So, you think you can play it cool

By PETER GRIFFIN

By now most of us have at least picked up on the digital music revolution taking place.

It is largely driven by pop-hungry teenagers with computers and a link to the world wide web.

Many of us will even have a few MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer) files on our computer hard drive.

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.

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.

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.

There is a range of MP3 players on the market - from stand-alone players to those included on your mobile phone or handheld computer.

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.

Sony's NetMD is based on the company's MiniDisc format. 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 is also pressing on with its Memory Stick Walkman ($1200), which is based on storage cards the size of a stick of chewing gum. 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).

I tried the Sony's NetMD Walkman (MZ N707). 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.

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. You can even plug the NetMD into your stereo and run all your music from MiniDiscs.

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.

Unfortunately, the iPod can pleasure only Apple Mac users and, let's face it, there aren't a lot of them around. With its shiny stainless steel back and lucite front, the iPod looks part cigarette case, part kitchen bench top.

Until now, the idea with portable music players has been that you should be happy with enough storage to hold an album or two to keep your foot tapping on the move. The iPod has blown that notion out of the water completely. You can basically take your entire music collection with you now - a song for every mood. Its best feature is a big wheel that allows you to scroll through your songs quickly. Songs can be grouped by playlist, artist or album.

Filling the rest of the mp3 spectrum are manufacturers such as Philips with its solid-state (no moving parts) Rush MP3 player, which comes with a rather wimpy 64MB SmartMedia card. Philips also offers two models of its Expanium, which plays either full-sized MP3-CDs or the smaller 8cm kind. Compaq, Intel and a host of others offer flash memory-based players, but all are small on capacity.

An alternative for people hungry for big storage is the SonicBlue Rio Riot, which has barely surfaced in New Zealand but boasts a 20GB hard drive, and the Creative Nomad Jukebox, which has a 6GB capacity. The latter can be bought from ascent for about $1200.

The soft option

MP3 players come packaged with software that allows them to transfer tunes to and from your computer's hard drive.

In the case of the NetMD, Sony has you using OpenMG Jukebox.

Despite a lengthy installation, OpenMG Jukebox is reasonably user-friendly and will automatically detect and gather all songs on your hard drive so that you are able to browse them easily. I was able to transfer Tool's lengthy Lateralus album from my hard drive to MiniDisc in less than four minutes.

The iPod auto-syncs with iTunes 2.2, the Mac-based software. Plug in the iPod and any new songs you have added to your computer playlist will transfer to the device. I borrowed a mate's Apple Mac G4 to test drive the iPod, which allows super-fast transfer of songs through a FireWire cable connection. I'm told that on a reasonably fast Mac it takes only 20 minutes to fill the entire 10GB hard drive!

I'd been itching to set the iPod up on my Windows-based PC, but at this stage that's a no-go. Apple's New Zealand distributor Renaissance says such functionality will come eventually, but it's not an emphasis for the company.

Still, there are reports floating around that you can pick up software allowing the iPod to be used on the PC. Freeware called EphPod is supposed to do the trick when used with MacOpener software. I downloaded xPlay from MediaFour, which allowed me to use the iPod on my PC.

Sony and Apple have built some token anti-piracy mechanisms into their software that are already being sidetracked by inventive users.

In the case of the NetMD, you can use the device only on a single PC. Songs can be checked out to the device only three times, and you cannot upload files from the NetMD to your PC. Whatever you record to the Net MD is destined to remain on Mini Disc.

Similarly, you can only sync to iTunes on a single Mac, You can't carry your iPod over to your mate's Mac and pillage his Elvis collection.

Buying into the digital revolution

Despite their sex appeal, MP3 players are still expensive. The iPod will set you back about $1600 - the price of an entry-level PC. There are three models of Sony's NetMD, which range from $699 to $1099.

Take a surf online and see what's available - and affordable.

MiniDisc

EphPod

MediaFour

Dick Smith Electronics

Philips

Sony Style

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