MP3 Players Glossary
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| AAC: Advanced Audio Coding | |
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Audio file format used by iTunes that provides audio quality close to uncompressed CDs. AAC file size is smaller than MP3 and offers better quality | |
| AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format | |
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Large, CD-quality audio files used as the standard audio format on computers using the Mac operating system. | |
| ASF: Advanced Streaming Format | |
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Streaming media format developed by Microsoft. | |
| ATRAC3 | |
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Audio codec offering close to CD-quality sound. It's used for MDLP recording with some MiniDisc recorders, for music storage in some portable memory players, and in Internet music applications such as Liquid Audio and RealAudio. | |
| Bit rate | |
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Also called data transfer rate, bit rate describes the number of bits of data transferred between devices in a specific amount of time. | |
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| BMP | |
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File extension for bitmap graphics. | |
| CompactFlash Card | |
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Type of memory card invented by SanDisk and used by digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, digital voice recorders, and photo printers. | |
| Compress | |
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Shrink file size using a format not usually employed by a specific file type. | |
| FireWire | |
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Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 high speed external bus standard with data transfer rates up to 400Mbps. | |
| GB: Gigabyte | |
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Data storage measurement. One gigabyte equals 1,024 megabytes. | |
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| GIF: Graphics Interchange Format | |
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Lossless image compression format that supports 256 colours. | |
| ID3 tags | |
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Embedded MP3 track information including a song's title, album, and artist. Most audio players with a display can show this info so you can sort and manage music tracks. | |
| IEEE 1394 | |
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High speed external bus standard with data transfer rates up to 400Mbps. | |
| iPod | |
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Apple's line of MP3 players. | |
| iPod Skin | |
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Fitted iPod covering designed to protect the iPod while changing its external appearance. Applying a skin is not permanent and does not void the iPod's warranty or affect functionality. | |
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| JPEG/JPG | |
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Image compression format used for photos that supports 16 million colours. | |
| LCD: Liquid Crystal Display | |
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Type of digital monitor used for PDA and MP3 player displays. | |
| Liquid Audio | |
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Digital audio format and music-management/playback software (Liquid Player). Liquid Audio files use .lqt and .la1 file extensions and can be streamed or downloaded. | |
| MB: Megabyte | |
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Data storage measurement where one megabyte equals 1,048,576 bytes. | |
| Memory card | |
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Removable storage media used in some digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, digital video cameras, cell phones, and photo printers. | |
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| MP3 | |
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Short for MPEG-1, audio layer 3, this audio compression format removes irrelevant information in a song, shrinking original CD sound data with a bit rate of 1411.2 kilobits per second stereo. | |
| MultiMediaCard (MMC) | |
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Type of memory card used in digital cameras, MP3 players, and PDAs. | |
| Ogg-Vorbis | |
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Open-source audio compression format for WAV files. | |
| Pixel | |
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Short for picture element, one pixel is a single point in an image. You see a complete image when multiple pixels are put together. | |
| PNG: Portable Network Graphics | |
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Lossless image file format that offers smaller file sizes than GIF. | |
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| RealAudio | |
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Audio used by RealRhapsody music service. | |
| Resolution | |
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Screen image quality and clarity measured in pixels. Higher resolution offers a clearer picture. | |
| SecureDigital (SD) Card | |
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Popular type of memory card that work in MP3 players, digital cameras, digital video cameras, cell phones, PDAs, and electronic books. | |
| Thumbnail | |
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A small version of a photo. Image browsers commonly display thumbnails of photos several or even dozens at a time. | |
| TIFF: Tagged Image File Format | |
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File format used to save bitmap images. Files end with .tif file extension. | |
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| USB: Universal Serial Bus | |
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Standard protocol for transferring data to and from digital devices. USB 1.1 offers a data transfer rate of 12 Mbps. USB 2.0 offers theoretical data transfer rates up to 480Mbps. Real-world tests often prove FireWire faster than USB 2.0. | |
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