomb, sending a spam e-mail or signing a contract, technology extends our realm of influence. Usually, however, it does not extend the senses that we rely on to give us feedback about the consequences of our actions. An unfortunate dynamic of modern technology is that it often works through competition; many technologies benefit early adopters at the expense of non-adopters. Technology is a tool that is available. As with any tool, though, it can be used productively, non-productively and even destructively.
It is not really technology that saves us time or wastes our time. It is how we use the tool. Productive business and personal applications that save time. Non-productive games and other applications that spend time. Destructive spammers, viruses that spend time. In the ideal situations, technology saves us a lot of time and money. For example, videoconferencing enables business partners as well as families, to save the cost of airfare and hotels because they can see and talk to each other in real time. Frequently, the software is available and affordable.
Cell phones allow us to communicate quickly and directly to the person we want to reach, whether by voice or text. Software productivity programs such as Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint, in the business office or home office have saved us time retrieving data with features such as filter, search, and edit: find and data sort. This is even more important when managing large amounts of data, as in customer lists, address books or products listings. What might have taken hours before technology, now takes a matter of minutes. Another plus, using technology gives everyone the ability to read what is written because it is typed.
Even doctors, instead of scribbling a script, will type it into the computer and send it directly to the pharmacy, where it can be saved until needed. On the down side, the art of handwriting is getting lost because of lack of use. Technology is increasingly convenient too. Today students bring laptops to the classroom. Hand-held computers are even more popular, for all ages. Now, when we get a bright idea, need directions or want to check our bank balance, we don’t have to go all the way back home to login to our pc. There is nothing wrong with technology. It’s up to us to use it wisely.
