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Virgin's New iPod Rival
iammaxus writes "CNET has the scoop on Virgin's new iPod killer. Favorite quote: 'Virgin said support for open standards such as WMA will let people select the music service of their choice.'" While this doesn't look like a bad player, it's the same price as an iPod mini (and incompatible with the most popular pay-per-download site), so calling it an iPod killer seems a bit premature.
What, you mean like This one?
Of course, the CNET article doesn't actually say that... and also mentions mp3 compatibility... so it was just a stupid post, really.
The Virgin site seems to be slashdotted at the moment, so I'll see what their marketing says about it, but I'm doubting they'll use open and WMA together...
Stupid sexy Flanders.
iTunes can encode to MP3 OR (non-DRM) AAC not just AAC. iPod can play both MP3 and AAC (non-DRM or fairplay encoded)
I still don't understand why someone would want a radio tuner, I bought my iPod to listen to the music I want to hear, not what Clear Channel tells me to. Same thing with my DiscMan and Walkman before it. I gave up on radio years ago.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I appreciate that the parent poster was joking but it is worth pointing out that if the Apple store starts to jack up the prices, there is nowhere else you can legimately purchase the AAC files that they sell.
Off the top of my head:
-Magnatune
-Real's Music store (yes, it sells AAC at 192kbps)
-Allofmp3.com (dubious legality aside)
AAC is by far a more open format than WMA. Anybody could setup a music store to sell AAC files. Now, doing it with DRM and supporting the iPod or iTunes is a different story, I grant you. But Real did it and following their lead might be a good approach.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.