I hate to be a Microsoft fanboy or whatever, but I really like the current short on Comingzune.com. The one with the birds.
Oh and just to bury the knife deeper, I have to say Microsoft has BALLS to make H.264 and AAC playable on the Zune. That’s probably pissing Apple off a whole lot.
It’s a common misunderstanding that Apple owns AAC – it’s a licensed audio format, just like Mp3. It probably won’t affect Apple much, as the device still won’t be able to play Apple’s DRM-enabled AAC files purchased from iTunes.
What would impress me is if the device was able to play free audio formats like Ogg and FLAC. Don’t see that happening anytime soon, though.
Thing is, though, despite the Zune obviously not able to play Apple DRM files, it’s the only player I’ve seen that plays any kind of AAC. Everything else is just MP3 and WMA. Microsoft’s own player is surprisingly ahead of the curve in terms of compatibility.
Also I do wonder about future compatibility with other formats like Ogg and FLAC. Since the Zune runs a flavor of Windows Mobile, one might be able to add third-party software on, or something. Who knows!
Does anyone even have any AAC’s they didn’t get off on iTunes?
I encode all my CDs as AACs. Better quality and smaller file size. Shrug.