| Traveling to your office, doing household chores, driving | | | | download radio-like programs, or TV-like video feeds, |
| your car, working on the computer, or at any other | | | | and other audio inputs, etc., directly from the net into |
| place, people are hooked on to their MP3 and MP4 | | | | the device. These could be downloaded and played at |
| music and video players. If you are traveling in an | | | | the owners` convenience. MP4 players are even more |
| airplane or a bus you will find over 50% of the people | | | | advanced. They can play audio as well as video files. |
| having small headphones stuck into their ears. What | | | | Apart from the MP3 and MP4 formats these players |
| has made these small devices enter our lives so | | | | have capability to play WMA/PlaysForSure (from |
| quickly that everybody, young or old, is now hooked on | | | | Microsoft), AAC (from Apple) and ATRAC (from |
| to it? MP3 music format, first introduced in 1993, | | | | Sony), AVI, ATV, ACT, SMV, MPEG4, MTV, DMV, |
| started the era of compressed internet audio format. | | | | MPV and AMV, etc. Most MP4 players can also open |
| With the advent of broadband connectivity people | | | | in JPEG and GIF formats. They play videos in AMV or |
| freely uploaded and downloaded music from the web. | | | | MTV formats that are converted easily through |
| This gave rise to pocket MP3 players. There are two | | | | conversion software from other popular formats. |
| types of MP3 players or digital audio devices: | | | | These MP4 players also support plain text viewer |
| flash-based players and digital hard drive-based | | | | (ASCII format) so that you can read e-books. A lot of |
| players. Flash-based players hold files in the internal | | | | enhancements like FM radio player, phone books, |
| memory or external memory cards, and so they can | | | | camera and voice recorders, video games, etc. are |
| hold up to 8 GB of files. While the hard drive-based | | | | also coming today to make it a complete digital device. |
| players can connect to a hard drive that can hold up | | | | There are many brands available in the portable audio |
| to 160 GB of audio and video files based on the hard | | | | video player market but the market leader is Apple |
| drive technology. This means that you can store your | | | | iPod. All major brands like Sony, Panasonic, Philips, |
| entire music collection in your pocket! MP3 players | | | | Olympus, etc., have made their own versions of MP3 |
| became very popular with the introduction of iPod, a | | | | and MP4 players. These players are available in |
| convenient MP3 player with long battery life and | | | | various shapes, sizes, colors, storage space, battery |
| storage space. The best part was that iPod can be | | | | life, and more. If you are looking to buy an MP3 or MP4 |
| connected to your computer and you can transfer | | | | player check for all the features mentioned above. |
| your music directly from it. You can even make play | | | | The most important attribute is the battery life as |
| lists, favorite folders, and arrange your files in many | | | | these portable players are mostly used on the move, |
| ways according to your convenience. Being among | | | | so it would be difficult to charge them. iPod boasts the |
| the pioneers, the iPod brand name has become | | | | highest battery life among all other players. There are |
| synonymous with MP3 or MP4 digital players. MP3 | | | | a lot of accessories that you can purchase along with |
| players are so well-liked that people have found many | | | | your MP3 or MP4 player. Though all the brands |
| other uses for it. The most popular use is for | | | | provide headphones along with the player, it`s a good |
| podcasting. Podcasting lets the user automatically | | | | idea to buy the ones that you like. |