The term podcast was created in 1999 and depending on source, officially accepted in either 2003 or 2004. It is a combination of the word “iPod” and the word “broadcast.” An iPod is not required to enjoy podcasting, and podcasts can be played back on virtually all MP3-capable playback devices, or home computers, once they the Podcast stream has been downloaded in MP3 format. Podcasts are subscription-based like a magazine. And like TiVo, only the information that you’re interested in is delivered. You select what you’d like to listen to, Read More

SanDisk is a popular electronics manufacturer that has a number of MP3 players on the market, including the Sansa player product line. SanDisk players are designed to sync and update with a computer running the Windows Operating System. SanDisk players’ storage capacity range from 512MB up with many of the recent models being able to play color videos, pick up radio stations, and have an expansion slot for a flash memory card. The large storage capacity of the player coupled with the flash memory card capability have made the SanDisk Read More

The MP3 (Moving Pictures Experts Group) audio file format is compressed in order to allow playback and exchange over the Internet and other size constrained media. Although most audio playback devices and software support the MP3 format, the WAV (Waveform audio) format is uncompressed and capable of storing more detail when further manipulating audio files. A common task that arises for end-users is to convert MP3 to WAV format. The task can be accomplished using online tools or free/low-cost software available from third party vendors. Convert MP3 to WAV Using Read More

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standard compression and encoding format for digital audio. AAC is part of the MPEG-4 standard, which was established by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), the committee that developed the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards that are used all over the world in CD-ROM and DVD discs and other technologies. AAC is similar in many ways to the popular MP3 format. The encoding and compression techniques are designed in such a way that some information is discarded because of limitations of the human ear. This Read More

Windows Media Player has significant market penetration throughout the world. When audio files are imported from CD or DVD, the software defaults to storing the music in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format on the target computer. Unfortunately, the WMA format is not supported by all digital music players available on the market due to being a proprietary Microsoft format. To successfully play or import on alternative music players, end-users must convert WMA to MP3 format. How to Convert WMA to MP3 with Windows Media Player An inexpensive method to Read More

When using the actual iPod, it is impossible to organize the songs. While it is a great device, the order the songs are in when they are uploaded to the iPod is the order in which they will appear on the device. Therefore, to put songs in order on an iPod, one has to go into the folder where the music is and put them in order. Or, they can create play lists with the songs in order. How to Create a Play list on an iPod The most effective Read More

A remix is an audio clip that is made by combining multiple songs together and/or adding special effects. Remixes are very common in the rap and R&B genres, but are also found in other types of music such as country and rock, and have existed since music was first recorded on vinyl records. While DJs, radio hosts, and famous musicians, create remixes, anyone who has a decent audio editing software can also make them. To make the search for free audio editors easier, several have been listed below: WavePad WavePad Read More

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open source audio file format that is royalty free and supported by a number of multi-media playback programs. The FLAC format; however, is not widely usable in popular MP3 players and gaming consoles that support music playback. As a result, a common task that arises for end-users is to convert FLAC to MP3 in order to use the music on the iPhone, Zune player, iPad, and iPod devices. Steps to Convert FLAC to MP3 Using Bigasoft One of the popular third party applications Read More

CAF (Core Audio Format) is an audio container file format that Apple devices use to store and playback audio files. Commercial audio software such as Soundtrack Pro and Logic Studio use CAF to store libraries of sound effects and other audio elements. CAF files store many different audio formats and metadata tracks in a single file and are virtually unlimited in size, allowing them to store large amounts of data. Generally, Apple QuickTime accesses CAF files, but other commercial software may support them. What is MP3? MP3 (MPEG-1 Part 3), Read More

Zune is the Microsoft designed and produced portable music and media player and a major competitor to the Apple iPod. The default Zune media format is the proprietary .WMA format designed by Microsoft; however, the player also support replay of MP3 audio files. A common task that arises for Zune users is to convert Zune files to MP3 for use on Apple and other media play-back products. The freely available iTunes and Windows Media Player applications can Convert Zune Files to MP3 (iTunes) Step 1– If the iTunes player is Read More