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Most people walking around these days have an MP3 player somewhere on their persons. These devices help fill in the empty time slots in the day when you just want to relax to some music. The player is more than some sort of fad; it is a way of modern life and culture. While the Walkman was once both a listening device and a social statement, the modern digital audio player is both a listening device and a piece of our social fabric. The Walkman was a large, clunky square block that when carried around would be seen by all. The players of today are small, discreet, and personal.
The MP3 player is all about convenience. The more technology advances in the storage of data, particularly sound, the smaller these devices get. Apple has a highly branded player known as the Apple iPod. It has been one of the highest selling small electronic gadgets of all time. Two of the models, Nano and Shuffle are tiny enough to fit in even the smallest pockets. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the device in proportion to the amount of data storage available, the higher the price. When Apple worked together with Bose, the Sounddock Digital Music System was developed that serves as a docking station, charger, and high-quality sound system for the iPod.
Other companies have popular lines of players such as Sony, Creative and Toshiba. Sony has carried on the Walkman brand with such recent players as the NW-A82 series and the NW-E02 series. Creative recently released the first 32GB flash media player in their ‘Zen’ model line-up and Toshiba Gigabeats sound great and have a very intuitive user-interface that makes this line easy to use the first time out.
Microsoft got in on the MP3 player branding game in 2006 when it came out with the Microsoft Zune. Not wanting to mess around with the lower-end competition, Microsoft launched with what was then an enormous 30 gigabytes of data storage built into each Zune. The Zune tries to go beyond being just another MP3 player by integrating a large, clear display screen and wireless audio casting.
But you don't have to have a big brand name player to have portable MP3 music and other types of audio on the go. There are a variety of digital audio players available from a variety of companies that have the standard flash RAM for storage and any other files you wish to store. Most of them plug right into your USB port and are automatically recognized by all modern operating systems.
You can save some money by avoiding the big brands, but if brands are important to you, it is a good idea to read MP3 player reviews to find out which players will best meet needs. You may also want to look over the accessories that are available in the market for the various players. These accessories range from protective cases to stereo speakers with a docking station that both recharges the player and plays the files via the speakers.
Tommy uses portable audio devices on his train and subway commute to and from work. Walking on street level, he thinks Sony earphones give the best sound reproduction and he uses Pioneer headphones at work when he is on break.
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