Posted on 05/10/2006 6:39:54 PM PDT by Panerai
Sony is moving to make its music management software compatible with Apple Computer's audio file format in the latest evidence of Apple's dominance in digital music.
The behemoth Japanese conglomerate, which once controlled the portable music market, announced Tuesday that the company's data compression technology would be compatible with a number of rival formats, including Apple's format of choice, AAC.
In the past, Sony has fiercely held to its own Atrac system. By switching to a technology that supports AAC, Sony appears to be acknowledging Apple's dominance in the digital music playing market, say analysts.
"That's a big change for Sony," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research. "But it's not surprising. Competitors keep trying to stop Apple, but the company's market share just continues to grow."
Calls to Sony were not returned Wednesday.
Sony's new management system will allow iPod users to swap some of their music to a Sony Walkman, but only songs they ripped from CDs.
Music downloaded from Apple's iTunes music store is prevented from playing on non-Apple devices by Apple's digital rights management technology.
Actually, they would be per the last antitrust lawsuits. Think about it. If there are no Macs, all you could buy at CompUSA or BestBuy would be Windows machines. Instant practical monopoly.
It is in Microsoft's best interest that Apple remain healthy.
Why not convert everything to MP3?
As discussed here, converting your AAC files into MP3 files causes a loss of sound quality. For some people, and for some uses, this issue might not matter. You might not be able to hear any loss of sound quality at all, or, if you do hear a loss, you might not find it very objectionable. Converting to MP3 is also much slower than simply unlocking AAC files and leaving them in the AAC format.
The import thing is to be aware of the trade-offs of converting to MP3. There are advantages to MP3 as well, such as access to a greater variety of music players, burning 8-hour plus CDs that will play in your car's MP3-capable CD player, and an added degree of safety from any DRM "gotcha" games that might arise in the future with scrubbed AAC files which, as it might turn out, weren't scrubbed thoroughly enough.
No Wal-Mart sells Linspire
Also MS doesn't sell computers they sell software, they would have to go after Dell and the others to offer an alternative even if that alternative didn't sell very well. i.e. Linspire.
From iTunes on my PB G4:
Of course, all of this is laughable since you admittedly do not own a digital music player and do not have a digital music collection.
You do realize that by *not* supporting someone else and buying their hardware/software combo, you're contributing to the continued dominance of iTunes in the market place, right?
They *offer* Linspire - but few are buying it, from all reports.
Actually, per the terms of the anti-trust settlements, they can't. They can't force any vendor who buys Windows to also offer an additional piece of software. They got busted on that before, too, and they won't be doing that again.
So, Microsoft *has* to make sure that Apple stays healthy. Why the heck do you think they even continue to make Office for Mac? It's not because they *want* to give Apple more inroads into the workplace, it's because if they don't they screw themselves.
I buy NOTHING MAC, and I have no need for an mp3 player.
Thats total BS! Apple is MS b*tch! LOL, I don't understand why you support a company that FORCES you to buy their hardware to use their spftware and services.
Do you have a Firewire or IEEE-1384 port on your computer, by the way?
Yes. and USB2.0
Looked at the Microsoft xBox lately? Gotta have the xBox hardware to use xBox Live, even though the xBox is nothing more than a glorified Pentium III PC.
Why do *you* support and defend a company that FORCES you to buy their hardware to use their software and services, hm?
I could have saved you a lot of grief if I would have told you to not even get started with this one, he comes on Apple/ipod threads and craps on the ipod.
Congratulations, you bought a "MAC" part.
Apple invented Firewire and gets royalties off every device made with it. Surprise!
hehe, Steve Jobs is your overlord! :P
Apple invented Firewire and gets royalties off every device made with it. Surprise!
I came with the motherboard, guess what... its useless and I never use it! LOL! Firewire sucks! on my nexy upgrade im looking forward to eSATA
Yup - that's explaining that changing those settings does not change the format of the files when you're downloading from the iTMS. You can export to MP3 later, and that's when the settings come into play.
I know, I've seen him do it before.
I'm just bored and thought I'd feed the troll. I'm having fun demolishing the little fantasies here. :)
eSATA card here Compatible with Window NT 4.0, 98SE, Me, 2000 and XP
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