by Brent

You’ve probably noticed the odd format of iTunes music, m4p. This is a protected format and it will only work on iTunes software and on iPod players. The standard format for digital music is mp3 which will work on just about any software or mp3 player. So, why did Apple decide to make their music unusable on other software?

It’s called DRM (digital rights management) and the reason for it is to keep you from copying and giving out music that you’ve downloaded from iTunes. Apple says that it’s all about better sound quality, but m4p has the same sound quality as any other digital music. They just needed a way to stop the free-loaders.

So what’s the problem? While I do believe music piracy should be stopped, it seems unfair that I can’t use my legally purchased music how I want to use it. For those of us who can’t afford an iPod (I have a sony mp3 player, much cheaper) it becomes inhibiting because we can’t take our music on the go. Itunes software doesn’t provide any means of converting from m4p to mp3.

Is there a way around this problem? There are a few ways actually:

Method 1: Burn the tracks to a CD, then open the CD in iTunes and right-click on a song. A Convert Selection option will appear.

This option only works if you have burned the songs to a CD first though. If you try this without burning to a CD first it will give you an error message saying you can’t convert protected files to another format.

This methods gives you 2 copies of a song in your playlist — one in the original protected format and one in MP3. This is somewhat annoying and if you want to convert a lot of music you’ll have to burn tons of CD’s and waste a lot of time.

Method 2: There is software that can convert the files to mp3 for you. I recommend using Tunebite but there are others if you look around. This is a lot quicker and easier than burning a whole stack of CD’s.

Just remember, don’t be a music thief and don’t give freebies to your friends. This article is intended to help you get full use of the music you have paid for and legally downloaded. It’s yours, so you should be allowed to use it how you want.

Learn More about mp3 music downloads at http://www.musicdownloadreview.net

by Manish Kapoor

Philips Soundbar Into the future, integrated multifunctional devices will be a way of life. The next generation will be quite scandalized to see that we used to buy electronics separately. They will refer to separate amplifiers, source players, receivers, preamps and speakers as a bit of a joke. If you want to get a glimpse into this one piece experience then the Philips sound bar is great start. This may not be a purist’s dream but for all others, the single piece sound bar plus integrated amp and DVD player is serious audio equipment. HP Touch smart PC Just when everybody was sure that the traditional desktop pc was dead, HP pulled a rabbit out of the hat. This magical little box has a fabulously futuristic control; great calendar and notes software for the whole family, can do voice memos and plays movies and music like a champion. The desktop pc is dead; long live the new desktop pc. Epson TW100 Projectors are not my favorite category gadgets until I saw the image and picture on the Epson TW100. This is where eye-popping visuals meet and style of this projector are better than anything else on the market and this is also the only one that can give you a 100 foot high definition picture at just 10 feet throw. Toshiba Satellite A100 It’s built on the older but still very competitive Core Duo Platform, 512 MB system memory and 60GB storage space. Its LCD panel is a 15.4 inch screen with a native resolution of 1280X800 and is a transflective screen. Manish Kapoor is the owner of technology blog http://technologyandinternet.blogspot.com where you can find latest gadgets reviews, software reviews, windows tips and tricks, notebook computers reviews, and much more.