AAC is and has been the audio codec of choice for some time now. With all of the majors signed up, Apple's service provides what the other sub. services have not been able to do. Codecs are a dead issue now, IMO.
Several players including those from Panasonic, Toshiba and Creative have offered AAC, WMA and MP3 compatible players for some time.
sdr, the original iPod uses Portalplayer's PP5002 chip, which can handle AAC and is firmware-upgradeable. An upgrade for older iPods (Mac only) will allow them to function with AAC downloads. Owners of PC-compatible iPods won't be able to upgrade to AAC, at least for the time being. To me, that seems to point to a proprietary Apple DRM embedded in release 1.4 of iTunes (replaced by Musicmatch in PC iPods).
sdr: Did you read the link that I posted in which Apple specifically claims that the new iPod still supports MP3, VBR and WAV (http://www.apple.com/ipod/)?
Since I posted the link and you claim to the specific claims made, it seems you might believe that Apple is lying about supporting these codecs. Do you have any proof of this?
Also, what proof do you have that PortalPlayer had to build a new chipset to incorporate AAC? I have no idea if they did or didn't, but you keep stating this as a fact without providing even a speck of evidence to support your claim. If you have some non-public knowledge, please share it.
Since you and Tinroad seem to believe that EDIG can offer firmware upgrades to support whatever becomes the major codec, what makes you do certain that Apple cannot do the same?
Honestly, if unbiased people were to read your claims they would see through them in a nanosecond. IMO, the posts both of you have made on this subject sound defensive and in denial of how far Apple has come and how far EDIG is behind.
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