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07/26/2004, 8:45am, EDT

Monday, July 26th

Real promises universal compatibility for music files

RealNetworks today announced its Harmony Technology, its DRM translation system that allows consumers to securely transfer purchased music to many popular secure music devices, including Apple's iPod (as noted yesterday evening). Harmony technology will be demonstrated on Tuesday July 27th at the Jupiter PlugIn conference in New York City, while a beta version of RealPlayer 10.5, offer consumers a chance to test the technology, will be available on Tuesday. RealNetworks says that Harmony Technology will be available later this year in other music products from RealNetworks including Real's market-leading Rhapsody(R) subscription service. "Generally speaking, Harmony supports any device that uses the Apple FairPlay DRM, The Microsoft Windows Media Audio DRM, or the RealNetworks Helix DRM, giving RealPlayer Music Store support for more secure devices than any other music store on the Internet."


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This mean...
0
07/26, 9:26am, EDT
apple has finally licenced Fairplay? Or is this some kind of reverse-engineering?
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Oct 2003
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Question...
0
07/26, 10:18am, EDT
Maybe I don't understand correctly. I though the problem with the iPod was that it could not read WMA, and .rm files. Having nothing to do with DRM. So is this software re-programming the iPod it's self? Or just converting the DRM'ed .rm files to DRM'ed MP3 or AAC?
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Dec 1999
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Re: question
0
07/26, 11:36am, EDT
conversion
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Aug 2001
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Desperate
0
07/26, 11:48am, EDT
On one hand, you have to give Real credit for pulling this off. It seems like Real fans will now be able to use iPods.

However, in light of the recent attempts by Real to get Steve to open up the iPod to 3rd parties, it seems like this is a last ditch attempt by Real to save themselves. It's almost like the vacuum cleaner salesman trying to make the sale by going door to door. He gets rejected on the front porch, then runs to the side window and starts knocking on it, hops the back fence, falls down in the mud, reaches the back door only to see a big dog coming to bite his pant leg...

I am not a fan of Real. I think their product quality is only out-crapped by Windows Media. So I think this is them trying hard to survive with a lesser quality product in an iPod world.

Kudos to Real's programmers for Harmony, but get back to work and make your products worthy of actually using.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined May 2002
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big whoop
0
07/26, 12:00pm, EDT
Just goto Apple get your itunes software for free and be compatable in the furture.

Why risk your music purchase on a real hack?

Ita obvious that real is desperate.

Just like they stole the pc with bios hacks...now apply it to ipod.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2000
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Re: Question
0
07/26, 12:42pm, EDT
I may be wrong but I thought Real uses AAC for its music store.
Junior Member
Joined Nov 2001
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Re: question
0
07/26, 12:59pm, EDT
They use AAC with their own DRM, so they'd still have to convert the file to be AAC with Apple's DRM.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Not really...
0
07/26, 1:12pm, EDT
They just have to apply their DRM similar to Apple's process. Then, iTunes--and the iPod--will treat their files just like iTMS files.
Grizzled Veteran
Joined Dec 1999
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Real are ...
0
07/26, 1:48pm, EDT
... SO sued. :)
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Aug 2001
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Who Cares?
0
07/26, 4:17pm, EDT
I see this as good news. I'm lazy and like the instant gratification of downloaded music. Real will pick up the few tracks that I can't find on the iTunes store if this service works well with the iPod and iTunes.
Mac Elite
Joined Nov 2000
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