MP3 Players & MP3 Accessories Buying Guide

Ditch your bulky walkman and upgrade to a lightweight and stylish MP3 player on halfvalue

• Select the Right MP3 Player for You
• Determine How Much Storage You Need
• Discover iPods & iPod Accessories
• Download Music for Your MP3 Player

Select the Right MP3 Player for You

Different types of MP3 players (hard drive-based, flash-based, and MP3/CD) work best for different types of people. Before you buy, use this guide to figure out how you plan to use your player most.

Give me MP3 music all day long

Stay entertained at the office, during your commute, or at home with a hard-drive MP3 player. These players offer huge amounts of storage compared to flash-based players, making them the perfect choice for anyone who wants to listen to a large selection of music over a long period of time. Unfortunately, hard drives have movable parts that can be damaged by high-impact movement, making hard drive-based MP3 players less suitable for people who want to listen to music while exercising. Popular hard-drive MP3 players include the Apple iPod, Creative Zen, Dell DJ, Rio Carbon, RCA Lyra Jukebox RD2840, and Rio Nitrus.

I want to run with my MP3 player

Invigorating music livens up any workout. Skip the movable parts, which can be damaged with a lot of movement, and look at flash-based MP3 players. Many include a radio tuner and voice recorder and some even support Secure Digital cards, CompactFlash, SmartMedia cards, or MultiMediaCards, relatively inexpensive memory cards also used by digital cameras and some PDAs. If you already use a memory card for other devices, buy a player that supports the same type of memory card, and use your storage media with all your devices. Popular flash-based MP3 players include the Apple iPod Shuffle, iRiver iFP series, NOMAD MuVo, and Rio Forge Sport.

I want a flexible and inexpensive MP3 player

All of us want to save a little money. Although hard drive-based players often give you a better value per megabyte, flash-based MP3 players (see shopping recommendations above) and MP3/CD players usually cost less overall. If you like to burn CDs, seriously consider MP3/CD players. They play back audio CDs as well as MP3s burned to CD and look like traditional portable CD players. Some even include an FM radio tuner so you can listen to your favorite local stations. Popular MP3/CD players include the iRiver SlimX and Rio Volt

Determine How Much Storage You Need

halfvalue sellers list an MP3 player's storage capacity by megabyte (MB) or gigabyte (GB). One megabyte (1MB) equals about one minute of CD-quality MP3 music.

Hard drive MP3 players

Office-dwellers will want enough storage to stay entertained throughout the day. A hard drive-based player with 4GB of storage holds about 1,000 songs, a player with 20GB of storage holds about 5,000 songs, and a player with a 60GB hard drive can hold a whopping 15,000 songs. Keep in mind that you can use your MP3 player as a portable hard drive, storing data files on the space you don't use for music.

Flash-based MP3 players

If you plan on using your player for an hour at the gym every day, you don't need a ton of storage space. 64MB will let you store about one hour of MP3 music, which comes out to about 32 songs. If you want to mix things up with more song options, invest in more storage. Remember, some flash-based players support memory cards. A 512MB card can keep you groovin' for up to eight hours, or you could keep several smaller cards handy with different music on each one.

Discover iPods & iPod Accessories

You'll find a large selection of Apple iPods, one of the most popular MP3 players on the market, on halfvalue. You'll see everything from first-generation players to the latest fourth-generation iPods and iPod nano. When you read an iPod item description on halfvalue, find out which accessories a seller includes. To get started, you'll generally need a dock, headphones (sometimes called earbud headphones), and a FireWire cable or USB 2.0 cable.

• iPod Shuffle: Apple's flash-based player, iPod Shuffle, comes in 512MB and 1GB sizes. It's about the size of a pack of gum and doesn't have a screen, playing back songs on random (shuffle) or in the order they were put on the player. It connects directly to your computer via USB and does not use a dock with cables. Since it doesn't have movable parts, it makes a great player for people who love to exercise.
• iPod nano: The slim and trim iPod nano measures 3.5" x 1.6" x .27" and can hold 500 to 1,000 songs, depending on storage size. It also features a 1.5" LCD screen with backlight.
• iPod: Apple's 30GB and 60GB iPods feature click wheels, offer battery life up to 12 hours, and can play back songs, podcasts, photos, and most recently, video.
• Apple iPod from HP: The fourth-generation (4G) Apple iPod from HP marketed by Hewlett-Packard comes pre-formatted for Windows and the HP logo appears on the back.
• iPod U2 Special Edition: iPod U2 Special Edition includes all the features of the 4G iPod. The sleek black case includes a red click wheel and autographs from members of U2 (yes, the band) on the back.

Download Music for Your MP3 Player

Downloading music from a reputable online service for $.88 to $.99 per song quickly builds your music collection. Just make sure the player you buy supports the file type (AAC, AIFF, MP3, WMA, RealAudio) used by the music service you use or plan to use. For example, if you want to use iTunes, buy an iPod. If you want to use a service that uses WMA files, buy a brand that supports WMA such as Creative, Dell, iRiver, or Rio.

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