Portable Media Devices Geek Speak Glossary GLOSSARY 3GP Video Third Generation Platform Video. This video standard is used in many cellular phones. Third Generation stands for a level of cellular network service typified by higher bandwidths that make such services as streaming video possible. AAC Short for Advanced Audio Coding. The AAC codec is designed as a successor to the MP3 codec, and has been adopted by Apple and others as a distribution standard. Combined with the proprietary FairPlay DRM it is the foundation of the Apple iTunes music store. ActiveSync An application designed by Microsoft to synchronize calendar, task, and con- tact information between a personal computer and a PDA. Aggregator An application designed to aggregate blog or podcast feeds in a single place for easier use. AIFF Audio Interchange File Format. An early audio codec used by Apple for audio on early Macintosh computers. AppleScript A scripting language designed for Apple Macintosh computers. AppleScript uses English-like commands to automate common tasks such as retrieving input and performing operations based in the input. AVI Short for Audio Visual Interleave. AVI was designed by Microsoft for Windows video. It has been extended and used with more efficient codecs such as Indeo, MPEG-4, and even RealVideo. Bit Map A map created on a computer screen depicting a picture as a map of pixels. Each pixel, in turn is set to a specified color to create the picture. At sufficiently high resolutions, a bitmap is nearly indistinguishable from a real photo. Bit Rate The term used to quantify the recording rate used with a specific audio or video codec. At higher bit rates more audio or video information is encoded each second resulting in a higher quality recording. Blog A weblog (or blog) is a news and information source that can be published using the facilities of an online blog site or can be constructed on your own website using blogging tools. Blogs are “read” with a web browser or a news aggregator that subscribes to the blog’s syndication page, retrieving new arti- cles as they are published. BMP See Bit Map Burning As used in media terminology, the act of creating a CD or DVD disc by burning microscopic pits in a substrate on the disc creating a pattern of 1s and 0s to record digital information. 2 Geek Speak Glossary BURN-proof A technology supported by CD-R drives that helps prevent emptying the burn buffer, a section of memory in the recorder that holds data waiting to be burned. Byte A unit of digital information consisting of eight bits (individual 1s or 0s). Codec Short for code-decode, a codec is a standardized audio or video format used to compress and distribute digital media. Copy Technology used to prevent the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted Protection material. CPU Short for Central Processing Unit. The component on a computer that pro- cesses program instructions to carry out the functions of a computer applica- tion or operating system. Digital The United States’ implementation of an international agreement to ban the Millennium unauthorized duplication of electronic media. Copyright Act Digital Rights Technology designed to copy protect digital media. Management DMCA See Digital Millennium Copyright Act DRM See Digital Rights Management FairPlay DRM Apple Computers’ implementation of DRM for copy protection of media sold through the iTunes music store. FireWire FireWire is a high speed serial interconnection standard for connecting pe- ripheral devices to a personal computer system. Popular in Macintosh com- puters, it is becoming more prevalent on other systems where video interfacing and production is done. FLAC See Free Lossless Audio Codec Flash Memory A form of Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) that can maintain data storage without external power. Flash memory is used on consumer media storage devices such as memory cards and MP3 players. Free Lossless A freely distributed lossless audio codec. FLAC has received critical acclaim Audio Codec from music enthusiasts and is supported on several music players. GIF Also known as Graphics Interchange Format, GIF was developed by Com- puServe for the distribution of graphics files. Gigabyte Gigabyte is a unit of storage equivalent to 1,000,000,000 bytes. 