SanDisk’s Fuze, which holds the number two position just below Apple’s iPod nano, is planning to download its music from other sites such as Rhapsody Napster, Urge and Yahoo Music, as it is not supported by Apple’s iTunes.

SanDisk claims that Fuze will play up to 24 hours on a single charge, but its main advantage over the Nano would be its slot for a microSD flash memory card that can add as much as 8 GB of storage. Fuze is available with 4GB storage capacity and in five colours, whereas Nano is available in six colours with same capacity. However, Fuze is available at £60, which is £30 less than the Nano. The 8GB fuze is sold at £80 as compared to £160 for Nano.

You can listen, see and play with a battery life to last for a day and room to store almost 2000 songs. The new Fuze is a perfect portable music machine. You can also watch your favourite video clips on its 1.9″ colour screen, and jam to FM radio with 40 stations, share your photographs wherever you go, and also play with the built-in voice recorder. There are five electric colours to choose from:  blue, red, black, silver or pink.

The music lovers often want to know as how they can upload music to their brand new MP3 player. Well, most tech-savvy music buffs, this is an easy thing. But there are people for whom it’s a difficult proposition. Here we will explain as how to go about this process.

To begin with, if windows can’t recognise your MP3 player, you need to make use of the Driver CD. Put it in the CD/DVD Drive. Usually, this CD comes with ‘autorun’ feature. Just wait for a few seconds for the installing application to appear. You will see something like ‘Install’ or ‘Install Drivers’.

Now, follow the setup. Generally, this process is short & easy, hence it won’t take more time. All you’ve to do is to click ‘Next’ & ‘Finish’. Once you’ve done this, your MP3 player is installed. Again go to ‘My Computer’ and look for the new icon – i.e. your MP3 player.
So, you have successfully installed you player. Your MP3 storage device will be located in ‘My Computer’. All you’ve to do now is to double-click on it.

When the player is brand new, there’ll be nothing to show. Go to your hard drives, and locate your music files. When you select the files, you’re ready to upload them to your MP3 player. Just COPY them; go to Your MP3 icon in ‘My Computer’ (the new icon), double click it, and PASTE. Wait for the copying process to be completed. Switch off the USB cable & you are all set to enjoy your music.

So you’ve just bought a brand-new MP3 player. We shall understand the basics of establishing a connection between a new MP3 player and your computer.

With your new device, you will need to get some important accessories, such as installation CD, earphones, USB cable, recharger USB cable, etc. Installation CD is necessary for establishing connection between your computer and MP3 player. This CD will help your Operating System in recognising the device (player).

If you’ve Windows 2003 & above, maybe there’s no need for installing anything. In most cases, Windows XP will recognise your MP3 player automatically after you connect it with USB cable. You must have a CD in any case. This CD is also known as User Manual CD or Driver CD.

You must turn on your player and then plug the cable with it. Now, plug the other jack into the desktop. Now the device and PC are connected. If Windows recognise the player automatically, messages like ‘New Hardware Device Found’ or ‘Hardware Installed & Ready to Use’ will appear. After your MP3 is installed, go to ‘My Computer’ & look for the new icon ‘Removable Storage Device’. The icon may perhaps be named after your player.

For e.g. SciFlux MP3 Device or something similar to that!

Flash-based MP3 players: This type of MP3 players (Flash-based), as the name suggests, have a built-in flash memory chip.

More features of Flash-based MP3 players:
•    They tend to be tiny, and hence are ultra-portable.
•    They have no moving parts.
•    A user can do all sports activities - without worrying about the music skipping a beat.
•    The downside is their high cost per megabyte. These range from 32MB to 2GB.

Despite their some shortcomings, Flash based MP3 players retain their popularity. A flash based player, unlike the hard drive based MP3 player only provides up to 4 gigabytes of memory (on each card), but these are interchangeable, so you can still collect/compile music, videos and photos with it. You can opt to change the card as often as you wish, just like changing a CD on your home stereo.

Keep in mind the fact that you require special, additional and compatible equipment like a flash reader for your comp for you to be able to download the digital files & then transfer the card to your player. The most popular models in this category tend to be the ones from the iRiver iFP series, the Creative Muvo line, and more recently, the Apple iPod Shuffle.

One of the world’s leading mp3 player manufacturer’s Sony has come up with a flash-based MP3 player that holds up to 8GB of music and video with superb audio quality. The new Sony NWZ-A818 is built with style and function in mind and is direct competition to Apple’s iPod Nano.

