Skip to main content

The Three Best MP3 Players For Portable USB Drives


musicostickLast week we talked about the advantages of carrying your music with you on the go – not on an MP3 player, but on an ordinary USB stick.
Accompanied with a portable audio application, you would be able to play your music anywhere, anytime; be it at home, at work, or even at your grandmother’s place.
We already showed you how to do a custom portable Winamp install, making it fit for any portable storage device, but this time we’d like to focus on native MP3 players that are portable. That is, audio application that can be put on your USB stick without messing around. Some of these are adapted to run on portable media, others simply work.

CoolPlayer+ Portable

This one is, if we may, a ‘real’ portable application. Based on the original CoolPlayer, PortableApps has modified the application and repackaged it as a portable app. With 1.5 MB and over 2 million downloads to date, CoolPlayer+ Portable has proven itself both a lightweight and a fit candidate.
best mp3 player portable
Apart from audio playback, CoolPlayer+ Portable supports MP3 to WAV conversion, internet audio streaming, and even regular Winamp plug-ins. With CoolPlayer+ Portable, you’ve got slick looking music playback, but also a whole team’s worth of extra horsepower if, and when you need it.

1by1

Who said we don’t listen to our readers? This application was recommended in the comments section of the portable Winamp article.
1by1 is an audio directory player. This means that instead of keeping a music library, 1by1 just browses your music folders. On the left side of the screen, you’re able to browse through the different folders on your USB stick. For the sake of usability, it’s best to drop all your MP3’s in one folder,or otherwise arrange by artist.
best mp3 player portable
No overly fancy cacophony and useless tools, 1by1 is still an incredibly light application and will occupy near to no memory resources. Nevertheless, it’s as versatile as one might hope for. Add the retro, high contrast look, and we’re all set to go.

Songbird Portable

Songbird is an audio player by Mozilla, the guys that have been entertaining us with Firefox. Although deemed buggy in some its earlier releases, Songbird has evolved to an incredible media player. Like its browser counterpart, Songbird also has great extendability. With numerous add-ons available online, you can adapt Songbird to your every need. You won’t meet a more personalized audio player soon.
best mp3 player portable
Like the first application mentioned, Songbird Portable is also modified and repackaged by PortableApps. Unlike CoolPlayer+ Portable however, Songbird takes up a noteworthy amount of space; up to 65MB on your USB stick. With smaller thumb drives, this is something you might want to avoid.
In the end, you’ll have to decide what you’re looking for. If you want an extensive media management suite with lots of bells and whistles, you might deem it worth the extra space.
These are only three applications and perhaps we missed your favorite one. Do you ever use portable audio apps? Tell us which ones in the comments section below!
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How To Hide Text In Microsoft Word 2007, Reveal It & Protect It

Sometimes what we hide is more important than what we reveal. Especially, documents with sensitive information, some things are supposed to be ‘for some eyes only’. Such scenarios are quite common, even for the more un-secretive among us. You want to show someone a letter composed in MS Word, but want to keep some of the content private; or it’s an official letter with some part of it having critical data. As important as these two are, the most common use could involve a normal printing job. Many a time we have to print different versions of a document, one copy for one set of eyes and others for other sets. Rather than creating multiple copies and therefore multiple printing jobs, what if we could just do it from the same document?  That too, without the hassle of repeated cut and paste. We can, with a simple feature in MS Word – it’s just called Hidden and let me show you how to use it to hide text in Microsoft Word 2007. It’s a simple single click process. Open the docum...

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...