convert

Convert audio files to MP3s

M4A is the file extension for MPEG-4 Audio, the audio part of your MPEG-4 videos. Apple has used the M4a (small "a") designation for several of the low-loss audio formats it's sold for years at the iTunes Store. To add to the confusion, some have digital rights management encryption, and some don't. To make a long story short, compatibility is the issue, especially for people with large MP3 collections. Maniac Tools' Free M4a to MP3 Converter does what its name indicates: it converts M4a, AAC, 3GP, and MP4 Audio files to MP3s (or WAVs) that are … Read more

Convert Windows audio to MP3s with Free WMA to MP3 Converter

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. It encompasses four codecs and several file types, but all you really need to know is that WMA is the format Windows uses for the audio part of your Windows Media files and for jobs like recording TV sound. These formats are widely compatible -- inside Windows, at least -- and they play on Windows Media Center, Media Player, and compatible apps, whether or not they're part of a video container. But it's different when you want to play a WMA clip on your MP3 player. For that you'll need a … Read more

FAA may change in-flight gadget rules

Keep your seat belt fastened for Tuesday's tech news roundup:

The Federal Aviation Administration has formed a committee to reconsider its policy on when electronics can be turned on during a flight. But this does not include making a cellphone call, so no worries about noisy neighbors. This group will look into how (or if) today's smartphones and tablets interfere with communication and instruments, and perhaps future electronics could have some new certification standard that marks it as safe for use during a flight.

Android users might have to thank the Apple vs. Samsung trial for speeding up … Read more

Sony to debut Vaio hybrid tablet soon

Sony plans to debut a convertible Windows 8 tablet as soon as this week, a source tells CNET.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the same device that made an appearance today on the mobile news Web site Pocketnow, which published a series of images showing off a convertible tablet called the "Vaio Duo 11." … Read more

Samsung teases next Windows 8 thing?

Care to venture a guess on what Samsung's next, cool hybrid-looking thing is?

If that description sounds vague, just watch the video below: it's more of an exercise in abstract expression than concrete design cues.

That said, it does show brushed metal, round edges, and hint at (near the end) a hybrid device possibly suggestive of the Samsung Series 5 Hybrid PC, first shown in June at Computex.

And this would fit nicely with one of the biggest design trends for Windows 8 devices. That is, newfangled laptops the convert readily to tablets or more tablet-like devices that … Read more

Convert WAVS, MP3s and more with Free Audio Converter

We've tried tons of freeware MP3 converters. They tend to fall somewhere in between Easy Enough for Beginners and Feature-Filled for Experts. DVDVideoSoft's Free Audio Converter definitely registers on the "Easy" end of the dial, but it offers enough options to enable you to encode your MP3s in several different formats, including three levels of LAME. A Preset Wizard makes it easy to save your settings for future use. It can access compatible audio files on your hard drive or stored on a CD, but it doesn't rip CD audio.

Free Audio Converter shares a … Read more

Advancing the state of the art of desktop audio

Late last year I raved about the ADL by Furutech Cruise USB digital-to-analog headphone amplifier, so when the company sent over the new Esprit desktop digital-to-analog converter, I was eager to see what it could do.

I had the 2.3-inch-by-5.8-inch-by-7.4-inch component on my desktop for a few months and I was a little concerned that I was starting to take it for granted. It sounded so utterly natural that I listened to it a lot longer than I needed to write a review, and that's always a good sign. I ran it with my Emotiva airmotiv … Read more

Need MP3s? Get your Fre:AC on

To test the latest version of Fre:AC, the free, open-source audio converter, we had to uninstall the previous version since we were already using it to create high-quality MP3s. The BonkEnc Project's Fre:AC (smile when you say that, pilgrim) is the best tool of its type we've yet tried for ripping, converting, and encoding MP3s with the best possible audio quality, including LAME. Fre:AC also converts files between different types of MP3 encoding with minimal loss. Suppose you have a large collection of tunes in an odd (OGG?) format. With Fre:AC, you can convert … Read more

Free Video to MP3 Converter captures and saves sounds from video

Free Video to MP3 Converter: that pretty well sums up this app from DVDVideoSoft. It can extract audio clips from movies and other videos and save them as MP3s you can play, well, just about anywhere. From ringtones to e-greetings to sound effects, the uses for extracted audio clips are many. This freeware makes it all a matter of a few easy clicks. And it just doesn't create box-standard MP3s but also WAV, WMA, AAC, APE, FLAC, OGG, and more, with several quality options for each.

This program's user interface and layout shares a family resemblance with DVDVideoSoft'… Read more

Capture stills from videos with Free Video to JPEG Converter

Would you like a super-easy way to capture video frames and convert them into JPEG stills? Or generate a series of images showing a sequence from your favorite movie? Or create picture albums out of family videos? DVDVideoSoft's Free Video to JPG Converter is your production assistant. This free tool makes it easy to capture still images from video files and save them as JPEG images, the most common format by far. It can sample frames at rates you select or copy every frame, though you can also limit the total number of frames to keep things from getting … Read more