MP3 Insider

Yes, I still miss My So Called Life

(Credit: Corinne Schulze)

Microsoft struggled through two rounds of Zune before hitting the nail on the head with the third generation of the MP3 player, but the company got at least one thing right from the start. Even the first pass offered a larger-than-average screen, clocking in at 3 inches diagonally, and the latest version packs a video-worthy 3.2-inch screen. Of course, getting video content was a bit of a challenge at first, but the Zune Marketplace continues to expand its catalog, which now offers TV shows from several major networks such as NBC and Comedy Central.

However, that video content is going to cost you--about $2 per episode, to be exact--and the Marketplace currently does not offer movies to rent or buy (unlike iTunes). That's where this tutorial comes in: if you already have a collection of digital video content, this step-by-step guide will show you how to convert it for playback on the Zune. The software used in this how-to can convert from any of the following formats: MP4, 3GP, MPG, AVI, WMV, FLV, and SWF.

Note: Unfortunately, ripping most commercial DVDs is currently illegal in the United States, as it requires circumventing the copyright protection found on the DVDs. For unprotected DVDs, try Handbrake.

Thanks to Pandora, the Chumby has graduated from an overqualified alarm clock to the most adorable part of my living room Hi-Fi.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

For the past eight months, my latte-colored Chumby has been at my bedside, waking me up with an '80s music mix from Shoutcast and feeding my insomnia with RSS tech news. Today, however, I ceremoniously relocated my Chumby from my nightstand to my living room stereo--right between my Zune and my turntable.

The sudden relocation was caused by invisible Chumby fairies silently upgrading my Chumby's firmware yesterday (Hooray for free upgrades!), adding Pandora Internet radio to an already impressive list of streaming music options. The Chumby is meant to be a very flexible, multipurpose gadget, so the fact that I've been using it a glorified alarm clock is a shame. Maybe I've just been in denial over the Chumby's suitability as an Internet radio receiver, but it took the addition of Pandora to finally motivate me to relocate it to my living room.

Aside from the Grace ITC-IR1000B, the $179 Chumby is now one of the cheapest ways to get a standalone Pandora jukebox into your living room. It's definitely the most adorable solution (sorry Grace). Sure, you can get more powerful Pandora systems, like the $300 Logitech Squeezebox Boom, or more sophisticated systems like the $999 Sonos Digital Music System, but for me, a Chumby and a $5 RCA-to-minijack cable is the perfect combination of price, style, and capability.

The Chumby version of Pandora is visually very similar to the Web version.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

The Chumby version of Pandora doesn't deliver the exact same experience as Pandora on the Web, but the best parts are still here. After logging in to your Pandora account using the onscreen keyboard (for creating a new account) you can listen to any station you've already created, pause and skip through songs, adjust volume, rate tracks, bookmarks songs, view the artist and title information of the currently playing song (including album art), and even create new stations on the fly by typing in artist or song names. The only drawbacks are that you can't purchase songs directly or share songs with friends the way you can with the Web or iPhone versions of Pandora.

To be fair, the majority of Pandora-compatible receivers lack these same features, and few of them offer niceties such as album art and touch-screen keyboards. With the way I have the Chumby set up currently, I'll probably just let Pandora run perpetually in the background, without much interaction, and leave the station creation and playlist grooming for those moments when I've got the Web version of Pandora running on my computer at work.

As free upgrades go, the addition of Pandora to the Chumby is pure gravy. The sound quality is good, the interface is slick, and the price is perfect. After eight months, I'm glad to finally see the Chumby take on more responsibilities around the house.

If you're visually impaired or legally blind, living in the age of the MP3 player can be frustrating. Small screens, tiny fonts, complicated menus, and imprecise controls make the majority of MP3 players very difficult to use. Until now, visually impaired users often resorted to counting scroll wheel clicks and memorizing menus, or installing and configuring third-party firmware, such as the open source Rockbox (a project not recommended for the technologically timid).

By adding a Spoken Menus feature to their fourth-generation iPod Nano, Apple is one of the first manufacturers to dramatically improve the usability of their MP3 players for vision-impaired users. The iPod Nano's "spoken menus" option literally speaks menu and song selections to you in a synthesized voice, making it possible to navigate your iPod completely by sound. For this MP3 Insider tip, we'll go step-by-step through the process of activating the iPod Nano's spoken menus and tweaking them to your taste. There's also a video version of this how-to offered to the right of this paragraph.

Here are the steps involved for setting up your fourth-generation iPod Nano for spoken menus.

