Portable Media Players
Portable media players are devices that can store and play multimedia files such as images, videos and sound files. You might think that a mobile phone or Sony PSP can do just that, however for this section the devices originally intended as MP3 players or MP4 players are described. The Apple family of devices, such as the IPod, IPod Nano or other similar devices like the Sony Walkman 800 series or IRiver E100 are examples of such devices. Many MP3 players have been developed in the past 4 years to incorporate the ability to play stored video files. The Anything But IPod website provides good reviews and comparisons on the latest mp3/4 players.
Sony Walkman
Anyone of a certain generation will remember the coming of the Sony Walkman - the portable cassette player that made listening to your favourite music no longer restricted to your bedroom. Almost 25 years later, in February 2008, Sony extended the Video Walkman brand by launching the Sony NW A820 - it has a glass 2.4" QVGA screen display, up to 16GB Flash memory, plus it has the great advantage of Bluetooth. Sound files can easily be transferred to the device or a Sony Bluetooth earpiece allows you to listen to the music while in a car.
The Sony Walkman is versatile being able to work with MP3, WMA, AAC sound files and MPEG-4, H.264 video files as well as JPG images.
IPod family
The development of portable audio players really increased in 2001 when the first Apple Ipod came onto the market. Subsequent creations of the different 'generations' of IPod has seen the choice of devices include the Shuffle, Nano and Video IPod. Of course there have been additional members of the family, in the form of the ITouch and IPhone, with a greater number of features beyond the simple media player.
Ipods use either a hard-drive or Flash memory (of anything up to 160GB capacity) and all IPods (excluding the ITouch) can be used as a data storage facility. See the Apple Store for the full list of acceptable sound and video file formats, however if you produce an .avi or .wmv video you will certainly have to use video conversion software to prepare it for an IPod device! Apple and ITunes are conjoined so podcasts and music can be downloaded and synchronised to a device very easily.
Videos, images and sound files can be enjoyed on an IPod but the device can also store quizzes, e-books and be used as an alarm, it will store text notes. See the How To section to see how to create e-books and how to transfer Powerpoint presentations onto the device.
By connecting a device, like the Griffin ITalk, the iPod can be used as a recording device too - for directly recording, storing and playing back the sound file.
If you want to capture an interview, professional discussion or record a voice memo, the Griffin iTalk or the Belkin IPod Voice Recorder is all you need.
Your IPod can also become a laser pointer - useful to direct attention to the whiteboard or presentation. The IBeam is a USB connector for some of the IPod Family.
Archos- 605 and 705
The Archos 605 WiFi is still a popular device, even though it was launched at the end of 2007. It is a neat, handheld sized multimedia player that plays video files such as MPEG-4 AVI, WMV and, with plug-in, MP4 H.264, AAC, MPEG, and MPEG2s. It can view JPEG, BMP and PNG images as well as PDF documents and up to 160GB Flash memory with SD card facility.
The 605 and 705 can connect using WiFi - the browser being Opera with full mobile Internet browsing capability. The 705 offers a larger screen size at 7 inches - the buttons are less fiddly for many users.