MP3 Player Guide

Alfred Ang

MP3 player, also well known as digital audio player has become a staple of our gadget life. There are many brands of MP3 players on the market today. So, which MP3 player are the most suitable for you? That's where this MP3 player guide comes in.

Basically, there are 3 types of MP3 player based on capacity: -

1. Hard drive MP3 player

- highest capacity - largest in size - heavy - often labeled as an "Jukebox MP3 player" - has moving parts - example: Apple iPod video, Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5

2. Micro hard drive MP3 player

- use smaller hard drives - lighter than hard drive MP3 player - lower capacity than hard drive MP3 player but higher capacity than flash memory MP3 player - example: Apple iPod mini, Creative Labs Zen Micro

3. Flash memory MP3 player

- smallest in size - lowest capacity - very light - has no moving parts - often labeled as an "portable MP3 player" - example: mobiBLU Dah 1500i, Apple iPod nano

What should you concern when you want to buy a MP3 player?

1. Use / Purpose a) MP3 player good for travel Hard drive MP3 player is good for people traveling or away from computer for an extended period of time, where they can't transfer music files from their computers. Micro hard drive MP3 player is another option for travel since it is slightly smaller and lighter than hard drive MP3 player. Flash memory MP3 player is also popular for travel if you do not mind to listen to the same music.

b) MP3 player good for sport / jogging / gym Flash memory MP3 player is good for people exercising and jogging since it is very light. No moving parts for Flash memory MP3 player make it ideal for sport.

c) MP3 player good for home use Hard drive MP3 player is good for listening song in living room. It is suited to be connected to external speakers.

2. Connectivity There are two main options to transfer files from your computer: USB or FireWire. USB supported by both PCs and Macs whereas FireWire is supported only on Macs. For PC users, they need to ensure that the MP3 player support USB 2.0 which is faster than USB 1.1. Most of the MP3 players on market today are support USB 2.0.

3. Display screen Majority of MP3 players have LCD screen. Some MP3 players have color screen instead of dull black and white screen. The main things to consider are all the information such as battery level, song name & elapsed time are easy to read.

4. Compatibility PC or Mac compatibility. Mac users should ensure the MP3 player can support Mac since some MP3 players can only support PC.

5. Battery MP3 players come with either rechargeable batteries (some can be charged via USB port) or disposable batteries.

6. Music format Music files can be one of several types of formats, such as MP3, AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), WMA (Windows Media Audio) and Ogg Vorbis. Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.

7. Functionality Some MP3 players have extra features such as voice recorder, FM radio, FM recorder, image viewer, video player.

8. Memory capacity Most of the flash MP3 players come with 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. For hard drive MP3 players, they have gigabytes of storage capacity. If you would like to store many songs or CD collections in one, hard drive MP3 player or micro hard drive MP3 player is a better choice for you.

About the author:

Alfred Ang is an author and web developer. Read more reviews at MP3 Player Review web and MP3 Player Accessory web.

MP3 News


Yahoo! News Search Results for <?=mp3;?> New Music: Black Lips: "Starting Over" [MP3] (Pitchfork) Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell So, 2008 is history and we're back. During the break Black Lips released an mp3 of "Starting Over", a new track from their forthcoming album 200 Million Thousand . It starts off as a jangly, "There She Goes"-ish kind of thing, but then those slack voices... Chinavasion's plug-in MP3 player / FM transmitter / etcetera seems surprising... Chinavasion 's latest piece of steaming trash is actually very un-trash-like, as it thoughtfully meshes a number of in-car technologies into one single cigarette adapter doodad. The Plug-In Car MP4 Player with LCD Display manages to bundle an MP4 / MP3 player, 1.5-inch LCD and 4GB of memory into a d... Premiere: Tim Hecker: "Sea of Pulses" [MP3/Stream] (Pitchfork) It's somewhat of a strange thing to pluck a track from a Tim Hecker album and listen to it on its own, as his records tend to flow one piece into the next. But "Sea of Pulses", the second cut from his forthcoming An Imaginary Country , works well on its own and also gives a good idea of wha... Recording Industry Drops MP3 Spies (CBS News) Recording industry trade group reportedly drops the company responsible for gathering evidence against those accused of sharing copyrighted music. WMP 12 toxic to certain MP3 files (ZDNet) A cautionary note to those using Windows beta 1 build 7000. Hype Machine Zeitgeist: Listen in Full to the 50 Most Blogged Albums of 2008,... Music mashup site shows how User Experience is done. MP3 blog aggregator Hype Machine launched a new microsite today called the Music Blog Zeitgeist . There you can listen, for free, to entire albums from the most blogged-about musicians of 2008. Bringing together a whole host of different tec... Download the MP3 or listen to the Lana Carson interview. (The Muskegon Chroni... Grand Haven historian Wallace "Wally" K. Ewing has donated one of the largest and best preserved Civil War collections of correspondence in the nation to the Archives of Michigan. Calexico sweetens a tee (USA Today) I'm a little behind on my seasonal surfing, so I just came across this gem Threadless dropped during the holidays: an exclusive track by Calexico. Yes, the T-shirt site has posted an MP3. The song was actually inspired by a... Ultimate Ears intros MetroFi range of earphones (MacNN) Ultimate Ears, owned by Logitech, announced on Monday the upcoming release of its MetroFi line (not pictured) of noise-isolating earphones. The MetroFi 170 and MetroFi 220 are compatible with iPods, iPhones and more generic music phones and MP3 players thanks to their 3.5mm stereo jack and are desig... Wal-Mart worker charged (The Sault Star) A Wal-Mart employee is accused of pinching merchandise from the discount department store. He allegedly took nine MP3 players Saturday, police said. John [...]