3 GLOSSARY Grokster A file sharing technology using the FastTrack file sharing network, Grokster was ordered to cease and desist operation by the United States Supreme Court. Grokster ceased operation in November of 2005 (during the writing of this book) and plans to return with a legal service. GW-BASIC An early BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft for IBM PC- Compatible computers. HDTV High Definition Television is an enhanced television display technology supporting higher resolution than standard television display. With displays of 720 and 1080 lines, it can more than double the resolution of standard television. Helix DRM A digital rights management technology used by Real Networks for the Rhap- sody music service. Hertz A unit of frequency measure, Hertz refers to the number of cycles or waveforms measured per second. Hertz is used for the notation of both audio and elec- tromagnetic frequencies. JPEG Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is a lossy photo file format widely used for its relatively small file size. JPEG files are used extensively for website graphics and clipart. JPG See JPEG KaZaA A music sharing application that used the FastTrack file sharing network to swap music files. Ruled illegal in Australia, it is also pending trial in the United States. Kilobyte Kilobyte is a unit of data storage equivalent to 1,000 bytes. Megabyte Megabyte is a unit of data storage equivalent to 1,000,000 bytes. Metadata See Tags Monitor In Windows Media Player, a folder that the application is configured to Folder “watch” (See Watch Folder). As songs are added to this folder, they are indexed in Media Player as well. MOV A multimedia container file format used by Apple’s QuickTime video appli- cation. This file contains video, audio, and captioning information for Quick- Time video presentations. MP3 A compound acronym for the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Layer 3 audio protocol. MP3 files contain audio information in a compressed format. MP3 uses a lossy codec, and has somewhat lower quality than successive 4 Geek Speak Glossary formats, but is popular with music enthusiasts for its wide compatibility and quality audio reproduction. MP4 The container file format used by the MPEG-4 multimedia specification. MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group. Also used to denote video and multimedia formats approved by the Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG-4 A multimedia container format created by the Moving Picture Experts Group for audio and video distribution. It is especially suited for high quality video distribution over the Internet. Napster A wildly popular music sharing application that was found to be illegal, but returned in legitimate form to become a major music storefront. Napster is one store to support Microsoft’s PlaysForSure initiative. OGG A free multimedia container format gaining popularity as a royalty-free alter- native to MP4 and Windows Media. OGG audio (Vorbis) and video (Theora) are supported in an increasing number of portable media devices. Open Source A method of application development that relies on a community of program- mers to develop, debug, and update an application using freely-shared source code. The premise of this development method is that many eyes make better code. This is in opposition to the theory of closed source software that fewer eyes promote greater security. PDA See Personal Digital Assistant Personal A portable device designed to maintain calendar, contact, and task information Digital to enable the user to more effectively manage time and work. Assistant Pixel A unit of video display relating to the smallest area able to display a colored dot or square. Pixels are combined into larger images. Playlist A list of songs or videos to be played in a multimedia application or portable media device. Playlists can also be used to organize media for copying or storage. PlaysForSure A Microsoft initiative to certify stores and devices for digital media distribution. Certified stores and devices are guaranteed to work with Windows Media Player. PNG A recursive acronym that is short for PNGs Not GIF. The PNG specification was designed to replace GIF when Unisys computers filed a lawsuit against 5 GLOSSARY users of the GIF specification because it infringed on a Unisys patent for file compression. It is still used in websites and other digital media. Podcast An audio (or recently video) file published in such a way as to be visible to podcast aggregating software. Podcasting was popularized by Adam Curry as a means of providing portable entertainment on iPod media players. Podcatcher An application designed to subscribe to and download podcasts. Processor See CPU RealAudio An Internet audio specification designed by Real Networks as a competitor to Windows Media and other audio formats. Really Simple A method of alerting blog readers that new blog entries have been added to a Syndication blog site. Other uses for this capability include podcast publication, and even (RSS) the publication of messages to subscribers as a means of combating spam. RealVideo An Internet video specification designed by Real Networks as a competitor to Windows Media and other video formats. Ripping The act of copying CD audio into a digital file. Often the file is converted into a lossy audio format during the same operation. RSS See Really Simple Syndication Syndication A method of publishing media content so as to make a consumer aware of newly released content or articles. Tags Metadata that contains information about a song, its composer, the performing artist, length, bit rate, even information about genre and accompanying artists.