When my husband, who works in retail, came home from work the day after Thanksgiving with an MP3 player, my first thought was, "what are you going to do with an MP3 player?" My second thought was, "why didn't you get me one too?"
Well, he did get me one for Christmas and ever since we've been taking our favorite music everywhere.
I spent a couple of hours "ripping" our favorite cds to my computer and then downloading them (or is it uploading?) to our MP3 players. Then, instead of taking 20 or more cds on our road trip, we took the two MP3 players. We used our cassette adapter to plug the MP3 player into our car tape deck to get instant road trip music!
And don't think that you're limited to music with an MP3 player. You can upload any audio you like to your player: audio books, recorded lectures, music and more. You can record your own tracks too. I even uploaded my choir practice tape so I could rehearse while we were on our trip. (I didn't practice once, of course, but I had it with me!)
There are a lot of MP3 players out there. We have the SanDisk Sansa m230 with 512 MB of memory. It's very easy to use, although I do recommend getting one with more memory, especially if you're taking it on a long road trip, or want to put a lot of books or soundtracks on it. The 512 MB is good for about 8 hours of music. The player is only about 3" X 1" X 1" and will fit into the smallest of pockets or handbags. It runs on one AAA battery.
The Sansa MP3 player plays MP3, WMA, secure WMA and Audible audio file formats. You can sort your library several different ways and easily change your playback settings. I like to randomly play all songs of the same genre (i.e. all rock songs, or all country songs). Or you can play one album or all songs by the same Artist, etc. You can also listen to FM radio.
There are also a lot of MP3 player accessories out there. If you have a low-tech car audio system like ours, you might choose a cassette adapter so you can listen on your car stereo. You can also purchase speakers for your MP3 player, or get a cable to plug directly into your stereo output jack. And don't forget the headphones that come with it! (I don't recommend driving with headphones on, however, since you might not hear important sounds outside, like sirens. And never listen to really loud music on your headphones!)
An MP3 Player definitely makes a great travel accessory!
Need music to load up your new MP3 player? Great CDs at Great Prices!
 Sandisk Sansa E260 4GB MP3 Player | 512 MB isn't a lot of memory for a long trip or a long book... try the 4 GB version today! |
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