Apple Preview

The digitalization of music became very widespread with the introduction of MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, commonly known as MP3. It is an encoding format for sound storage using lossy data compression, which just means audio signals beyond most human hearing are not included to minimize storage levels. MP3 became the rave of the time.

Along with the growth of the MP3 came the popularization of personal digital gadgets like the camera, video cameras and organizers. But critics of the MP3 format said it lacked the fine audio characteristics of music recording and playback present in 3 rpm records. Apple Corporation found most MP3 players as not handy or inadequate and their interface undesirable. This critique made possible the development of the device that became the standard of audio storage and playback: the iPod. Introduced in October 23, 2001, the iPod was a “Mac-compatible 5GB HDD of 1,000 songs”.

Apple engineers Tony Fadell, Michael Dhuey and Jonathan Ive conceptualized and created the iPod on the instructions of CEO Steve Jobs and under the aegis of Jon Rubinstein, the engineering chief. The concept for it started when Apple launched iTunes, a Internet program capable of switching CD music to digital form, organize the libraries, play video and radio. Developing a gadget to connect with this, Apple developed and introduced the iPod in a few months later, and followed up its rapid development with numerous models. The iPod line comprised of the iPod Classic, Nano, Mini (replaced by Nano), Shuffle and Touch.

First to be marketed was the iPod Classic on October 23, 2001, the subsequent issues appearing annually from July 17, 2002 to September 5, 2007. The Mini, a short-lived device only had two generations, marketed January 6, 2004 and February 22, 2005. The iPod Nano was released three times, September 7, 2005; September 12, 200 and September 5, 2007. Meantime the iPod Shuffle appeared first in January 11, 2005 and again in September 12, 2006 while the iPod Touch was released in September 5, 2007.

The term iPod itself was an idea by Vinnie Chieco who was reminded of 2001: A Space Odyssey film when he saw the device. It turned out the name was being used by Joseph Grasso who patented it for his Internet kiosks in 2003. Grasso eventually transferred the name to Apple in 2005.

Seeking massive storage capacity, power and ease of use, Apple worked the iPod to be merely a ‘mass storage device’ very similar to a computer hard disk drive. The Mini even used a micro-hard disk, later discontinued. Operating depends on the first computer system used: if operated on a Mac, the HFS+ format is used; if on Windows, FAT32, which, however, was growing to be the format more often used.

In terms of connecting, the iPod first used the FireWire connector, but later on switched to the USB for simplicity of loading. For capacity, the first iPod can store only a thousand songs with a 5GB disk, but subsequent models, such as the 6th generation iPod Classic, have 160 GB disks. This means one can fully drain the battery two times yet not play all the recorded songs in the iPod, perhaps an overkill, but then who needs? to hear the same song every two hours?

It has garnered recognition including those on engineering excellence, most inventive product, and best computer product. Reviews mention the iPod for its simple lines, superb workmanship and ease of use, and has ‘altered the landscape of portable audio players.’ Such is the iPod.

Despite a great desire to always have the latest device or gizmo many would be happy to own a standard MP3 Player so that they can listen to music. On the other hand the newer and now extremely popular digital media players are in great demand from those that wish to watch video recordings and view images or photos.

What you want form an MP3 player will be determined by what you want to use it for. For gym regulars and joggers a very small player that will fit in a pocket or can be clipped to their clothing, like Apple’s iPod Shuffle, will be exactly what they need.

When someone prefers to watch movies or look at images then they will be best served by buying a player that provides access to this media, and you cannot do this with the old style music only mp3 players. Fortunately all newer mp3 players, especially those from Apple, like the ipod Touch, Nano and Classic models, do support video and photos.

An mp3 player, which can also display images and photographs, will be of great use to any level of photographer whether professional or amateur. When on location or later back home it is now very easy to transfer digital photos from a digital camera to a mp3 player that has the required functionality for photographic storage. This is a great way to back up photos as secure copies.

Before you select an mp3 player to buy you need to check that it can handle the types of media that you want to view or play. If you buy an iPod you will be able to download music and video from the iTunes store. This may not be the case for mp3 players from other suppliers, so do your research before you commit.

You can also use some mp3 players as backup media for your personal computer, but the player you choose will have to have a high storage capacity to enable you to do this. A model like the Apple iPod Classic 80gb would be ideal for this. Make sure that the relevant software is available to help you undertake transfers of documents and files from your computer hard drive.

As with everything you get what you pay for, so if you need more functionality from your mp3 player it is going to cost you more to get it. There are many different manufacturers and models of mp3 players available and you should go online to do your research and to find the best deal. There you will find the biggest choice and detailed information on the most recent models.

Rumor: iPod Touch and MacBook Price Drop and Redesign Palluxo! - Mac Dose of All Things Apple, Canada - 40 minutes ago Olsen believes that the iPod touch design will be “tweaked to resemble Apple’s new iPhone 3G” with the possibility of …

More: continued here

According to the recent Stat, iTunes Store sells billions of songs every year, accounting for more than 80% of worldwide online digital music sales, most of the songs are in the format of m4p. And these m4p songs are limited by Apple on …

More: continued here

As a student i don’t really need this computer for much more than word documents, internet, email, itunes, and the occasional movie/youtube video. Speed has not been an issue - something i wasn’t sure about as i almost purchased the SSD …

More: continued here