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RCA Lyra2 - Digital Media Player & FM Radio

Introduction The first version of RCA's Lyra Personal Digital Player, as noted in our report elsewhere in this section on portable digital media players, was one of the most full-featured digital audio walkabouts. The US$299 Lyra2 adds to the utility of the original with features like a built-in FM radio tuner and a handy belt-clip control that duplicates the Play/Stop/Skip and Volume controls found on the player itself.

RCA Lyra - Digital Audio on the Go

Portable MP3/WMA/RA player, cigarette lighter power adapter, cassette adapter... sounds good. However, an MP3 audio encryption "feature" makes this player less convenient than it should be.

Apple's iPod - Digital Media Player

Introduction Engage the Neodymium Transducers! Apple's iPod is a portable MP3 player with a built-in hard drive (the original model started at 5GB, a second-generation model added 10 and 20GB options) and a speedy FireWire connection capable of transferring a whole CD's worth of songs to the device in seconds. Capable of storing 1,000 songs, 2,000 songs or 4000 songs, respectively, in high-quality (160Kbps) MP3 format, the 5, 10 and 20GB iPod models differ in a few notable ways, which we'll detail in this article. First, let's look at their common features.

USB Makes Audio I/O Easy

Roland UA-30 USB Audio Canvas - USB Makes Audio I/O Easy UA-30 Overview

Adobe Acrobat Capture

Adobe Acrobat Capture: as a Document Management Solution Product: Adobe Acrobat Capture 3.0 For: Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 Price: US$895 and up Product: Adobe Acrobat Capture 2.01 For: Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0

DVD and MP3

Fig2: DVD and MP3A new generation of standalone DVD players is hitting the market with intriguing new features, such as the ability to play compilations of MP3 audio songs on CD-recordable discs. These standalone DVD players allowing the production of audio discs with more than 10 hours of music on them. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the models on the market with this capability.

Microsoft Office XP

How we conducted our tests

DVD Creation tools: A comparison of features

See part 1 of this article for a more detailed look at the process of creating a DVD and the tools described in the chart below.

Chart 1: DVD Authoring Software Feature Comparison

SoundBlaster Live! - Mac Edition

The PC market's popular sound card comes to the Mac... and ends up a disappointment Sound Blaster Live!

Windows NT Service

A Look At Windows NT Service - Configuration problems The following was lifted, with some modification, from two sources:

Windows98 - Tech User Tips

This document contains information about features present in the official release versions (original release and Second Edition) of Windows 98 that may be of interest to technically inclined users.

Keeping in Touch with Internet Telephony

Free Long Distance Phone calls
Free Long Distance Calls Capped:  Microsoft has begun curtailing its free net-based long distance service, unveiled during the height of the dot-com frenzy, when gaining marketshare was deemed more important than, oh, having a viable business model. The MSN Messenger 3.0 now allows free long distance calls to the U.S. or Canada to last no longer than 5 minutes, at which time, you have to redial to continue the conversation for another five minutes. Ads pop up before and after each five-minute call.

WebCasting

WebCasting tools and related technologies Web audio, video and conferencing tools make long-distance get-togethers possible. There are many tools you can use, but be sure the tool is suited for the task you have in mind.

802.11b's Dirty Little Secret

Introduction

802.11b has gained wide acclaim as the most popular wireless local area networking standard in the corporate world. It is also the standard in the Macintosh world, where it is called AirPort. However, in our tests, and in discussions with others, we've uncovered what can best be called its dirty little secret: the limited range of the most popular 802.11b solutions and frequently encountered interference problems makes them all but unusable in many environments, where networking over distances of 50 feet or more is important.

Cross-platform Wireless

Introduction

Apple's Airport wireless system is based on the 802.11b standard. So are many popular PC wireless cards. In this report, we'll look at how to use this wireless networking standard to bridge the two systems.

Windows

Radio Free Internet

Radio Free Internet - Audio Programming on the Web Introduction There are a number of computer-based-based Internet radio players and services from Microsoft, Apple, Real, Yahoo and many others. The revenue models vary, but typically, the content is subsidized by advertisements. In this report, we'll note new technologies and some of the legal issues facing Internet radio providers. Legal Issues

Sharing Files with P2P Tools

New tools make a paradigm shift all but inevitable The entertainment industry is more than a little worried about piracy The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been wielding lawsuits against Internet search engines since 1999, when it sued Lycos over that company's search engine, which the RIAA claimed was facilitating piracy.