I know this post is going to alienate just about everybody that would ever consider reading my blog, but here's the deal: I want all iPods to support the ogg file format.
For the uninitiated, the ogg format is like the MP3 or the AAC format, except for a couple of very important differences. One, it's free, which is to say that it doesn't belong to some company, and every time I use it I'm not supposed to be giving them a nickel or something. (The MP3 format technically is licensed to the company that created it, so theoretically, every time you buy a computer, MP3 player, etc., you're supposed to give them some quantity of money.)
The other reason that I am hereby requesting ogg on my iPod is because it's better. It sounds better. It compresses better. Are there other metrics that we should be using? None that I know of. I want ogg. Steve Jobs, do you hear me now?!
Now, the theoretical argument above holds water, but I have personal reasons for this desire: I have 357 ogg files that I can't listen to on my iPod! This pretty much gives me three choices: One, install Rockbox on my iPod (I have, it didn't work reliably). Two, convert the ogg files to MP3s (this solution would create inferior-quality songs). Or, three, only listen to those songs on my computer (also a lame solution).
I should also mention while I am on this rant that I have flac files as well. Why doesn't the iPod support those! iPods are great, but these are serious shortcomings.
Your cries of "why??" may well be rhetorical, but I will answer them nonetheless. The fact is that apple and others only support .mp3 because it was already entrenched before they got on the scene. If they could, apple would have you use only .aac, microsoft would have you using only .wma, etc. There are two reasons for this.
I agree with you 100%, the open formats are superior and should be supported from a high level philosophical point of view. Most people don't use them, and therefore they stand little chance of unseating MP3 and AAC, and therefore there is no reason for any company to spend resources on supporting them.
boothe
Yeah, I agree with all that. It's just annoying is all, and I felt like I should put a voice to that annoyance. I figure there are millions of iPods out there. At the profit they're making per pod, shouldn't they be able to afford ogg and flac (at least)?
They'd win the hearts of people like you and me...then again, perhaps they have won our hearts anyway.
Hey what do you use to play the ogg and flac files? I have a couple albums in that format and I am apprehensive to try downloading random freeware. Is there a specific codec so that I can play it in windows media player? Does the newer version of windows media player support the formats? Maybe I just need to upgrade.
I use Linux pretty much exclusively, so I don't actually know what to use on Windows to play them. I know there is a plug-in for iTunes that's not too hard to find that will give it a library to play oggs, but I haven't gotten much beyond that piece of knowledge.
I will say though that in not too much more time, Amarok will be coming out for Windows, and when that happens, your life will be better. Really. If you like music, you must use Amarok. It was supposed to come out for Windows last summer, but apparently they're behind schedule. For my money (it's free), I've never used a better music player.
Amarok, eh? I will keep an eye out for it. Yeah, I'm not as computer savvy as you so no Linux for me. Thanks.
cathleen
One need not be computer savvy to run ubuntu....so long as you're not doing it on a laptop.
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