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| MP3 Player Glossary |
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March 1, 2010
• Vol.7 Issue 3 Page(s) 65 in print issue | |
MP3 Player Glossary | |
 Who doesn’t want an MP3 player? It can help you relax, provide motivation, and keep you up-to-date on news. When you head to your local CE retailer to snag one, make sure you have this glossary so you can choose the perfect model. AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)—An audio compression technology and the format used by iTunes. Click Wheel—Apple’s proprietary circular control on the front of the iPod. download—In terms of digital music, downloading is when you retrieve a song from an Internet site or another network connection and save it to your computer or digital music player. You’ll download songs from music service Web sites such as iTunes, Napster, or Rhapsody. DRM (Digital Rights Management)—A security mechanism for digital media. A common DRM scheme for digital music involves getting a license file to authorize playback of a free or purchased song. earbuds—Small circular devices you put into your ears that serve the same function as headphones. Music players come with their own earbuds, but you can, of course, purchase a separate pair that is more comfortable or of better quality. flash memory—Solid-state memory with no moving parts that is lightweight and small. In terms of digital music players, a flash-based player is lighter and smaller than a hard drive-based player, and it also won’t skip. Thus, flash-based players are popular for use during exercise. However, the capacity of a flash drive isn’t as large as a hard drive-based player. FM tuner—If built into your music player, an FM tuner lets you listen to local radio broadcasts. hard drive—Storage that uses rigid platters inside a fixed casing. In terms of digital music players, a hard drive-based player is larger and heavier than a flash-based player. Because of the moving parts (the platters), hard drive-based players are prone to skipping, but capacities are larger than flash drive capacities. iTunes—An application that loads onto your computer and lets you play, organize, and download and purchase music, videos, podcasts, and television shows for a portable media player or computer. MP3—Perhaps the most popular digital audio encoding format. It compresses audio to about one-twelfth the original size while still providing excellent sound. In general, a 1MB MP3 file will last about one minute. playlist—A queue of songs a user creates to play on a computer, burn to a CD, or transfer to an MP3 player. The playlist includes only directions to the location of the songs, not the actual songs. PlaysForSure—A popular Microsoft certification that ensures portable devices, such as MP3 players, and media, such as digital music and videos, are compatible with each other. podcast—A downloadable episode that is similar to a radio program. A user can subscribe to a podcast for updated episodes, or she can download podcasts one at a time. A podcast is usually available in MP3 format. screen—The display on the front of a portable music player. A player’s screen can either display in color or black and white. WMA—Windows Media Audio is a digital audio format created by Microsoft to compete with the MP3 format. WMA files are smaller than MP3 files. widescreen—A screen that has an aspect ratio of 16:9. |
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