Columnist Bill Thompson at the BBC asks whether the time has come for Apple to be put under the EU microscope in the same way as Microsoft has. "If Apple was serious about building a music industry around downloads and digital devices then it would open up its devices and interfaces to allow greater innovation and greater competition."
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Member since:2006-01-03
You can buy *some* DRM free music, only from certain music companies.
As for quality vs cost, the iPod is OK, but it is VERY arguable whether that it is the best.
The shuffle simply sucks compared with devices from Creative Labs or Sandisk (to name two) of similar size and lower price, which feature a small screen and a radio tuner, and which don't play Apple's dirty lock-in tricks. They lack Steve Jobs' reality distorsion field, however, so you don't feel as cool paying more to get so much less. Oh, and they are really not as pretty.
Nanos are extremely cool but, again, there are comparable devices on the market that include FM radios and recorders, and play other audio and video formats than Apple's own.
And the price of iPod accesories is o-u-t-r-a-g-e-o-u-s! Thankfully you can often use those designed for generic audio equipment which may offer far better quality at a fraction of the cost.
Member since:
2005-07-06
You can download DRM free music, which is encoded at a higher bit rate from apple, I don't think that DRM free songs would only play on iPods or iTunes for that matter. I think you can convert the m4a songs from apple to mp3 directly without burning the CDs. DRM free music is being sold on iTunes music store.
Being confined to iPod does suck, but then again there are not many/any mp3 player that can be compared to the iPod in terms of quality vs cost.