![]() With its shiny stainless steel back and lucite front, the iPod looks part cigarette case, part kitchen bench top. Unfortunately, the iPod can pleasure only Apple Mac users and, let's face it, there aren't a lot of them around. Next up is computer manufacturer Apple, which last year unleashed the iPod, a sleek device with a miniature hard disk drive now capable of storing up to 10GB of music - or about 2000 songs. You can even plug the NetMD into your stereo and run all your music from MiniDiscs. Audio can be recorded to the NetMD on the move when a microphone is plugged in, making it ideal for journalists, students who like to sleep through lectures and concert bootleggers. It's light, easy enough to use and, although it comes with a fairly ordinary pair of ear phones, has a neat digital remote control that allows you to change song and adjust volume without reaching for the player. I tried the Sony's NetMD Walkman (MZ N707). The relatively expensive cost of the Memory Sticks has led to MiniDisc catching on faster (the disks are about $20 for a pack of three). Sony is also pressing on with its Memory Stick Walkman ($1200), which is based on storage cards the size of a stick of chewing gum. Touted in the early 1990s as a replacement for the flagging cassette tape, it consists of a miniature CD encased in protective plastic that can hold up to 80 minutes of high-quality audio. Sony's NetMD is based on the company's MiniDisc format. Minidisc versus the hard drive Two of the more stylish portable music players on the market have taken divergent paths to delivering digital music to mobile listeners. There is a range of MP3 players on the market - from stand-alone players to those included on your mobile phone or handheld computer. As with handheld computers and high-end mobile phones, MP3 players are still the domain of the "early adopter" - a well-funded and tech-interested group that feel naked without the latest gadget. ![]() No one is really winning the MP3 gadget wars, because portable music players are not yet selling in the numbers to have the vendors rubbing their hands in glee. The next step is taking the music with you on the road - the digital version of the oh-so-cool mid-1980s walkman that allowed you to listen to cassette tapes while jogging. Many of us will even have a few MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer) files on our computer hard drive. It is largely driven by pop-hungry teenagers with computers and a link to the world wide web. By PETER GRIFFIN By now most of us have at least picked up on the digital music revolution taking place. ![]()
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