Lunch With George!

LWG User Group's Macintosh Special Interest Group

Can we fix Apple's "Broken" iPod?

Those who watch the Apple and digital music news already know about Real Network's PR blitz against Apple regarding Apple's unwillingness to license their Fairplay DRM algorithm. It includes two attempts at online petitions (Don't Let Apple Break Your iPod!), which look like pleas by consumers to urge Apple to open up and allow the iPod to play music purchased from Real's online music store. They also created a website known as FreedomOfMusicChoice.org (Isn't the .org domain reserved for not-for-profit organizations?), which says "Consumers are getting a raw deal with the status quo in digital music, which limits healthy, open competition." Hmm... seems like there's plenty of competition! Real just dropped their prices for all the songs in their Music Store to 49 cents.

Hey Real! Don't Break my MP3 Player!

I did a quick check on cNet, and they list 290 portable MP3 music players. I then went to Real's Help Center and discovered that RealPlayer 10 supports downloading of music purchased on their Music Store to 7 MP3 players, If you have installed the proper drivers, firmware, etc.

So who is limiting competition?

We Fix the "Broken" iPod

So... you want to buy lots of tunes for 49 cents each, and then play them on your iPod? Well, here's the legal way to do it:

1. Buy lots of 49 cent songs on Real.com
2. Burn 'em to audio CDs
3. Rip the songs from the CDs into iTunes
4. Synchronize your iPod.

All better! Buy, burn, rip, sync. Sounds good to me.

Last modified 08/18/2004.