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Man, this guy is such an idiot. He should research what he's going to talk about before spewing word vomit out his mouth. Sheesh. *Goes back to reading MacLife*

Jan 07, 09 - 07:02 pm Comment from: ABQ Peter

if you don't have a kaiser-bessel derived window function, you got nuthin. that spectral leakage will get you every time.

Yeah, I do more research than this just to cover my ass when I post on MDN. This guy probably gets a bigger salary than me for spewing this crap? Ugh.

Seems like the main computer news sites are being usurped by the bloggers who have more current news and more technical prowess and knowledge than your average old-time "professional" tech writer.

I wish authors of tech articles would spend 5 minutes researching the topics they write, but clearly know NOTHING, about. This guy is quite possibly the most misinformed author I have read in a LONG time.

I suppose the next thing he'll be spouting about is how we should all convert our houses to run off DC power because AC power is Apples proprietary current technology.

Moron. Go find another job - you have failed miserably at this one.

Wonder what would happen if someone told Old Rick that even the Zune plays AAC files? Think he'd be blown away?

I'm sure you could list a whole load of devices that don't support AAC, possibly more than do, but how many are discontinued and how many have actually been sold? The iPod and iTunes massively dominate the markets for portable and computer based music so people who can't play AAC are of a tiny minority. The Zune is an also ran and it supports AAC, how many people are seriously able to only use mp3?

Doesn't matter. No one reads PC WORLD anymore.

Once again, I'm utterly amazed at the level of ignorance which is apparently acceptable in the tech reporting business. How much do these guys get paid again?

Simple research via Google reveals factual, useful information about the AAC format itself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding) and other portable music players which can natively play AAC files (http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6490_7-6625879.html). But apparently reporters such as Rick Broida are paid simply to write whatever they *think* they know, without checking their facts first.

Yes this guy writing this article is an idiot. But I still think MDN needs a hug.... They've been on the rag all week....

"You ignorant slut"

I was just about dallig asleep when I read that! For a full five mi utes I was laughing my guts out! Emailer the PC world guys as well. Truly an ignorant slut.

I wanna know where the fact checkers in this article were? Asleep at the wheel?

Jan 07, 09 - 08:36 pm Comment from: Tommy Boy

AAC suffers from stupid naming. If they'd just called it the more logical "MP4" it would already be the dominant format on all devices. Is "they" Apple or the MPEG group? Dunno.

Jan 07, 09 - 08:59 pm Comment from: jjjj

Thanks for posting this. I knew that AAC was a joint development, but I didn't realize all of the bells and whistles. That the other portable makers hasn't included support for AAC is their own problem. Assimilate or die!

Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,
Rick, you ignorant slut,

FYI for those not around in the late 70s, the phrase comes from the 'Weekend Update' segment of Saturday Night Live. In which Dan Akroyd would start his opinion attack on Jane Curtin with: "Jane, you ignorant slut," and Jane would start her opinion attack with "Dan, you pompous ass."
classic funny stuff, if not politically correct.

Back on topic, it is sad to see how frequently misinformation gets published by mainstream technical journal authors. PCWorld is not alone in this regards. Sometimes I think they must intentionally publish trash opinion just to generate hype, hysteria and readership energy. Sad.

Jan 07, 09 - 09:22 pm Comment from: JadisOne

I don't see how a supposed tech writer from PC World can't understand this simple formula, AAC=MP4.

Rick Broida is a moron.
Eric Willard is a moron.
Billy Gates is a moron.
Stevie Ballmer is a fatso.

It's just like the Sony boys and BluRay, nodody else cares but they love it.

Without reading the article, I'm going to assume that at least he didn't out himself as a complete dork by babbling on about Ogg Vorbis.

This guy really needs to do some research.

This is fine to trash this guy who is a bit ignorant, but has anyone actually tried a DRM free song from iTunes on a device other than an Apple product? (Does anyone even have a device not from Apple which plays music? LOL.)

One would assume that the lack of DRM means it's playable on any device, but does it actually work and has it been tested?

(I'm sure all 5 Zune owners have tried it already, maybe they can let us know.)

PC World blows it: Calls AAC ‘proprietary’...

AAC with "Fairplay" DRM scheme is indeed proprietary, which MOST of the songs on iTMS are STILL encoded with. Of course the AAC files without "Fairplay" are not proprietary as AAC is a open format.

