Amazon MP3 Easy to Use, Easy on Wallet

It had to happen. Apple's iTunes Store recently edged past Wal-Mart to become the top music retailer in the United States, according to the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey.
Well, big deal. I'd rather tune in to the download deals at Amazon MP3 (amazonmp3.com), which simply rocks when it comes to selling music online.
So what if Amazon MP3 doesn't offer more than 6 million songs like the iTunes, let alone sport that airy Apple aesthetic.
What Amazon MP3 lacks in style it more than makes up for in substance -- namely more than 4.5 million DRM-free tunes encoded at 256 kbps (kilobits per second).
DRM-free means you don't fuss with digital rights management, so you can play Amazon music downloads on your iPod or any other MP3 device or program, as well as burn them to a CD. The iTunes Store also has DRM-free tracks (only more than 2 million), but Amazon MP3 prices make its tunes sound so much sweeter.
Using Amazon MP3 is a cinch, especially thanks to its 1-Click ordering.
You'll need to download the free Amazon MP3 Downloader to buy MP3 albums. (You don't need it for individual song purchases.) The downloader conveniently adds your music downloads to iTunes or Windows Media Player.
As for prices, most Amazon MP3 tracks weigh in between 89 cents and 99 cents, with MP3 albums typically $5.99 to $9.99. I've found bargains at the site, such as Vampire Weekend's self-titled album for $7.99 and Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple for $8.99, compared to $9.99 each at iTunes.
And every Amazon MP3 album I've bought has been tax-free -- another spot of savings I never got at the iTunes Store.
Did I say "got," as in past tense? You bet, because Amazon MP3 is pretty much the only download service in my music-buying future.
And who knows? Maybe one day it'll even trump the iTunes Store as the top music seller in the States. It's already tops in my iPod.

Microsoft launch Zune

Usually, we do not report on .mp3 players. However, sometimes we cannot go around them. Today is one of those times: Microsoft has launched its supposed iPod killer, the Zune. "Not a lot of surprises in the specs department, but they've confirmed the basics we've known for a while, like WiFi, 30GB of HDD, built-in FM, a 3-inch screen and the basic music, pictures and video playback. They also finally let slip the screen res - an unsurprising QVGA - and some better news on the codec front: the Zune supports h.264, MP3, AAC and WMA." .

Analyse your date's iPod

If only you could see that playlist, you would know so much about him, about how compatible you are and gain insights that could otherwise take months of stalking to get. While it has long been said that the eyes are the window to the soul, in this day and age, it may well be the screen of the ubiquitous iPod or any other MP3 player. It can reveal one's past, personality and even whether they are ready for a relationship, or still getting over one. That little screen is the best window to the soul one could ask for, and those who have one carry it around in full view of the world. Gold Coast real estate agent Brinton Keith, 31, has had an iPod for three years and listens to it when out on his speedboat and at the gym. With "anything and everything" among his 7000 songs, he says the ones he plays most reflect his teenage years in the 1980s and 90s in Echuca on the Murray River in Victoria.

iriver S10 (2GB)

Miniature MP3 players are the stuff of a Lilliputian's dreams. In fact, the smaller, the more geek envy it would draw. The newest iPod shuffle is like that. So is Shiro's cube-shaped AD. They drew more raves for their form factors than their features. But the iriver S10 made the waves when it was first announced due to the ingenious way it melded a screen and the D-Click system onto a 42 x 30 x 10.8mm-sized body.

Timeline: iPodding through the years

The iPod began life modestly, getting trotted out before the press in a small theater at Apple's headquarters. These days, it's a major attraction, drawing hundreds of reporters to a media event last month in San Francisco that featured appearances by the CEO of Disney and R&B singer John Legend. Here's what happened in between to make the iPod the rock star it is today.

October: At a press-only event at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus, Apple unveils the iPod, a 5GB hard-drive-based music player that will sell for $399. "To have your whole CD library with you at all times is a quantum leap when it comes to music," Steve Jobs tells the press. "You can fit your whole music library in your pocket."

November: The iPod officially hits retail shelves on November 10.

Top the Holiday Charts with Speakers for the Digital Music Devotee

MILFORD, Pa., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- It's the classic holiday dilemma: what to get for the person who has everything? Since the introduction of the iPod(R) in 2001, millions of digital music players have been sold in the U.S. So with the likelihood that your "giftee" already has an iPod or other MP3 player loaded with their favorite tunes, what's a holiday shopper to do?

The solution: Accessorize their digital music player with a gift from Altec Lansing's (www.alteclansing.com) expansive line of speaker systems for MP3 players, Bluetooth(R) music-enabled phones and PCs.

Speakers are always a popular holiday gift and this year will be no exception. Since developing some of the first speaker docks for the iPod, Altec Lansing has made great strides in quality, design and acoustic performance.

CES: HD-AAC codec 'makes CDs obsolete'

Fraunhofer IIS, inventor of the ubiquitous MP3 music format, on Monday made a pitch to audio and computer makers to use its HD-AAC format. HD-AAC is a new digital music encoding format that Fraunhofer says is actually better than audio CDs. What's more, it's already iPod-compatible - well, sort of.

HD-AAC is based on the MPEG-4 SLS (Scalable to Lossless) standard, an extension to the MPEG-4 audio standard jointly developed by Fraunhofer and Infocomm Research. The encoding process HD-AAC preserves every bit of information in the uncompressed original music track, providing lossless compression of 24-bit music content. That's compared to the 16-bit, 44.1 kHz quality found on CDs - hence, Fraunhofer's "better than CD" claim.

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iPod update shuts out RealNetworks

Apple has quietly updated its iPod software so that songs purchased from RealNetworks' online music store will no longer play on some of the Mac maker's popular MP3 players.

The move could render tunes purchased by many iPod owners unplayable on their music players. For the last four months, RealNetworks has marketed its music store as the only Apple rival compatible with the iPod, following the company's discovery of a way to let its customers play their downloaded tunes on Apple's MP3 player.

Apple criticised RealNetworks' workaround, dubbed Harmony, as the "tactics... of a hacker", and warned in July that RealNetworks-purchased songs would probably "cease to work with current and future iPods". Apple offered no further statement on Tuesday, but confirmed that the software released with its iPod Photo will not play music purchased from RealNetworks' music store.