Who the h*** is Connected Home Media, and why do they think that by simply floating a theory they are breaking a story? They offered no evidence beyond pure speculation, which isn't surprising given it's a no-name magazine with no reputation to worry about.

Apple's stock is up on the day! Another couple of days like this, and I can get out from under most of my holdings at a profit! Go unsubstantiated rumors!

WMA superior? No.

Adding WMA support to iPods good idea? Probably. (I know several people who would buy an iPod if this happened. If iTMS is just a way to drive iPod sales, then so would this, right? Frankly, as much as I hate WMA, I wish it had already happened.)

Is this story legit? Not sure. This guy isn't the first I would trust when it comes to an Apple rumor. I'll wait for some confirmation from someone a bit more reputable.

There is no way AAC is "superior" to any other codec. MP3, WMA, AAC, it's all relative. They all produce similar results.

And you're missing the point, which is that WMA support in the iPod would be a GOOD THING.

Steve won't let that happen. HP is the way that AAC will become the standard for music compression.

"There is no way AAC is "superior" to any other codec. MP3, WMA, AAC, it's all relative."

Wrong!

"And you're missing the point, which is that WMA support in the iPod would be a GOOD THING. "

-no!
there's a format war going on here and this guy wants to concede?

When I first heard of the H-pod, I thought it was a way to further the AAC format as the market standard and thus, a good idea. I'm not sure what the advantage would be to Apple to allow WMA on H-pods but not their own. Seems to defeat the purpose of the co-op. Why not sell Powerbooks through HP with XP on them. They could make them the same a**-blue.

It is Apples way of giving the world of windows lusers a chance
to use the more superior iPod with WMA... oh well. Their lossy.

LOL
Get it? Lossy? Lusers?
Ah-hem.. ohkeedokee.

When I first heard of the H-pod, I thought it was a way to further the AAC format as the market standard and thus, a good idea. I'm not sure what the advantage would be to Apple to allow WMA on H-pods but not their own. Seems to defeat the purpose of the co-op. Why not sell Powerbooks through HP with XP on them. They could make them the same a**-blue.

if Apple wanted to add WMP, why would Apple need HP's help. Dumb.

You know, the Linux guys like to thing Ogg Vorbis is "superior" so who's going to argue that Microsoft junkies think their format is
"superior".

The bottom line here is that if it helps sell more iPods and thus gain more market share for Apple (HP not withstanding) then I'm all for it. Heck, if Apple bring us WMA to iTunes on the Mac I couldn't care less. They just need to keep AAC for the music store and keep the iTunes defaults ripping to MP3 or AAC and we can still push that format.

WMA for music players like this is still not the predominant format out there. People (the general masses) still have not figured out that buying into Windows is locking yourself into a proprietary format and thus MS is going to control what you can and cannot do. Apple on the other hand abides by open industry standards (my how times have changed! For the better) and thus will stand to benefit in the long-terms when people finally wake up one day and see what kind of mess they are in. Europeans governments are waking up in drove to UNIX/Linux. In the U.S., IBM is next. Once others see this then others will follow eventually.

Apple would probably not ever pay Microsoft WMA licensing fees - so this way, Apple branded iPods are AAC only, while HP-pods may support WMA but then I'd bet Steve insisted that HP pay the licensing fees to Microsoft. Win-win situation for Apple. Plus, the mini is going to be Apple's future anyway... neat.

is everywhere it seems. Or maybe that MaCNN has fun quoting him. Anyway, it just rubs me the wrong way that someone in his "position" is given a forum to play the Microsoft tune, and with no one to rebutt his BS in the tech journals that use his material. I'd love to see something like Point-CounterPoint with this guy... he'd be ripped to shreds.

windoze fools are now speculating and drooling over the thought of their software being on Apple's hardware. This is all so hilarious!

Apple will not let the iPod play WMA files.

Instead, iTunes will let the user migrate his WMA files into MP3 or AAC format. iTunes could play/burn protected WMA into an AIFF format and then convert back to MP3 or AAC. Kind of like the way you can convert protected iTMS AAC files to unprotected MP3.

MS takes a bullet! Go Apple and HP!!

I had a multi-email flame-fest with him about this, accusing him of S***** journalism. Here's his response:

"It's not about journalism. It's my Web site, and I reserve the right to editorialize."

So, the question is, why is anyone even looking at a totally unsubstantiated rumor posted on Paul "It's not about journalism" Thurrott's website?

Move along...

is much better than that cracking smoking joker. Window software is c***. And the authur is a moron.

f*** him. d*** Cheney lov'in, condolezza rice sucking demon from h***.

DENAIL OF SREVICE ATACK ON THE WINSOOPER SITE TONIGHT YEAH!!

haxk that shizzle up my nizzle, beootches.

DGI (don't get it!)

I just watched CNET's video(s) at CES from RCA's digital player to all the other commentary out there on the web or tv commentary.

Either everyones a sleep or I am the only one that knows that the iPOD works on a PC or a Mac with either iTunes, MusicMatch, or various other programs with the addition of various utilities like XPlay, etc.

The RCA rep was asked about their new 40GB for around $400 would compete with an iPOD -- get this, its available for PC which have a larger install base and can download legal music from stores like MusicMatch. WTF! Is this guy for real. He even makes out like the iPOD doesn't even know what an MP3 file is or MP4 (AAC) for that matter.

Is it me... or is everyone else living under a rock?

WMA aside... who wants something other than an iPOD? What the new media players that embrace watching movie clips, listen to wma, etc. devices. That's what a Gameboy is for ... or a PDA, or heck a Handheld DVD player. I don't see why everyone would care about a multi media player except for the gadget geek who has everything (small but rich market!)

Rant over --

Just can't beleive that everyone who hates anything Apple to stand up and spout crud/fud about something they don't understand and expect their customers to respect them... Way to go RCA (insert x,y,z company)>?