However since Apple introduced this AAC format (as a way of not having to pay for MP3 licensing and be able to use copy protection schemes) in a massive scale to the world public vs the already established and universal MP3 format which most everyone uses, it's understandable why there is resistance to the format. The stigatizm of AAC associated with DRM will always be there in the public eye.

What is really going to get people's goat is now AAC is associated with DIGITAL SIGNATURES ON MUSIC. Because the RIAA sure hasn't given up, they just changed tactics and give pirates enough rope to hang themselves. In fact the pirate folks recommend not sharing your iTMS songs (DRM free or not), because of the digital signatures imbedded in the music files. Changing format to MP3 doesn't remove the digital signatures either.

iPods have serial numbers which is transmitted to Apple along with computer serial numbers when iTMS updates iPod software.

Be very afraid.

Fun & Games:

If one doesn't pirate their songs, what's there to be afraid of?!!

Jan 07, 09 - 11:47 pm Comment from: eMax

Wow....i'd like to quote my college physics professor: " Do your homework"

Jan 08, 09 - 12:28 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

@Fun & Games

A simple Google search proves you to be so laughably incorrect... one has to wonder if you're an MDN inspired "anti-shill?"

I mean, DUDE!

You're so incredibly, factually incorrect, it's inconceivable you're posting this crap-tastic- nonsense without realizing how STUPID you sound, sooooo

Nevermind...

You, alone, will inspire at least 1,000,000 new sales for iTunes.

Jan 08, 09 - 12:38 am Comment from: MrMcLargeHuge

"ignorant slut"

Nice reference to The Office, one that I use often. It was most definitely appropriate.

@Sixvodkas:

I'm sure you are right, however, it would have been so much more enlightening to many of us had you offered the correction(s) to the mistakes 'Fun & Games' made in their post, instead of just repeatedly suggesting that there are mistakes.

Anyway, from what I understand, iTunes offered AAC scheme embeds your name and credit card bank info in each of the songs. However, you can strip that information (I'm not sure if ripping the songs into CDs and importing back would do the trick, but there are software out there that can do it for you.) I don't appreciate Apple encoding these private information in my legally purchased songs, however, I don't trade/distribute/pirate music so I'm not too worried on that front.

Having said all this, iTunes is featuring the excellent album on their front page 'The Ultimate Tony Bennett' with a sale price of $7.99. It's a steal considering there are 20 outstanding tracks (selected by Tony himself) and even Amazon sells this in worse format of MP3 for $9.99.

I mention this, because I thought it was a nice touch when Tony sang "I Left My Heart In San Francisco,' as the final bow of Apple's participation in MW. Also, maybe prophetic (future will tell), 'The Best Is Yet To Come.' A classy touch indeed, Apple.

MDN MW: 'sales' - Huh!

An example of one of two reasons I'd cancelled my subscription to PC World- clueless writers, and Mac-bashing.

Jan 08, 09 - 02:21 am Comment from: Shadowself

@MrMcLargeHuge

Actually the phrase was first popularized on Saturday Night Live in the Point-Counterpoint skit back in the 70s. Dan Dan Aykroyd said to Jane Curtin, "Jane, you ignorant slut, ..." sometimes as the start of a counterpoint to her statements. --- WELL before The Office.

@Fun & Games in answer to what @krquet mentioned about @Sixvodkas wrote...

Right off the bat we have F & G's claim that MOST of the songs on ITMS are still Fairplay. Let me point out that the article in questions wasn't even talking about Fairplay AAC protected tracks. But, I digress... 8 million out of the 10+ million tracks at the ITMS are now without Fairplay meaning they are DRM free with the full 10+ million tracks DRM free by the end of March. That hardly qualifies as MOST.

Second, Apple didn't in introduce AAC, and the main point wasn't to get around MP3 license fees. AAC was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Pictures Experts Group in April 1997. The same people who brought you MP3 BTW. AAC has also been standardized by ISO and IEC, as part of the MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 specifications. Hardly proprietary.

Third, what F & G says about Digital Signatures may be correct, I don't know. I do know that it shouldn't really be any issue unless you are doing something illegal in the first place. Who's going to know I ripped my mattress tag off unless I start selling them in quantity?

MDN MW = force... Nobody is forcing you to buy music in the ITMS. It is just easier and better now.

FLAC is superior to AAC because it is lossless compression and AAC isn't. Apple probably didn't go with FLAC though because there's not a lot of audio players that can play it.

