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January 09, 2004

Standards

There are standards and then there are standards. In fact the best thing about standards is that there are just so many conflicting ones to choose from :-)

Some standards are "industry standards" because they are the result of a merger of conflicting vendor positions into a lowest common denominator (VHS?). Some standards result from academia which may, ultimately, be completely ignored by the industry (ISO network model?) and other standards are really just something put up by a single vendor to benefit themselves.

So what? There are two DRM (Digital Rights for Media) "standards" out there. Both are (or were) 100% proprietary and they conflict. Neither was a "real" standard in that there was a single vendor and a single product set. Once (from Microslosh) claimed lots of "support" but that was just PC vendors supporting Microslosh as opposed to implementing their own flavour of the DRM. The other was AAC from Apple.

What has changed? Well firstly it looks like Real have chosen AAC as the DRM way to go. Note that RealNetworks competes with both Apple and Microslosh in this market so that is definitely an independent arrangement. Next there is the even more earth shattering news that HP will sell iPods/iTunes - i.e. one of the biggest PC vendors is going to be supporting AAC which means:

With this deal, HP has partially turned its back on partner Microsoft, as Redmond and Apple disagree over the DRM (digital rights management) technology that should be used to infect music files.

The story can also be found at Cnet, Mac Rumors, MacCentral and Apple. When the news first broke, Mac Rumors claimed:

HP and Compaq PCs and notebooks will come preinstalled with Apple's iTunes software starting this summer. According to Steve Jobs, "Apple's goal is to get iPods and iTunes into the hands of every music lover around the world, and partnering with HP, an innovative consumer company, is going to help us do just that".

According to the Apple article, HP is not only using iTunes/AAC but they will be manufacturing (or rebadging) their own music player. This is a real coup for Apple and may result in AAC become the standard instead of YANSS (yet another non-standard standard).

Posted by Ozguru at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM

Comments

All very well but iTunes isn't available in the UK!

Posted by: Mr Tyke at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM

I could be wrong but I think iTunes is available in the UK but not the "iTunes Music Store". Same situation as here (Australia). Bet you get the Music store before we do though :-) The rumours (please take with generous pinch of salt) are suggesting 1Q2004 for EU and 2Q2004 for AU. The lack of a music store (and the ability to use all the features of iPhoto) has bugged me for some time (see this (archived) article for a rant about it). I believe that the iPhoto features (prints and books) are now available (or at least announced) for Europe (including the UK - never quite sure if it is a formal part of Europe or not).

Posted by: ozguru at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM

Found a story on the HP iPod which is blue! Hmmm. I like blue.

Posted by: ozguru at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM

iPhoto books and prints are coming to the UK in March this year. Still no mention of Australia.

Posted by: ozguru at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM

Honorary Riffics To start off, this is going to be my Linking Post. Anyone can be an Honorary Riffic (except for Bill, because he sucks) if they catch my fancy and write something that I think is amazing. So to start out, let me point out Gday Mate, writen by Ozguru. I...

Posted by: Mookie Riffic at January 9, 2004 12:01 PM