[pcd2k]

here is the latest shuffle from Apple

MacNN | Apple debuts smaller 1GB iPod shuffle

What I'm having trouble reconciling with Apple is saying
it will hold up to 240 songs. I just wonder how that
could possibly be true ?

When I burn a cd from my Library I get somewhere between
10 - 15 tracks on a 700 Meg cd

So how is it done ?

What am I missing ?

[icruise]

I think you're misunderstanding how digital music works. When you burn an *audio* CD, you can get 10 - 15 songs on it, because they are in AIFF format (the CD audio format). This format takes up a lot of space, but it's also pretty high quality. What people have on their iPods is either MP3 or AAC format, which is much much smaller and also of lesser quality (although most people can't really tell the difference). I imagine Apple based their estimate on a 128kbps AAC format files (which is what the iTunes Store uses), but the actual number of songs will depend on the bit rate (quality) you choose to encode the files.

[IFLY2HIGH]

MP3's are a different format, so for a normal CD player to read them, they must be converted back to cd format. If your CD player could read an MP3 CD, then you could about get maybee 7 normal CD's onto one single CD's in MP3 format. If you take a RAW CD track it can take up to 50 megs or depening on length uncompromised.

[Parky]

Just read what Apple states on the page for the iPod :-

"Song capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content."

So if you have only 3 minute songs and they are encode at 128-Kbps AAC then you will fit more on the iPod - more than 240.

On the other hand if you have long music tracks or you encode in a higher bit rate you will get less than 240.

You can get approx 10 CD's of music on an actual CD if you encode them as MP3's, but they won't play as a standard CD. But it will play on a CD player that can play MP3's.

Ian