Jan 08, 09 - 02:28 am Comment from: Escaport

Apple has my iPod's serial number????!??!?!! It gets transmitted back to the person who made the number up in the first place?!!?!!?!!??!!

HOLY SHIT!!! CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER!!! MASS HYSTERIA!!!

>>AAC is more efficient than MP3

Actually... decoding AAC takes more horsepower from the processor than MP3, and AAC+ V2 is about 3x more expensive to decode than MP3.

"FLAC is superior to AAC because it is lossless compression and AAC isn't. Apple probably didn't go with FLAC though because there's not a lot of audio players that can play it."

Apple has Apple Lossless, which goes in an MPEG4 container, and is also lossless. Unfortunately, it's not as widely used across platforms as FLAC and one wonders why Apple developed it. Perhaps they wanted the MP4 container. I suppose there's ALS, which also goes in an MP4 container, but that wasn't finalized till Dec 2005:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Lossless_Coding

In any event, they could have made music files with lossless compression available, because they could have used Apple Lossless. It's obvious why they didn't. You'd have far bigger files - and therefore storage and downloading costs - for very little benefit in audio quality. Here "superior" is a misleading term: something doesn't sound superior when you can't hear the difference. And most users with most material on most listening devices in most listening situations would not be able to distinguish between 256bps AAC and a lossless format.

Jan 08, 09 - 05:09 am Comment from: nekogami13

Several posters took him to task for his faux pas.
He put a line through the "proprietary" part.

Still a shame a supposed tech expert/guru or anyone who would blog about it has no basic knowledge or can't do any basic research.

I initially thought....what a dolt.

However, what are the chances he did this on PURPOSE? To attract readers.

Any advertising, good or bad, is good.

With his brains, he should make a good stock analyst!!!

Whoever named AAC is a moron. Instead of trying to be all fancy and "advanced" with the name, they should have just named it mp4. Everyone was familiar with mp3 and obviously people would think mp4 is better than mp3.

Hey I like macs (who doesn't) but gawd dang you guys are a bunch of freaking cultish fanboys.

MP3s ain't going away. You can cry like babies all you want but they ain't going away. Proprietary isn't great for everything. so keep drinking the cool-aid guys.

Even my crappy LG phone plays AAC format.

Jan 08, 09 - 11:26 am Comment from: Randian

@Olternaut

"Proprietary isn't great for everything. so keep drinking the cool-aid guys."

Can you read, trollboy? AAC is NOT proprietary! It is mp4, nothing more and nothing less.

Or can't you count EITHER? (Oh, and by the way, your transparent technique of praising the Mac first to make us think you're on our side, and then slamming it second, is puerile and pathetic. Take a class in logic and persuasion at your local community college . . . if they'll admit you, that is.)

It's time now to back to your basement, oh sad child, and taunt your little sister; it's more becoming.

@Radiancoolaiddrinker

I was speaking about the whole Apple culture. Oh, and I wasn't using a "technique" of praising apple first then slamming them later. I respect Apple and like their products but that doesn't make me want to become a fanboy.
Apple serves the public....not the other way around!

Apple deserves high praise for their good products and from all their hard work. But the very SECOND they are tempted to do stuff that does not serve the public its time to slap them back into their place. Instead you guys let Steve become your master.
Frankly dude.....people like you scare me a lot.

Jan 08, 09 - 12:02 pm Comment from: Jubei

The commenters corrected this guys idiotic article. Maybe he learned his lesson and do some real research like real journalist used to do back in the days.

I like it when my speakers sound like they are made of needles.. I am sticking with mp3 guys sorry.

Jan 08, 09 - 01:13 pm Comment from: Randian

@ Olternaut

"Frankly dude.....people like you scare me a lot."

I should, for informed, well-reasoned discourse inevitably triumphs over childish "Dude-isms" and hackneyed "Cool Aid" allusions.

BTW: It's "Kool-Aid," not "Cool-Aid." But Wintrollfanboys have a difficult time differentiating between verbal precision and "close enough," huh?

If they had just called AAC "mp4" instead, these misunderstandings would have been less likely.

We all know how much PC users love pirating music, movies and software. They simply want their freebies where ever they can steal them. Most of them have, no doubt, had problems with iTune's AAC in the past and have no wish to use this format if they can help it. They would prefer using MP3 that they're assured has no copy protection.