It boasts a 2-inch QVGA (240-by-320-pixel) TFT color display and is available in either a black or a silver case. It supports various files including .aac, .mp3, .wav and .wma files and syncs perfectly with Windows Media Player 11. This unit can play music for about 30 hours on a full charge. With easy navigating four-way main control buttons and dedicated ‘option’ and ‘back’ buttons, navigation is a snap. Using just one hand, you can easily shuffle songs and search for photos or videos. The Sony NWZ-A818’s signal-to-noise ratio was 75 dB (where a higher number means a cleaner signal). Using a proprietary 22-pin connection to establish a USB link to the computer, it is very convenient to store songs in this mp3 player.

Overall, this 8GB Sony NWZ-A818 delivers impressive sound quality through its excellent supplied ear buds.

Boasting a storage capacity of 2GB, the Eco EMP-MX71 comes with an expandable SD memory card slot that allows users to store more songs and images in their player. This player also sports a 1.8-inch display and supports various file formats including MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, and OGG files. Additionally, it also supports video player WMV, AVI, and MPEG files with help from a file conversion utility. It includes voice/in-line recording, which enables users to conduct crisp and clear voice recording.

One of the best features of this player is users can power the Eco with the built-in hand crank, which gives at least 40 minutes of music playback for every minute of winding. The crank will also charge dead cell phones and users can also power up the player via its USB port. Other features on the EMP-MX71 include an LED flashlight, a photo viewer, and a text file reader for user’s convenience.

A recent study shows that listening to loud music on mp3 players can lead to deafness. Professor Adrian Davis, a hearing expert at Manchester University, confirmed that many people who listen to music via iPods and other MP3 players had little idea of the safe volume their ears should be exposed to. He added saying that a general conversation is conducted at 60 decibels; however, extended exposure to sounds louder than 85 decibels for instance the sound of a busy road can cause serious damage.

Professor Davis, who is a government advisor on hearing loss, conducted a research and found seven in ten of all portable audio sales in last year were MP3s. He also noticed that people usually tend to listen to their favourite music at high decibels to avoid background noise. Expert’s added saying that music listened to on earphones at 97 decibels is loud enough to cause permanent damage after just 30 minutes and if the volume rises 100 decibels, a sharp damage can be caused in only 15 minutes.

So while you enjoy your favourite MP3’s on the player of your choice, remember to keep the volume to a reasonable level.

One of the leading manufacturers of mp3 players SanDisk recently announced that the company will promote DRM-free music from more than 50 new and emerging artists on a microSD card. It is a U.S.-based program and is the first of its kind to use microSD cards. It helps launch the new 8GB (gigabyte) Sansa Fuze MP3 player. The “Sansa Sessions” microSD card comprises of a collection of rock, pop, and hip hop songs, music videos, and photos from more than 30 labels. It includes artists like All Time Low, Ladytron, Magnet, Nada Surf, Of Montreal and The Coup.
It is an innovative medium for music distribution and great exposure for artists, said Matt Lunsford, the co-president of Polyvinyl Record Co. He also added saying that such a promotion benefits everybody who is involved, aligning the interests of the musician, label and consumer. The Sansa Sessions music card gives users a simple way to enjoy, manage, and discover new music. The company is of view that artists usually want to give their fans an easy and legal way to experience and share their music, while labels are looking for a form of physical distribution with more usability than the CD. This session promotion is a great opportunity for them to explore this new format and gives both artists and labels a glimpse of the potential for music distribution in this medium.

One of the leading consumer electronics makers Sony announced that their next PlayStation 3 firmware updated v2.20 will add new features to PS3. This version will enable PS3 users to download video content, ringtones, interactive movie-based games, and more when the software will be released in late March.

The updated features will also allow users to copy photos and music playlists over USB from their PS3 to their PSP. The “Resume play” control will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed. Another control named “Audio Output Device” will be a new Remote Play setting, facilitating PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3. In addition, “Mosquito Noise Reduction” control will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.

Additionally, PS3 system’s Internet browser will also be enhanced. Video files directly linked from a Web page will be allowed to be streamed, and the browser’s view speed will be improved. People will be able to play DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB.

Soon after iPod was launched, iPod cases started to gain popularity amongst the masses. There is a lot of variety available in the market when it comes to iPod cases. There are the simple ones and jazzy ones that can select depending on one’s tastes and needs.

There are also iPod cases with built-in speakers and more. However, these do not seem to flood the shelves anymore may be due to presumably lacklustre sound quality or poor output potential. But the new iPod case now available in the market seems to be the perfect solution to overcome this particular problem.

Now, an iPod case with rotating speakers is available. The two stereo drivers pump out under 1-watt each. This enclosure is just perfect for iPod classic with 80/160GB as well as 30/60/80GB 5G iPods.