m4a

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

While iPods and iPhones can have fairly large storage capacities, people's music libraries often are vastly larger, resulting in them having to select a subset of their music to bring with them on the go.

To address this problem, Apple includes an option in iTunes to convert songs from higher qualities to lower ones at around 128Kbps sampling rates when being transferred to an iPod or iPhone. This saves on space, especially in environments where the higher quality in less compressed files is not needed.

While this process should save space, some people are finding that iTunes' size calculation … Read more

Aglare Music Converter Platinum is a simple program that allows users to convert audio and video files to a variety of different audio formats. Although there was nothing about the program that particularly impressed us, we found it to be easy to use and effective.

The program's interface is basic, with all of its features contained on a single screen. Users simply choose the file or files they want to convert, select the output format from among seven options, optionally select the desired quality of the output, and click Convert. The program quickly converts files and saves them to … Read more

Agood MP3 AMR OGG AAC M4A AC3 WAV Converter is a simple program that allows users to convert audio files to a variety of different formats. Although there was nothing about the program that particularly impressed us, we found it to be easy to use and effective.

The program's interface is basic, with all of its features contained on a single screen. Users simply choose the file or files they want to convert, select the output format from among seven options, optionally select the desired quality of the output, and click Convert. The program quickly converts files and saves … Read more

Power Audio Cutter is a simple program that allows users to cut audio tracks and convert them to other file formats. It's not the most intuitive program we've ever used, but once we figured it out, we found it to be pretty straightforward.

The program's interface is plain, with all its features organized on a single screen. Although each component makes sense alone--we could select a file to work with, choose a destination location for the output, and so-on--it was not entirely clear how we were to go about cutting the file. A visit to the built-in … Read more

Free Convert M4A to MP3 AMR OGG AAC Converter provides a simple collection of tools for quickly changing file types. By breaking the process down into an easy-to-use layout, this program succeeds.

Its interface is impressively simple to operate, thanks to its plainspoken onscreen instructions and its intuitive command icons. Simply choose an M4A file from your collection and decide which file type to convert it to. That's about it. As the name implies, you can choose between MP3, AMR, OGG, and WAV files with a drop-down menu. The actual conversion was impressively fast, since it changed a 3-minute … Read more

When I buy something, no matter what it is, I consider it mine. In the United States, there are some cell phone companies that don't allow you to customize your phone the way you want like most cell phone companies do. What this means is that they might disallow you to put on a custom ringtone or wallpaper without going through their service to do so, or you'll have to find a way to hack the phone to put the media on yourself. Thankfully, Spring and Palm don't make you go through that trouble to put wallpapers … Read more

MediaMaster is one of many companies worth keeping an eye on, mainly for the potential of having your entire music library available anywhere you go, as long as you've got an Internet connection. Their Facebook app, which went live just a few weeks ago, is a prime example of a great use of the service.

The app lets you set up a huge playlist of music, and serve it up right on your profile in a miniplayer. Anyone who comes by your profile can then get the full quality versions of the tracks streamed in whatever order you set … Read more

MediaMaster is a Web-based jukebox service that launched last week. MediaMaster gives users free storage space to upload their tunes and listen to them anywhere they have Internet access. The interface is clean, simple, and intuitive--if you're used to iTunes or Windows Media Player you'll feel right at home. Users can upload their tunes with two uploaders, a simple one for a few tracks and an advanced version that lets you simply drag and drop files from file folders right into the uploader.

Once your tracks are uploaded, you can create and manage playlists, rate individual songs, and … Read more