Audio

Written by Michele Casey
Narrated by Ivalyn Smith

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iPod

The iPod is a brand of portable digital media player designed and marketed by Apple Computer. The iPod family provides a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel (with the exception of the iPod shuffle). The standard iPod model stores media on a built-in hard drive, while the small shuffle and nano use flash memory. History: Apple found that digital music players were lacking in quality so they decided to develop their own. Apple’s engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design and build the first iPod in less than a year. It was unveiled on October 23, 2001, as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

MP3 Players

MP3 is a near-CD quality file format for sound files, and is very popular for music on the web. Lots of people download MP3s and then burn them onto CDs. It’s become common for people to load their entire CD collection onto their PC and convert the songs into MP3s. One downside to this practice has been the successful prosecution of MP3 file downloaders by music companies such as EMI. It has also spawned many lawful download services such as the new Napster service and iTunes.

Podcasting

Podcasting is the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. The term podcast, like “radio,” can mean both the content and the method of delivery. Podcasters’ websites also may offer direct download of their files, but the subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming. Usually, the podcast features one type of “show” with new episodes either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily, weekly, etc. Podcasting is about creating content (audio or video) for an audience that wants to listen when they want, where they want, and how they want.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a proprietary freeware software media player used for playing audio, as well as viewing video and images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. It has the ability to copy music to a compact disc, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player), and let users buy music from one of several online music stores. Windows Media Player competes with other freeware programs such as RealNetworks’RealPlayer, MPlayer, Nullsoft’s Winamp, and Apple Computer’s QuickTime and iTunes.

QuickTime

QuickTime is a multimedia technology developed by Apple Computer, capable of handling various formats of digital video, sound, text, animation, music, and immersive panoramic images. Apple makes it available for free download on its website and bundles it with each of its computers. It was first released on December 2, 1991 as a multimedia add-on for System Software 6 and later.