Audio/MP3

Not that we at Download Music have actually acquired an iPhone yet, but we have been nagging our friends of friends of Apple to score us a freebie. In the meantime, we've been digging through our free MP3 collection to figure out which tracks would, in the event one does land on our desk, get iPhone honors first. We put together playlists which feature a mix of our favorite up-and-coming and popular artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Jill Scott, Spoon, Daft Punk and many more. Stream now (while you work), then visit the artist pages to download … Read more

GOM Media Player Pros: Wide media support, built-in screen capture tools Cons: No help manual, saving settings are a little weak Extras: Audio output options, subtitle support, skins

Numerous media players are jockeying to become the default setting for your music and video streams. Among the top audio contenders clamoring for your ear--among them RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, DivX Player, QuickTime, and WinAmp--GOM Media Player has stood out as a firm favorite.

GOM Media Player's support for a wide range of media certainly helps. DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF, AVI, and MOV formats are all compatible, as … Read more

There's no such thing as a free lunch. What there most definitely is is a lot of truth to that statement. If you're getting something like cable or music downloads for free, what you're doing is almost certainly illegal and it's probably taking away from the livelihood of someone who works just as hard as you do. OK, what it is mostly doing is reducing some ridiculously wealthy executive's bottom line, and I'm not one to guilt-trip people on that tip--especially if the company happens to be Comcast (don't even get me started). … Read more

Editor's note: CallRec was tested on a Treo 650.

Pros: Records independently of app, tracks remaining storage, two recording input options, multiple ways to share Cons: No trigger hot key, two-second lapse with phone call recording

At a baseball game last summer, my friend recorded the incessant howls of a boisterous seatmate with his smart phone, replaying it in my ear with tinny imperfection. Too bad he didn't have a Palm device with CallRec tucked onto his memory card to forever capture the fan's clamorous "woo-woooos" with lifelike clarity.

CallRec is a midsize piece of commercial software (207KB on-phone storage; $30) that makes clear recordings of your notes-to-self and phone calls, and has enough options for tweaking the recording quality to cut out most background noise. The clean, understandable interface provides screen-touch buttons to start, stop, and replay recordings, though you can also initiate and end sessions by pressing the Treo's side button. CallRec names recordings with a time stamp, but it's easy to rename files, and to organize them by file name or duration. … Read more

Real Networks has announced a new version of their RealPlayer today that will be available as a PC-only public Beta in June. The player allows users to download and organize nearly all embedded internet video content (Flash, WMV, QuickTime) including content from popular video sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, and of course, CNET. The player was demonstrated for me and actually looks pretty impressive. The new video download feature integrates fairly elegantly into your Web browser (yes, it works on Firefox). It works by temporarily displaying a small, fairly unobtrusive download tab in the right top corner of any video … Read more

After Steve Jobs' open letter to record executives back in February, it was clear that DRM-free music (music without digital rights management technology) wasn't far away for Apple users. Today, the concept became a reality with the release of iTunes 7.2 (download it for Windows or Mac OS X).

As of today, all of the songs from music label EMI on Apple's iTunes Store will be free of DRM via a new service called iTunes Plus. (Note: that link will open iTunes and take you to iTunes Plus, but only if you have version 7.2 installed.)… Read more

Although Power Downloader spends a considerable amount of time in the field chasing down bad guys, part of his job is not quite so glamorous. For all the time traveling around the globe, he still ends up putting more time into research on the Web, hoping he'll find the leads he needs to capture sneaky criminals. To make the job of Web research a little less tedious, Power listens to his favorite music.

To help him stay focused on the research at hand while listening to music, Power Downloader uses FoxyTunes. With this Firefox extension installed, Power can switch … Read more

Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with the developers of MXPlay, beta jukebox software that lets you mash up your music with streaming movies, letting you create your own virtual music videos.

More interesting than the mashup features, however, is MXPlay's unique playback interface. A graphical interface lets you control the location of the listening audience and the position and direction of your speakers. Letting you tweak your own "room" does create better-sounding tunes. The MXPlay folks were very happy to compare its playback sound to that of iTunes, and I must admit I … Read more

There are a number of great digital-music players already on CNET Download.com--iTunes rules the roost because of its compatibility with iPods; MediaMonkey is fantastic for free music management and playlist creation; JetAudio Basic is packed with features for burning and broadcasting via JetCast; the classic free player Winamp now provides Internet TV and music videos; and Quintessential Player, my personal favorite player, is the perfect size for those who prefer a light system footprint.

A new digital-music player called MXPlay focuses primarily on one facet that most of the current software doesn't even mention: sound quality. Designed mostly for streaming audio, MXPlay augments even the lowest-quality 96kbps music streams to provide a more full-bodied sound for your favorite tunes. Also, a unique graphical interface lets you position your virtual speakers and audience to tweak the sound of your songs to your heart's content, and a built-in browser lets you both surf the Web and add photos and videos to create your own music mashups.… Read more