“In the midst of a broader music release, RealNetworks has quietly renewed its iPod technology battle with Apple Computer,’ John Borland writes for CNET News. “Last year, RealNetworks released a technology called Harmony that for the first time let copy-protected songs from a music store other than Apple’s iTunes play directly on the iPod. RealNetworks had independently mimicked the antipiracy tools used by Apple and hadn’t gotten Apple’s permission first.”
Borland writes, “Apple called the company’s actions ‘hacker tactics’ and a few months later changed its software to break the compatibility, at least on iPod Photo devices. On Tuesday, a RealNetworks executive said his company had re-established compatibility with all iPods. ‘Harmony now supports all shipping iPods, including iPod Photo,’ said RealNetworks Chief Strategy Officer Richard Wolpert.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How long will this last? Yup, you guessed it, about as long as a Krispy Kreme in Real’s corner office. Listen, if you have an iPod, rip CDs or buy online from iTunes Music Store to make certain that your music will always work. Using Real’s so-called “Harmony” for music that you intend to play on your iPod would be foolish. It’s so unused that the last time “Harmony” stopped working, nobody even noticed for a month and a half!
If RealNetworks really cared about music freedom of choice, and blah, blah, blah, why does their Windows-only Rhapsody music service exclude Mac users?
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