Putting Your iPod to Work for You

The iPod is, essentially, a hard drive and a digital music player in one device. That device is such a thing of beauty and style and so highly recognizable by now that all Apple needs to do in an advertisement is show it all by itself. Even the 60GB iPod weighs less than two CDs in standard jewel cases, and iPod mini is smaller than a cell phone and weighs just 3.6 ounces.

The convenience of carrying music on an iPod is phenomenal. For example, the 60GB iPod model can hold around 15,000 songs. That's about a month of nonstop music played around the clock - or about one new song a day for the next 40 years. And with the iPod's built-in skip protection in every model, you don't miss a beat as you jog through the park or your car hits a pothole.

Although Apple has every right to continue to promote its Macintosh computers, the company saw the wisdom of making the iPod compatible with Windows PCs. Every iPod now comes with the software that you need to make it work with Windows systems as well as Macintosh OS X.

A common misconception is that your iPod becomes your music library. Actually, your iPod is simply another player for your music library, which is safely stored on your computer. One considerable benefit of digital music technology is that you can use your computer to serve up your music library and make perfect-quality copies.

Copy as much of it as you want onto your iPod, and take it on the road. Two decades from now those digital songs will be the same in quality - the music won't be trapped on a cassette or CD that can degrade over time (CDs can stop working after 15-20 years). The wonderfully remixed, remastered, reconstituted version of your favorite album can be copied over and over forever, just like the rest of your information, and it never loses its sound fidelity. If you save your music in digital format, you will never lose a song and have to buy it again.

The iPod experience includes iTunes (or, in older-generation models, Musicmatch Jukebox), which lets you organize your music in digital form, make copies, burn CDs, and play disc jockey without discs. Suddenly your music world includes online music stores and free music downloads. Without iTunes (or Musicmatch Jukebox), your iPod is merely an external hard drive. As a result of using iTunes (or Musicmatch Jukebox), your music library is more permanent than it ever was before because you can make backup copies that are absolutely the same in quality.

You'll spend only about ten seconds copying an entire CD's worth of music from iTunes on your computer to your iPod. Any iPod can play any song in the most popular digital audio formats, including MP3, AIFF, WAV, and Apple's AAC format, which features CD-quality audio in smaller file sizes than MP3. The iPod also supports the Audible AA spoken word file format.

The iPod is also a data player, perhaps the first of its kind. As an external hard drive, the iPod serves as a portable backup device for important data files. You can transfer your calendar and address book to help manage your affairs on the road, and you can even use calendar event alarms to supplement your iPod's alarm and sleep timer. Although the iPod isn't as fully functional as a personal digital assistance (PDA) - for example, you can't add information directly to the device - you can view the information. You can keep your calendar and address book automatically synchronized to your computer, where you normally add and edit information.

http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/putting-your-ipod-to-work-for-you/153230;_ylt=AtK6.dX8DSSxQ43gAyAOv8oSLpA5

Playing Around with Windows Media Player

When Microsoft entered the MP3 player race, the corporate giant simply added MP3-playback capabilities to the sound arsenal of Windows Media Player. The result plays MP3s and a wide variety of other audio and video formats.

Microsoft also whipped up a new music-compression format to compete with MP3. Dubbed WMA, or Windows Media Audio, by Microsoft creative titans, the new version is half the size of MP3 files, reducing download time.

The WMA format is incompatible with MP3, however, and sometimes you can't freely copy it because it contains a rights-management system for copyright holders.

The version of Media Player that's bundled with Windows 98 sometimes can't play MP3s. If this is the case, you need to download a newer version of Media Player. The free program is available at Microsoft

* Media Player is a convenient, albeit awkward, freebie, but it isn't nearly as configurable as Winamp.

* Owners of portable MP3 players sometimes use the WMA format because the files are usually half the size of an MP3 file. That's because MP3 must generally be formatted at 128 Kbps for near-CD quality sound, whereas WMA sounds nearly the same when formatted at 64 Kbps. That makes the files half the size, so twice as many files can be stuffed into a portable MP3 player. However, keep in mind that not all players can handle the WMA format.

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Episode 4: Boy Toy Needs Better Audio Toys

The Case
Frank is a Long Island, New York native who is stuck in the age of Boy George, MC Hammer and oh yeah-- MADONNA. Both his musical tastes and his technology are Painfully lodged in the 80's. Frank owns every one of Madonna's albums, and listens to them on a record player. He also has an 8-track cassette player and of course owns an audio cassette deck.

The Problem
Frank has a huge collection of records and tapes that he can't listen to away from home and his antiquated stereo system. Frank wants to "get into the groove" in the car, be able to "cherish" his albums by preserving them forever on CDs, and put his entire collection on a portable music player like an iPod so that he can take it with him if he goes on vacation to "La Isla Bonita."

The Tech Expert
Byron Estep is a musician, composer, and computer audio expert who has played on a number of CD's as well as composed music for film, television, and computer games. Many of Byron's recordings were made in his home studio, which features a host of computers (both Mac and PC) and a ton of assorted high-tech audio gear. Byron is a man serious about both music and tech. He may not be a devoted Madonna fan, but he'll put aside his musical tastes to get Frank out of the 80's and into the 21st century.

First Impression
Byron evaluated Frank's tech needs and sent back these notes:
"My main concern was that Frank was going to need a total solution, including a computer, to get from a stack of dusty LP's to complete musical portability. I was also interested in making sure that whatever we did for Frank, he would be able to listen to music in the car, since he commutes to work and spends a fair amount of time on the road."

The Plan
Byron decided to get Frank a new computer, a turntable and cassette deck that allows Frank to directly transfer his albums to the computer. This way Frank can digitize all his music with as little hassle as possible. Byron also got Frank a 60 Gigabyte iPod with a car charger and iTrip adapter (to play the iPod through the car stereo). Byron also wrangled up all necessary software to successfully transfer Frank's records and tapes into the computer and iPod. Finally, Byron bought a great set of speakers to play all the digitized music through the computer.

Here's a list of all the gear we got Frank

HP Pavilion a1440n Computer
A desktop PC with media features, comes with a big drive, tons of RAM, a double layer Lightscribe CD/DVD drive that burns silkscreen-quality CD labels, memory card slots etc. It comes with keyboard and mouse, but needs a monitor so we got Frank an LG flat screen.

Bose Companion 3 Speakers
These are pretty good multimedia speakers and they have a handy volume control that is nice. They are also wall-mountable.

PlusDeck 2c
This is a high quality cassette deck that sits in your PC like a CD drive. It let's you easily convert audio to digital.

Numark ttUSB $299
This is a fully functioning phonograph with the added bonus of USB output (normal phonos require a pre-amp before going into a PC). Plug it into his PC and he can listen to and record his records.

60 gig iPod video
He can carry his entire music collection to his car instead of using crappy cassette mixes like he does now.

Kensington digital ipod charger/FM transmitter
He can listen to his iPod through his car stereo, while charging it simultaneously through the cigarette lighter.

In my next post: the installation, the problems, and the assessment.
Also, how to transfer your own music from tape or record player to computer without buying a ton of special equipment.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/worley/69;_ylt=AikyizvDZ5OQ0qvq21aVKfcSLpA5