1. Setting up iTunes
Connect your iPod to your computer, launch iTunes 8, and select your iPod from the left pane. The main iTunes window should now be a summary page for your iPod with a few checkbox options near the bottom of the window. Check off the last option, marked "Enable spoken menus", then hit the Apply button in the lower right corner of iTunes.

It will take a few minutes for your computer to read the contents of your iPod, generate the necessary voice cues, and sync those cues back to your iPod.

2. Tweaking your voice settings
If you're not happy with the sound of the voice used for spoken menus you can change the character and the speed of the voice. To change the default voice on Windows XP, go to Settings in the Start Menu, select Control Panel and then select Speech. By default, Windows users only have one voice, called Microsoft Sam, but additional voices can be installed. Under voice type, there's a bar to define the speed of the voice.

Mac users have over 20 voices included by default under Mac OS 10. You can find your Mac's voice settings by going to System Preferences from the Apple menu, and locating the Speech icon. Same as Windows, you can adjust the type of voice and the playback speed.

In theory, iTunes should detect when you've made changes to your system's speech settings and reload your iPod Nano with new voice files the next time it's connected, however, in Windows XP, we could only get the new voice settings to take after doing an iPod firmware restore through iTunes. Under Mac, system-voice changes seemed to take immediately.

3. Check your iPod settings
After enabling spoken menus through iTunes, you should be able to hear the voice cues on your iPod right away. If you don't, check the Settings menu of your iPod, click on General, and you should find an option for turning spoken menus on and off.

That's all there is to it. For those of you who've already configured your computer's voice to suit your taste, step one may be all it takes to get the desired result. If you have any other tips on improving MP3 player accessibility, please share them in the comments section below.

The Creative Zen is a great player for audiobooks and offers manual bookmarking. Click through to see the other four MP3 players on our list.

(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

If you think MP3 players have been revolutionary for music, think about what they've done for the audiobook industry. Ten years ago, if you wanted to hear an unabridged audiobook version of Crime and Punishment, you had to spend your money on a shrink-wrapped brick of 16 CDs. Compact discs aren't the best medium for long-format listening: they max out at 90 minutes; the portable players didn't offer bookmarking or auto-resume; and don't get me started on scratched discs.

Today, an unabridged audiobook version of War and Peace fits onto an iPod Shuffle (a Sansa Clip, if you're thrifty). Think of the library of books you can store on a 120GB iPod Classic! MP3 player audiobooks don't skip, they're less expensive than CDs, they can travel in your pocket, and many MP3 players will save your place between listens. But which MP3 players are the best when it comes to audiobook playback?

Read CNET's roundup of the best MP3 players for audiobooks.

The Zune software is coming into its own, but it's still no iTunes-killer.

The Zune desktop software has historically been a necessary evil for Zune owners. The original version of the software released in 2006 was nothing more than Windows Media Player 11 with a fresh coat of paint and a built-in store. Then, the remodeled, stripped-down, and buggy Version 2.0 was unveiled in 2007, forcing CNET's Molly Wood to sever her ties with Zune.

The third time may be the charm for Microsoft. Version 3.0 of the Zune software shows some real promise as a stable and attractive multimedia jukebox.

There's still much work to be done before this PC-only software will hold any appeal beyond the Zune-owners of the world, but there are plenty of things the software gets right. To read my full account of the pros and cons of using the Zune software as your computer's media jukebox, click through to read the Zune 3.0 software review on CNET Reviews.

The Ion Block Rocker in all its boxy glory.

Donald and Jasmine intersperse the silliness with details on the latest iPod Classic review, as well as information on the Sony E-Series Walkman and a very special member of the S-Series family. Also on the table: a super durable portable party speaker, a chat about podcast support, and free stuff!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

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Who can resist a good Zune vs. iPod prizefight? In fact, these days it's downright necessary, considering that the iPod Nano and the flash Zune look like they've been separated at birth. The truth is that most of the similarities between these two MP3 players are only skin-deep. The Zune's Wi-Fi downloads, FM radio, and Zune Pass subscription support are very different from the Nano's Genius playlists, iTunes movie rentals, and shake-to-shuffle novelty. But when it comes right down to it, which one is better? Which pocket-sized MP3 player is worth your hard-earned cash?

View the results of the CNET Prizefight: Zune vs. Nano

If anything's a given about the iPod, it's that the player has a solid history of handling podcasts exceptionally well. This has to do with the firmware on the device itself, but perhaps more credit should be given to the iTunes software, which makes excellent use of its integrated music store interface to aggregate, organize, and promote a wide variety of podcats--likely the widest array available in any one spot. That's great for iPod owners, but what about the rest of us? Never fear: there are plenty of solutions available.

