The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
If you want to take it with you these days, the odds are that you probably can. Just about everything made seems to have a portable version. One of the most popular portable items around are Mp3 players. Just like the Sony Walkmans from 15 years ago, music is the item that people most want to take with them. Unlike Walkmans, and the later coming portable CD players however, Mp3 players seem to be truly portable and useful. They are no longer the battery hogs they used to be, and with more storage then full computer harddrives from only a few years ago, these portable players can be used for storing all kinds of files. There are literally hundreds of different models of players on the market, but they can all be broken down into two main categories, based on how they store information. The first type is the flash memory based player. These tiny players store music on a tiny chip, called flash memory. This is the same type of memory as the tiny flash drives many people carry to plug into the USB ports of their computers. There are two main advantages to these types of Mp3 players, size and price. Many of them are tiny, smaller than a pen. They can be very cheap, even in the range of around $50. But what they do not have is much storage. Some of these players will hold very few songs, so be sure to check out the amount of memory in a unit before purchasing. The second type of player is based on a small sized harddrive. These players are somewhat larger, but they make up for this in their storage space. The most popular Mp3 player in the world, Apple's iPod, is a harddrive based player. This device has over 70 per cent of the player market and comes in 4GB., 20GB., and 40GB. models. These players can hold a massive amount of music, radio programs, and audio books among other things. The 40 GB. iPod is advertised as being able to hold 10,000 songs. That is a lot of files to have access to at any time. This week Apple changed the market of Mp3 players by bringing out an iPod which has a colour screen and which can display photos as well. This 60 GB. model is available at the Apple website for almost $700. Definitely a larger chunk of money, but if you absolutely need the latest gadgets, or need to take your photos and files with you, 60 GB. is a lot of space to work with. No matter what type of player you settle on, make sure you check out a few basics. First of all, what comes with the purchase? Some cheap models don't even have headphones and do not include the cables you need to get files from your computer to your player. Cheap initial price, but what else do you need to buy? Check the storage space and the type of files supported. It is great to have player, but if you constantly need to be taking files on and off, it soon becomes a chore, not a helpful gadget. Finally, check the average battery life the player has between chargings. The flash based players use very little power and seem to go everywhere without needing to be recharged. The harddrive based players need to be charged more often, but still should average eight to 10 hours. Along with upgraded iPods with more storage and new features, Apple also quietly announced this week that their iTunes music store will become available in Canada sometime in November. This online store is open for use by both Windows and Mac users, all you need is a copy of iTunes software available for free on Apple's website. An official opening date has not yet been announced, and a price has yet to be officially set for songs, but in other nations, Apple charges 99 cents for each downloaded song available at their site. While Kazaa and Limewire are still available for free, using a source like the iTunes store guarantees a catalogue of hundreds of thousands of high quality recordings available whenever you want them at a very reasonable rate with no viruses or spyware attached to your downloads. I'm definitely looking forward to it. ([email protected])
