We fall into two camps when it comes to MP3 players -- those mini machines with massive memories, best known by the standard bearer, Apple's iPod. While some of us consider them glorified Walkmen, others consider them the fifth lobe of our brains.

Carlos Pedraza of Santa Cruz, Cal., is a Pod person. He bought his first iPod five years ago. Says Pedraza, who is a director at a nonprofit group: "Thinking of an iPod as a fancy CD player is just as mistaken as thinking of a computer as a fancy typewriter. MP3 players let you do so much more."

With memories that can store thousands of songs, MP3 players play the soundtrack of your life. Tunes can be loaded to suit your mood, change your mood or create whatever audio reality you wish between your ears. IPods and some other MP3 players can also store names, addresses, calendars, computer files, audiobooks, podcasts and many popular TV shows.

These practical advantages have won over legions of fans, such as Michelle Peluso, chief executive officer of Travelocity. "After years -- okay, decades -- of not getting nearly enough exercise, I'm now an avid runner, largely thanks to my iPod," says Peluso. "Running always seemed horribly boring and monotonous until I got my iPod. Now I run ten to 15 miles a week and zone out while listening to everything from Merle Haggard to Black Eyed Peas."

No technology since the VCR is as revolutionary to personal entertainment as the MP3 player. And the revolution is just beginning. More than a third of homes that have computers will also have iPods within two years, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. What's more, sales of all devices that can store and play a library of digital music, such as smart phones, will overtake sales of PCs by the end of the decade, says Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research.

If you're just coming to grips with the revolution, don't worry. This guide will update you and give you a look at where digital music is headed.

To start, your best bet is an iPod (for details on iPod models, see the next page). Apple's MP3 players are the easiest to use because Apple software seamlessly links them to a computer library and the iTunes online store (where you can buy music), both of which recognize your device instantly. None of Apple's rivals has created anything as seamless, and each has fallen short in other areas. Dell's recently released DJ Ditty, for example, fails to improve on the light weight and simple menu control of iPod's most basic model, the shuffle. Sony's players cost more than Apple's per gigabyte of memory, without offering better features. Plus, iPods look the coolest.

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