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Expanium)]] A digital audio player (DAP) is a device that stores, organizes and plays Digital Music File s. It is more commonly referred to as an ''' MP3 player''' (because of that format's ubiquity), but DAPs often play many additional file formats. Some formats are Proprietary , such as Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC), and, to a degree, MP3. Some of these formats also may incorporate restrictive Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, such as WMA DRM, which are often part of certain paid download sites. Other formats are completely patent-free or otherwise open, such as Ogg Vorbis , FLAC , Speex (all part of the Ogg open multimedia project), and Module File formats. There are three main types of digital audio players:
HISTORY The precursors to DAPs were portable CD Player s and MiniDisc players (neither being generally considered a "digital audio player"). Non-mechanical DAPs were introduced following the popularity of the precursors. The first non-mechanical digital audio player in the world was created by SaeHan Information Systems in 1997. The MPMan F10 was later OEMed to the American market through Eiger Labs. The first non-mechanical digital audio player on the American market was the Eiger Labs MPMan F10 , a 32MB portable that appeared in the summer of 1998. It was a very basic unit and wasn't user expandable, though owners could upgrade the memory to 64MB by sending the player back to Eiger Labs with a cheque for $69 + $7.95 shipping. The second DAP (but widely considered the first mass market player) was the Rio PMP300 from Diamond Multimedia , introduced in September 1998. The Rio was a big success during the Christmas 1998 season as sales significantly exceeded expectations, spurring interest and investment in digital music. The Recording Industry Association Of America soon filed a lawsuit alleging that the device abetted illegal copying of music, but Diamond won a legal victory on the shoulders of Sony Corp. V. Universal City Studios and digital audio players were ruled legal devices. Other early DAPs includes Sensory Science's Rave MP2100, the I-Jam IJ-100, and the Creative Labs Nomad. These portables were small and light, but only held enough memory to hold around 7 to 20 songs at normal 128 kbit/s compression rates. They also used slower parallel port connections to transfer files from PC to player, necessary as most PCs then used the Windows 95 and NT operating systems, which did not support the then newer USB connections well enough to be considered for use. When in the year 2000 USB became more common, most (if not all) players adopted the USB standard. By the end of 1999, Compaq made a significant improvement in DAPs' space limitations by using a laptop Hard Drive for song storage rather than low-capacity Flash Memory . The Personal Jukebox (PJB-100), manufactured under license by HanGo Electronics , had 4.8GB of storage space, which held about 1200 songs (or 100 CDs, hence the name PJB-100), and was the beginning of what would be called the jukebox segment of digital audio players. This segment eventually became the dominant type of DAP. Also, at the end of 1999, the first in-dash digital audio player appeared. The Empeg Car (renamed the Rio Car after it was acquired by SonicBLUE and added to its Rio line of MP3 products) offered players in several capacities ranging from 5GB to 28GB. The unit didn't catch on as SonicBLUE had hoped, however, and was discontinued in the autumn of 2001. In 2000 , IRiver released their first digital audio device. The arrival of Apple Computer 's IPod in 2001, combined with the ITunes software that all but created the legal-music-download business, greatly expanded the market. Since then, a number of new digital audio players became available ? each promising to be an "iPod Killer". In 2004 , Microsoft introduced their Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology under the PlaysForSure Brand . This technology allows consumers to rent music from subscription music services such as Napster , Rhapsody , and Yahoo Music Unlimited and transfer it to their compatible digital audio players. In 2006 , MSI developed and showcased the first solar powered player, the ''MSI MEGA 540'', at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. {Link without Title} EQUIPMENT Generally speaking, digital audio players are portable, employing internal or replaceable Batteries and Headphone s, although users often connect players to Car and home Stereos . Some DAPs also include FM Radio Tuner s and/or Microphone s for voice recording. Many players can Encode audio directly to MP3 or other digital audio formats directly from a line in audio signal. A number of manufacturers now produce Network MP3 players. These tend to be non-portable devices which have no storage of their own. Instead, they connect to a home Ethernet network, and receive a digital audio stream from some computer on the network. They are designed to connect to a home stereo, and are operated with a Remote Control . Slim Devices , Roku , and Cd3o each produce a Network MP3 device. Devices such as CD Player s can be connected to digital audio players (using the USB port) in order to directly play music from the memory of the player without the use of a computer. parts: the head (or reader/writer) and the body (the memory). They can be independently obtained and upgraded (one can change the head or the body; i.e. to add more memory). USAGE As digital audio players have spread, new uses have been found for them. This includes Podcasting , in which radio-like programs, or even TV-like video feeds, are automatically downloaded into the device to be played at the owner's convenience. Even a low-capacity digital audio player can store several hours of podcasts. AUDIO ACQUISITION Most, if not all, digital audio players can play music that has been Ripped from Compact Discs via Computer . In addition to ripped CD tracks, many digital audio players can accept downloaded music from Online Music Store s. However, due to the complexity of DRM, not all audio file formats will play on certain digital audio players. Some proprietary audio file formats will also restrict users from transferring songs to non-compatible digital audio players. A huge amount of legal, freely downloadable {Link without Title} digital audio player. For everyone else, it is possible to convert MOD music into MP3 format using software such as Winamp . MAJOR BRANDS OF DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYERS TX FM 512mb]]
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