Portable Audio Players-Download Service Compatible
When the first version of Napster became available for music downloading, I like a lot of other people tried it out. I actually stopped using it really early on -- not so much that I didnt like the thought of stealing, but I hated what I downloaded. Half of the song sound quality was horrible, some were really really good, some got cut off. It was really bad stuff, I'd honestly rather purchase the music.
Now along comes companies that offer music to be downloaded for as low as $.79 a song or $9.99 an album. Now comes the confusion. All of these services utilize some kind of digital rights management, which essentially allows the software on your computer or personal device to play the downloaded songs. I was curious about which portable devices were compatible with the various music services. I'd like to be able to buy from more than 1 of them, afterall, I never bought all of my CDs from 1 place.
Here's what I've found out. There are 5 major download sites (I'm sure there's more, but I'm lazy). BuyMusic, Napster, MusicNow, Liquid.com and iTunes.
The requirements at iTunes were the easiest to deal with. Apple has this control thing going on, so you need the iTunes software on your computer (yes, there's a windows version). You need Windows XP or Windows 2000, a 500 MHz computer and [blah] QuickTime - included in iTunes software. The other thing that you need is an iPod. It wasnt easy, but I found a page in their support section that clearly states that "Other MP3 players do not work with iTunes for Windows" (you can see that here).
The other 4 services are not designed under the facist regime of Apple and are compatible with many music devices. Only 1 of these services (Napster) really pushed 1 device over other compatible devices (but that's because it's a co-branded device), the Samsung/Napster YP910. All services require Digital Rights Management Compliant devices. This means that your device needs to support WMA files and should be compatible with Media 9 Player and Windows XP.
For a complete list of supported devices, the imperialist empire (Microsoft), keeps an updated list on their windowsmedia site here.
The major compliant MP3 devices are from:
- Creative Labs
- Rio
- iRiver [the iFP-190 and iFP-195 both receive Editor's Choice from OnlineReviewGuide]
- Dell
- Samsung
- Gateway
The major compliant phones are from:
- DoPod
- MiTac
- Ericsson
- T-Mobile
The major compliant PDA devices are from:
- Casio
- Compaq
- Dell
- Audiovox
- HP
- NEC
- MiTAC
- Seimens
- Toshiba
- ViewSonic
There's more, but you get the idea, there are a lot of choices out there for you. Still confused? Click Here.
A full review of some of these devices will be onboard soon.
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