by: Steve Gover

With the recent advent of the Ipod, a lot of people are using portable Mp3 players to carry their entire music collection around with them. What just a few years ago would have required you to lug a suitcase full of CDs around, now can fit in the palm of your hand. Some Ipods can carry up to 60Gb of songs (and now video) on a single miniature hard drive. The Ipod even looks cool and lights up like a magical glowing device. Besides Apple, numerous companies make portable Mp3 players

This doesn't even begin to get into the phenomenon of podcasting. Podcasting is a simple concept with amazing utility for the average consumer. Imagine if you could take an audio broadcast of any sort (podcasting a teleseminar comes to mind) on the airplane with you on your next business trip.

1)You don't have to be there when the teleseminar is held.

2)You can pause it, rewind it, fast forward the teleseminar to any point that you feel is important.

3)You can listen to it repeatedly.

4)You can send the podcast to friends and family members who can also take the audio content with them on their merry way.

I do this all the time. It works great. Download and go. This is bigger than you think. Overall, the ubiquity of portable Mp3 players is a cultural revolution as far as information transfer goes. Why do I have to wait for a broadcast when I can be in another time zone and replay it at my leisure.

When you take your Mp3 player on the road with you, you are basically shifting time. No more sitting around waiting for the video or audio presentation to start. You can download it to your portable Mp3 player and start it whenever you want.

Portable Mp3 players seem to be here to stay. Find out why and what the latest trends are: you'll be surprised how you ever lived without one. I was!