Microsoft To Release 'iPod Killer' at Christmas?

ShellFish writes "According to a report from Engadget, Microsoft is poised to finally take on the Apple iPod this holiday season. Tired of uninspiring offerings from its hardware partners, Microsoft is getting into the ring itself. The new media player from Microsoft will feature a bigger screen than the iPod Video, have built-in WiFi for downloading music without a PC, and Microsoft will work with music and TV content providers to build an iTunes Music Store competitor. In what may be the crucial competitive stroke, Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in."

Comments

one bad turn deserves another?

[Burlap]

Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in."

and lock you into another.... just great

Re:Closed codec's and DRM I'm sure

[Billly Gates]

Drm is a pain in the ass with the Ipod.

I dont like to steal music as I feel for $.99 that I should contribute to the artist at an affordable price.

My Ipod is locked up because I upgraded Itunes and accidently created another user account. Worse I have 2 installations of w2k on my desktop, one for work and one for games. Now I have a WindowsXP laptop that I would like to store some music.

The last time I tried to change the user I ended up losing all my music and Itunes deleted everything. Apple was nice and let me redownload everything with a warning not to do it again. Anyway if I didn't have work/school I could research everything and fix it and be carefull to get my music back so I dont lose anything. Yes I know Itunes lets you share music on up to 5 computers but still I have to do it right incase I accidently delete the drm for the music.

If Microsoft offers more leniant DRM then I am all for it! Yes I dislike microsoft but if they make better products and my life easier than I will buy their products. Itunes is a royal pain in the ass but all the labels want DRM or they wont sell you the music.