Over the last couple of years we've posted a lot of feature articles that aim to explain all the individual aspects of having an MP3 player. From choosing a player, charging it, tagging files, finding music, transferring music and so on. It's a lot of individual articles spread across the site, and unfortunately a blog system isn't suited for easy access to timeless articles. This post will serve as a hub for all the feature articles on the site in order for you, the readers, to find them more easily. Some topics haven't been covered (yet!), so feel free to leave a comment with requests for future articles.

Transferring music to your player can be a pain in the rear bumper sometimes, especially if you require special software to do so. There are currently three methods used by various companies to transfer content, and a lot of people are unaware of the differences between them and what the pros and cons of each are. The MTP vs MSC debate is pretty heated in the forums where most here prefer MSC for its simplicity, but there are still legitimate reasons to use MTP or software. This article explains the different methods of transferring media and the features of each protocol.

MP3 players are utterly useless without power, so naturally this is a very important aspect of any player. There’s a lot of confusion going around both with regards to charging the batteries, preserving their maximum capacity and maximizing the play time per charge. Read on for a guide.

Whenever you get a new device of any kind there’s a lot of stuff to learn to make the most of it, and not all of it is self-explanatory. For MP3 players there are many things to learn if you want to use the player fully, and one of these is definitely playlist creation. Sure you can see there’s a playlist option in the menus, but that list is empty! Read on to learn what to do to fill this magic list.

This is a question that a lot of people ask. While it might seem like a dumb question to a lot of advanced users, not everyone is familiar with how the digital audio technology works, and to fuel that fire the resellers and manufacturers often list an approximate number of songs for various players- with very small footnotes clarifying the specs of the files used. While technically accurate, it’s still a fair bit misleading as the people who would ask for the number of songs instead of capacity in the first place are those that won’t know what bitrate or any of that stuff is. Read on to get a quick introduction to MP3 player capacity.

Want to show off your ABi>>-ness at all times? Hit the jump for a variety of ABi>> branded, original wallpapers. Most of them are 1920x1080 so they should fit even high res monitors. Right click the images and select "save as" to download the full image.

It’s that time of year when we lay out our top picks for the year. 2009 was the year of the touch player- consumers demanded them and manufactures responded. If you notice that this year’s list resembles last years and that’s because many of the manufacture’s this year made some awesome incremental improvements in their current line of players. Without spoiling anything else, read on for this year’s top 5 list.

USB has been the standard for charging pretty much any small electronic gadget for years now but there is still some confusion about both what USB charging means in regards to compatibility and how you can charge USB equipment without a computer. Read on for a breakdown on USB charging.

Interconnects, IC for short, are the cables that go between your player and another device with an input jack - a car stereo, home stereo, or a portable headphone amp. The problem with the latter of those setups is that the amp is often directly under the player and so you really only need 2cm of cable to make the connection, but they don't make cables that short. As a result, a lot of people drag around long cables that are just inthe way. There's no need to. Read on for a guide on how to make your own tiny bridge-interconnect.

One of the big technological advancements in the last few years has been the introduction of touch screens into consumer electronics, such as MP3 players. If you really look at the specs of the most popular players today, you see a lot of old tech with a touch screen on top and a few UI tweaks to go with it.

While some people love this new method of controlling a player, there are also a lot of people who can't stand it and swear by hardware controls for all it's worth. Slow, clumsy and superfluous are some of the accusations that come from that side of the camp. Are touch screens really that bad, or is it time to let go of the static plastic knobs sticking out of everything? Read on for the pros and cons of the various control methods.

Those that know me know that my MP3 player has more podcasts and audiobooks on it than music. I'm out and about a few hours a day and have a job on the side of the studies which is more or less a muscle memory job. Listening to the same music over and over would drive me crazy, so some years ago I started using podcasts and audiobooks to keep myself entertained instead.

When it comes to getting audiobooks, you have several options, from libraries to audiobook services online. Then you have to select a player - if you want Audible support, you need a player that can support it and so on. Then there are players which have special audiobook sections that give you extra options regardless of what format the book is in, while others treat audiobooks as music. Read on for a guide on how to get started with audiobooks.

The market is getting more and more saturated with various player models that share the same basic features and navigating this jungle of players is a difficult task. Way too often there are topics in the forum asking for the "best" player. There is no such thing. I doubt you'll find two people on the planet who's lives are exactly identical and with different lifestyles comes different MP3 player needs.

One player does one thing well, but that other player does something else better, and that third one has an awesome feature that might be useful. How do decide what feature is most important for you personally and what features should you even look for? Read on for a guide on how to decide what's important to YOU.

Browsing around the forums I see a few people purchasing screen protectors for their MP3 players that have glass screens. Some might say better safe than sorry but these screens are much more durable than one would think. Below I put a few of these glass screen players though some rather harsh scratch tests, well beyond what the vast majority of users might experience.

Yesterday we joked about a manufactures getting together and releasing a single transfer cable to alleviate the need to buy all kinds of different cables. Some bought this April first joke until they saw pictures of this massive cable below the fold.

While a single cable will forever be a pipe dream and the proprietary vs standard debate will go on, you can easily and cheaply whip up your own “MediaWire” as seen in our April fools post. Read on to make your own.

In the year 2008 many great new MP3 players were released. Sizes shrunk, capacities got bigger, and screens improved. Since there are so many choices among the anythingbutipod MP3 players there never is a “best” or one-size-fits-all. Features, form factors and capacities are too widespread to make a general recommendation for everyone. This top 5 list chooses the best of breed or those players that really brought something to the table in 2008. These 5 players will be a great pick for the many or a prefect starting point for all looking for a new MP3 player.