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Apple's iPod Chip Supports WMA?
John writes "Chip manufacturer Portal Player in Santa Clara builds the embedded PP5002 chip in Apple's iPod (allowing the playing of AAC and MP3). It has emerged that the chip firmware, by default, allows the playing of WMA. However, for some reason this is locked by Apple."
The thing is, that chip sounds like it's a specialized decoder for 2-3 music file formats. It's not a general-purpose comuting chip, which would be required for interpreting OGG. The extra games are probably handled by a separate processor that handles the playlist management software.
why would it be active? Wouldn't Apple have to pay for those rights to use it?
In addition there is also a royalty involved. For WMA this is true but for AAC you pay only an upfront fee ($15000) but no royalties. That might be a reason not to support WMA by default in the iPod!?
That "massive bailout" was 150 Mil in non-voting stock. ...that show 3 guys as the Mac creators. Gates is one of them.
Neither massive, nor a bailout.
I think maybe you mistook Bill Atkinson for Gates.
Sorry, wrong, it is a general purpose chipset. See:
http://www.amd.com/de-de/FlashMemory/FlashApplicat ions/0,,37_1736_6577_8011,00.html
Which states:
The PP5002 SuperIntegration(TM) System-On-Chip features dual ARM7TDMI (R) microprocessors.
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Here is the PP5002 spec: http://www.portalplayer.com/products/documents/500 2_brief_0108_Public.pdf
WMA is indeed supported.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
> It was indeed a bailout. It was termed so inside the tech world, and also in the "secular" business press at the time. Do you want
> some of the many many examples?
And it is well documented that one of the reasons that everybody thought it was a bailout was because nobody was allowed to mention the real reason that it happened. Which was because Apple discovered that MS had stolen the source code for QuickTime and inserted it whole-cloth into their competing product. Lawsuit, settlement, and large investment.
Of course, you've heard all of this before and chosen to ignore it all, so I'm sure I can't convince you of anything. But I worked at Apple for a while, and know a couple of the people who were involved in the trial.
Basically, Apple got some money when it needed it (although they did still have billions in cash and assets, the stock purchase definitely helped), and Microsoft got to look like a 'good company' at a time it needed it. A win-win settlement.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Not only is it a general purpose chip, but the iPod linux folk have successfully installed linux on it and then successfully decoded ogg files in real time. I can't even fathom why Apple hasn't included ogg for their players, the processor can handle it.
Help I'm a rock.
Just to be clear, the standard that Apple is using, MPeg4 (also called AAC) is not an "Apple Standard". This is a standard developed by the dolby digital people, and similar to the MP3 format, only the next revision. This is an open format. What makes the Apple files more proprietary is their use of the "Fair-play" DRM, which is not an Apple technology, but one that they license, as could anyone else.
I agree that Apple could also have Ogg, or any other format easily, but right now they are not going that direction. They want to help set a new standard for compressed files similarly to what mp3 did. They are hoping mp4 replaces mp3 so that technology, music, and consumers can all benefit from digital music. If we as consumers what this technology to move forward we need to accept some compromise. Perhaps Ogg or even a lossless format will be the next step as broadband use expands, but as Bill Murray said "Baby Steps".
These people have thousands of songs in WMA, and enjoy it because the compression size is about one half of mp3. Would e you have them convert all those files (not to mention loss more quality in the process, as they'd be going from lossy to lossy) and take up way more hard drive space? Well, they won't. Instead they're going to buy one of the dozens of wma/mp3 players out there. Most every mp3 player does wma nowadays except the iPod. Any other ideas, smart ass?
"Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean