MP3 Players: How It All Began

You have probably seen some old movies where some unruly teenager carried on his shoulders one the first "portable" audio playersa blaring cassette-tape-playing two-speaker monster (if you're old enough, you may even have done this yourself). What can the desire of people to take their music with them do!

But the first truly portable audio player was the cassette-tape based Sony Walkman. That was extremely revolutionary in its time. This small plastic box (well, today it doesnt seem to be very small any longer) with earphones brought on the dawn of the portable audio player and sparked a legion of imitators. The subsequent introduction of audio CDs and CD-based walkmans marked the start of the digital music age.

A relatively recent revolution in this area was the introduction of Apples portable music player, the iPod. Although portable mp3 players existed before it (the first mass market mp3 player, the Rio PMP300, was introduced in 1998), the iPods unique design, its user-friendliness, and Apples very good reputation for its sense of aesthetics created immense interest in the product. Soon iPod was catapulted to its current ubiquity. More than 7 out of 10 mp3 player owners today have an iPod.

Portable mp3 players today are a must-have in the everyone-else-has-them-so-I-should-have-one-too sense. Although they are indeed undoubtedly very handy. Especially among the younger half of the population, jumping aboard the portable music bandwagon is a way of staying cool and keeping up with the times.

MP3 format has been chosen as the most widespread. Songs of that format can be supported not only by iPods but by the majority of devices. You can enjoy MP3 music while walking, driving, cooking, or listening to your dull lectures.

The primary source of music in mp3 players today is still audio CDs, as it is now very easy to create mp3s from them (using Total Audio Converters rip CD option). The widespread availability of internet access, with the ability to download plenty of music (legally and illegally) is also a crucial factor in the spread of portable music players. Though there is the reverse of the medal. The songs in the web are of dozens different audio formats. What to do with some FLAC or APE song?

The solution is quite simple. Get some audio encoding/decoding tool to convert your songs to your favorite mp3. For example, Total Audio Converter (http://www.CoolUtils.com) is a brainlessly simple tool that supports almost all audio formats. No matter what source format your track is, Total Audio Converter will easily convert it to the format you need. What is important TAC was developed to be handy and suites any digital music newbie.

Today, 1 in 5 Americans, and about 11 out of 20 American teenagers, own at least one portable audio. More than 1 out of 10 older adults (aged 35-54) own an mp3 player as well. (Interestingly, two-thirds of mp3 player owners are male girls, where are you?) From these stats alone, its easy to see that portable music players are definitely here to stay. And that is GREAT

Alexander Johannes is a professional writer that loves music and eveything connected to that area.psps
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Food Gifts with Flair - Gourmet Food Gift Ideas From the Holiday Gift Lady

Are you bored with spiced drink mix or layered soup in a jar? Let me inspire you with some new food gift ideas! I like making treats in the kitchen because they are cheap and don't take much time shopping for. My family likes them because they taste good and are consumable - no clutter! Here are some of the themes I use for inspiration in choosing the right recipe for each person:

Family History or Country of Origin - Introduce a person to a food that originated in the place your family is from. My husband's family is from Hungary so every year they make small crescent shaped nut filled cookies called Kieflies to give as gifts. It becomes a family event as we grind the nuts, roll out dough, and sprinkle the finished cookies with sugar. Then we pack them up in boxes to send off to relatives in California and deliver them personally to nearby family and friends.

Ethnic Dinner in a Basket - Gather a variety of ethnic food items into your own gourmet food gift basket. To our family who lives in upstate New York (but is originally from the Southwest), we send enchilada sauce and our family's favorite canned salsa. Add a bag of flour tortilla mix, Spanish rice mix, and some dried beans and you have the beginnings of a fiesta.

Hobbies - Does this person you know sit around playing Japanese video games all night? Give them Japanese treats. If they go participate in Civil War Reenactments, find a historical recipe book and cook them up some hard tack for the next camp out. If they like to scrapbook, put together a basket of healthy snack foods such as spiced almonds or pecans, dried fruit, pretzel mix and homemade or gourmet mustard for them to share with friends at the next photo cropping marathon.

Favorite Food - Think of a person's favorite food and then make several varieties of it. My friend Julie likes muffins so I could make her blueberry muffin mix, apple spice muffin mix, struesel muffin mix, and cranberry orange muffin mix. My neighbor Tony likes hot stuff so he might enjoy pickled peppers, hot salsa, and my mother-in-law's famous spicy asparagus spears.

Using these ideas for inspiration, you will have fun mixing up some food gifts for this holiday season and have your family and friends asking for more of your gourmet treats. Happy Holidays!

Melanie Farkas is the Holiday Gift Lady. She has gift ideas from all over the world at her website http://www.uniqueholidaygiftideas.com/psp games
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