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Amazon MP3 is one of the best stop for buying unprotected music online at very affordable prices. Unlike iTunes, Rhpasody and Napster, it doesn’t offer restrictions from Digital Rights Management. It works well with iTunes and offers high quality Mp3 files, encoded at 256 kbps.

There are two million songs available and it offers choices from major record labels, independent artists and older bands. It has strong support from Mac OS X. The singles, which cost in between $.89 to $.99, sound great, accompanied with a high-resolution album art. Album prices on the other hand start as low as $4.99.

Downloading is easy. It could either be done directly from the web browser although it’s more advisable to use the Amazon MP3 downloader. This downloader is a tiny program that lets you automatically add tracks to iTUnes or Windows Media Player library.

Despite the seemingly limited number of music choices from Amazon MP3 (as compared to iTunes’ 6 million titles), all the music downloaded here is free from DRM, meaning there are no embedded secret tracking codes in the files, unlike in iTUnes where 1/3s of the selection is most likely have DDR. Transferring tracks to CDS and portable MP3 players are much easier.

Summing up Amazon MP3 store’s audio quality, affordable prices and user-friendliness, this store is definitely iTUnes most terrific rival in online music store industry. Completely trashing out DDR has pushed Amazon’s pedestal up. There’s no harm trying Amazon, and who knows when will their music selection matches up with iTunes in the future?

The Cowon iAudio 7 is a flash-based portable media player that looks promising at first, with its sleek black design, fascinating button placement, and a long battery life. However, once you turn on the 1.3-inch LCD screen, you would see a lot of imperfections.The iAudio 7 has a horizontal orientation for video playback purposes, wherein the LCD screen is placed on the left half of the front panel while three touch-sensitive multifunction controls (that looks like a percentage sign) are located on the right side. It also contains a line-in jack for recording and a headphone jack, as well as a mini USB port. Other features include an already-installed media software and a pair of earphones that gives a respectable bass sound.

The images in the screen appear lousy, while the video has to be resized before it would work on the player. The player, meanwhile, can only support JPEG image files as well as AVI, Xvid, and MPEG4 video files. This is in contrast to its powerful audio, fair audio file support, and customizable EQ settings. The audio file support can handle MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, and WAV. However, it doesn’t play AAC (music files in iPod).

Navigation is a challenge in iAudio, especially when you don’t have an eagle eye to view those tiny preview images. The buttons, meanwhile, are easily triggered. A simple transfer from left hand to right hand could skip the player to the next song. Although a “Hold” button could be a great remedy, it is not useful if you intend on navigating the menus while listening.

One good function iAudio has is that you can record straight from FM with a simple press of a multifunction red button. This button can also let you record voices, ideal for podcasters.

Overall, the Cowon iAudio 7 may not be a graceful device, but it is a decent, portable media player.

The Insignia brand of Mp3 players from Best Buy has become popular among consumers because of the better value they offer in their full-featured audio devices. The new Insignia Pilot, available in 4 GB and 8 GB capacities, are priced at just $130 and $160 respectively. Not bad for a portable audio device which has all the features you’ll ever need and more.The Pilot Mp3 is equipped with both audio and video playback, photo viewer, FM radio, voice recorder, and has a built-in SD card memory expansion slot. The latter feature is convenient for those who don’t want to be limited by the 8 GB memory of the Pilot Mp3. It can play MPEG-4 and WMV videos, display JPEG photos, and support a handful of audio formats, including Mp3, WMA, WMA DRM, WMA Lossless, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV and Audible. It also has Rhapsody DNA integration, which basically allows you to transfer Internet radio channels to the player for easier access.

But the best feature of the Pilot Mp3 is the integrated Bluetooth. Its built-in stereo Bluetooth function allows you to listen to music using your wireless Bluetooth headphones. This is definitely a plus for enjoying music on-the-go as it maximizes movement, without having those dangling headphone cords bothering you. The Bluetooth connection with the Pilot Mp3 can go to about 30 feet. Now you can leave the Mp3 player on your desk and won’t miss a track on your music playlist while you’re on another room getting coffee.

The Pilot Mp3 is a bit lengthy compared with most compact flash players in the market. It has a simple black body with brushed silver trim. The face of the player, when held horizontally, has a 2.4-inch color LCD screen on the left and the control pad on the right. The control buttons somewhat resemble that of the Apple iPod’s clickwheel, except that the scroll ring is only enabled for four-way clicking.

Some of the Pilot Mp3’s playback features are also comparable to the iPod Classic. There is an album art display along with the current playing tracks. You also have the option of switching between screens to view a larger album art or other artist information. The main menu uses icons while music is organized using the step-down structure of displaying the artist, album, genre, etc. on the display screen.

On the other hand, sound quality isn’t that impressive with the Pilot Mp3. Deep bass isn’t quite discernible, even with the use of high-end earphones. Also video quality is on the downside, as there are noticeable pixelation during video playback. Nevertheless, battery life is extended for up to 25 hours of audio playback. It also has an effective photo display. The Insignia Pilot Mp3 player is really an economical device, which gives you more value for less the price.

Philips has decided to hop on the bandwagon for PMPs. The SA6185 PMP comes with a 3.5″ LCD display boasting a resolution of 320 x 240, integrated speakers, a 5-hour video playback time, MP3 and WMA support. A standard PMP but without all the hype.

Cowon has dropped their new N3 player that has GPS and a 7-inch touchscreen along with a DMB tuner, 600MHz Alchemy AU processor, dual SDHC slots (but no built-in memory),and Software that is based on Windows CE 5.0. No release dates or prices has been released to the public, but it is said to launch at the CES 2008.