SillyDog701

[Antony]

According to Seattle Post Intelligencer and C|net New.com report, RealNetworks is to have their online music service playable on the world's most popular music player - iPod, without permission from Apple.

[RealNetworks chief executive] Glaser said the new system, called Harmony Technology, will let people securely transfer music bought using RealNetworks' music download services to an iPod or virtually any other portable music player.

In April, Apple rebuffed RealNetworks' request for an alliance between the companies. (report)

> RealNetworks to play on iPod without Apple's approval? (MacCentre701)

Personally, I think Real is in big trouble now.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/125.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.8

[Antony]

Apple's response:

"We are stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod, and we are investigating the implications of their actions under the DMCA and other laws. We strongly caution Real and their customers that when we update our iPod software from time to time it is highly likely that Real's Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future iPods."

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[Antony]

And response from Real Network?

"Consumers, and not Apple, should be the ones choosing what music goes on their iPod,"

"There is ample and clear precedent for this activity, for instance the first IBM compatible PCs from Compaq," said RealNetworks. "Harmony creates a way to lock content from Real's music store in a way that is compatible with the iPod, Windows Media DRM devices, and Helix DRM devices. Harmony technology does not remove or disable any digital rights management system. Apple has suggested that new laws such as the DMCA are relevant to this dispute. In fact, the DMCA is not designed to prevent the creation of new methods of locking content and explicitly allows the creation of interoperable software."

Mac World has a report.

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[DJGM]

There's an interesting commentary about the current Apple vs Real situation at sillicon.com . . .

"Is Apple turning its back on iPod customers?" (commentary by Charles Cooper.)

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[J_Lowboski]

As talk of Apple vs Real debate continues regarding freedom of choice and whats good for the consumer continues I heard most recently that the 49cent song deal at Real is coming to an end sometime around Labor Day. I think the issues around this debate are important but I'm no dummy. 49cents vs. 99cents is a no-brainer.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[Antony]

According to BetaNews
RealNetworks announced that it has sold 1 million songs in the week since beginning its half-price music promotion. Real dropped song pricing to 49-cents from 99-cents, in part to highlight its Harmony technology, which allows purchased songs to be played on over 70 digital media players including Apple's iPod.

Personally, I don't think Real can make any profit out from 49c a song, the online transaction cost a lot.

It is not really a freedom of choice thing as Real argues. Apple iTunes and iPod support many formats, but currently only one online music store. Additional note, iTunes supports many other MP3 players besides the iPod.
List of compatible MP3 players.

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[Antony]

Real Music Store is U.S. and Windows only!

According to Real's online help page,
Will RealPlayer Music Store run on a Macintosh operating system?
Answer:
No, the RealPlayer Music Store and RealPlayer 10 are compatible with Windows only. As Music Store continues to grow, we hope to add other operating systems to the compatibility list. Unfortunately, at this time no decisions about future operating systems or dates are available.

To use the RealPlayer Music Store, you will need:

- RealPlayer 10 installed with Helix DRM
- Windows 98SE or higher
- Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher

That's really a shame on them, not just Windows, but you will need MSIE as well. Many of our SillyDog701 users won't be interested in that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/125.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.9

[Antony]

According to The Mac Observer, Apple has disabled RealNetworks music downloads on iPod photo, confirmed by both Apple and RealNetworks.

After recent firmware update, RealNetworks' Harmony downloads would be played on iPod photo, but can still played on other iPod models.

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