Comments on: SpiralFrog http://soreeyes.org/archive/2006/08/30/spiralfrog/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:56:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: John http://soreeyes.org/archive/2006/08/30/spiralfrog/#comment-26327 John Fri, 01 Sep 2006 06:06:08 +0000 http://soreeyes.org/archive/2006/08/30/spiralfrog/#comment-26327 If WMA is your audio format of choice then by all means do so. But it's silly to claim that it's a 'design flaw' that the iPod doesn't play WMA content; isn't it also a 'design flaw' that Windows Media (and the various portable music players based around the WMA format) can't play music protected by the iTunes Music Store? WMA is a proprietary format too, and every media player out there has to choose which side of the street they want to play on. Until the record companies see sense and stop insisting on the use of easily-circumvented DRM to protect their major releases, all media players are stuck dealing with this nonsense. Please don't pretend that Apple are unique in this. (And you should keep in mind that WIndows Media-based players <em>can't</em> always be updated to support a new codec: if you're unlucky and your player is just a little too old, or is a model the manufacturer chooses not to supply an update for, you're screwed.) If WMA is your audio format of choice then by all means do so. But it’s silly to claim that it’s a ‘design flaw’ that the iPod doesn’t play WMA content; isn’t it also a ‘design flaw’ that Windows Media (and the various portable music players based around the WMA format) can’t play music protected by the iTunes Music Store? WMA is a proprietary format too, and every media player out there has to choose which side of the street they want to play on.

Until the record companies see sense and stop insisting on the use of easily-circumvented DRM to protect their major releases, all media players are stuck dealing with this nonsense. Please don’t pretend that Apple are unique in this. (And you should keep in mind that WIndows Media-based players can’t always be updated to support a new codec: if you’re unlucky and your player is just a little too old, or is a model the manufacturer chooses not to supply an update for, you’re screwed.)

]]> By: Simon http://soreeyes.org/archive/2006/08/30/spiralfrog/#comment-26320 Simon Fri, 01 Sep 2006 02:36:17 +0000 http://soreeyes.org/archive/2006/08/30/spiralfrog/#comment-26320 I don't think you can blame SpiralFrog for a design flaw in the iPod! I would think twice about a player that couldn't play back WMA or couldn't be updated to support any codec you'd desire. I don’t think you can blame SpiralFrog for a design flaw in the iPod! I would think twice about a player that couldn’t play back WMA or couldn’t be updated to support any codec you’d desire.

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