International News Portal4 November 2026Headlines from established publishers
Technology
The rise, fall, and rise of portable MP3 players
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the collapse and the resurgence of the portable media player, follow Terrence O'Brien. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How...
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the collapse and the resurgence of the portable media player, follow Terrence O'Brien.The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepbackhere.
How it started
We are spoiled for choice, musically. Most of us walk around with access to hundreds of millions of songs in our pockets. But it wasn't until 1998 that portable digital music was even a thing. Before that we lugged booklets full of CDs on the bus or stashed a handful of cassettes in our backpacks. With the advent of the MP3 player in …
We use cookies to run this site and, with your consent, to measure
traffic and improve our content. Necessary cookies are always on. You
can accept all cookies or choose which ones to allow.
Privacy policy.