Apple announced today a new version of the iPod, that oh-so-cool-looking digital music player. Apple certainly has a big corner of the digital music business, with iTunes as the biggest source of legal music downloads.
Trouble is, though, the music you get from iTunes and what you can play on the iPod doesn’t play in the best digital file format that you get on Windows PCs, ie, Windows Media Audio (.wma). I wouldn’t be too keen on converting all my uncompressed .wma music into Apple’s propietary AAC format just for the iPod. Nor buying from iTunes that I couldn’t play on my PC with Windows Media Player. Actually, I don’t know anyone who has an iPod, but I do know quite a few folk who have digital players from Creative and Rio. And what about the new player Sony is developing? That could be as revolutionary as when the Walkman first appeared more than 20 years ago.
Personally, I prefer to listen to music on the PC rather than walk around with things sticking in my ears. That puts me squarely in the ‘get a real life’ camp, according to my daughter…