I have a Creative Zen MP3 player, and I want to subscribe to podcasts from NPR and learn Spanish. What would be the best way to "collect" the subscriptions for podcasts? Can my Creative software convert iTunes podcasts to MP3? iTunes seems to have an easy system to "collect" the podcasts for loading to an iPod, but I'm not sure if it will convert podcasts to MP3 or if I need software. Is it necessary to buy a piece of software for active collection of podcasts? Any suggestions or pointing to a Web site would be appreciated.-- Kerry, via e-mail

A: For the Zen line of MP3 players, Creative offers a service and software called ZenCast, which allows you to subscribe to and manage podcast. This combination will give you the most seamless experience for your particular player, but if you are already comfortable with iTunes, that is actually a perfectly reasonable way to collect podcasts for the Zen or any other MP3 players. The podcasts available through iTunes are already in MP3 format, so there is no need to convert the files to get them to playback on any non-iPod MP3 player.

The Juice aggregator is anything but sour.

Provided you haven't adjusted any Library settings in iTunes, podcasts should automatically be saved under My Music>iTunes>Podcasts. You can set up Creative MediaSource or Windows Media Player (or most other jukeboxes) to automatically monitor any folder for new media, so to make the experience more effortless, have your media manager monitor that Podcasts folder. Then, you can simply sync the new podcasts from the software when you connect your device. (With the Zen, you may also drag-and-drop podcasts from the folder to the player via Windows Explorer.)

For those who are anti-iTunes and use other MP3 players, check out Juice. It works across all platforms and has positive user feedback. Have another recommendation? Feel free to talk it up in the comment section below.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

MP3 Mailbox Monday is a recurring feature where I answer a selection of questions about MP3 players and accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and music services and software. Check back often to see if the advice presented here might be of some use to you, or send your questions directly to me. (Note: We never include last names, but if you prefer to remain completely anonymous, please state as much in your e-mail.)

Got a hit on your hands you want to sell on iTunes? TuneCore is an easy way to make it happen.

In this bonus episode of the MP3 Insider, I interview TuneCore's founder Jeff Price about the state of online music distribution and TuneCore's role in providing indie musicians and labels a one-stop solution for selling music through iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, and other online music stores.

If you're an independent musician trying to figure out how to sell your music online without getting screwed, Jeff offers a ton of great information in this interview, including online payout rates from major retailers, how to use iTunes trending reports to plan tours, and the power of creative recording.

There's also a great story in here about TuneCore's leveraging of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and other scalable infrastructure services, for taking uploaded songs and automatically reformatting them for all the different online retail requirements. Who knew cloud drones could help you sell music?

Listen now: Download today's podcast

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How do I love thee, oh Sony NWZ-S638 Walkman? Let me count the ways. Your scarlet hue so fair, your bright display so full of color, your slender figure so perfect for my hand...the intoxication is overwhelming. Sighhhhhhhh.

OK, I can't even type that with a straight face, but my infatuation with the NWZ-S638 Walkman is not fiction. It's real, and it's deep. And it's made even more desperate by the fact that the player is unavailable--this most glorious of Walkmans is on backorder at SonyStyle.com, with no hard date as to when it will be in stock.

8GB of love.

(Credit: Sony)

Of course, one might point out that I am in a perfect situation to abuse my power and have Sony send me a "test unit." The problem is that I don't think I would be able to send it back, and this is strictly against review policy. And, as it is a member of the S-Series, there is no basis for a separate review. So, I will have lust after the device from afar for the time being, all the while attempting not to be consumed by a deep and bitter jealousy of residents of the U.K. Even when it does become available here, I'll have a bit of a struggle justifying the purchase, given that I already own several perfectly decent MP3 players.

So, why am I drooling over a particular model number in the S-Series--they're all the same, right? Not so, actually. The NWZ-S638 is a very special member of the family. It doesn't have built-in noise-canceling capability, so it's cheaper than its siblings ($149 for 8GB), but it still comes with decent headphones. For me, the NWZ-S638 is a practically perfect MP3 player, as I'll take sound-isolating over noise-canceling any day--especially if it means a lower price point. In fact, if I were rating this device specifically for myself, I'd give it at least a 9.0 out of 10. There are just a few things counting against it: it maxes out at 8GB and doesn't offer memory expansion (my sweet spot is 16GB); it doesn't support any lossless codec other than WAV; and it only comes in red, which isn't such a bad hue anyway.