[ale] MP3 Players

[hirsch at zapmedia.com]

aaron writes:
 > Previously, Casey Allen Shobe typed into the ether:
 > > (All Manufacturers got a request for Linux support, of course... along
 > > with a reminder that Micro$haft now intentionally cripples the MP3
 > > facilities in all of their bundled and downloadable media players).
 > > 
 > > Eh, what's this???  Did I miss the latest "feature" of WMP?
 > 
 > To my understanding (and this info is published, I just can't recall
 > the exact source) M$ is intentionally crippling the MP3 playback data
 > rate in it's current and future WiMP (media player) programs. IIRC,
 > MP3 through WiMP will be restricted to 28kbps playback, and that is a
 > little "b" for "bits" there. I'm not sure if any of the WiMPy utilities
 > will now support MP3 encoding / recording at all.

I think you are overstating it.  WMP in XP will offer crippled MP3
recording.  Playback will be unaffected.  There are even some decent
reasons for that.  Fraunhofer charges a lot more for recording
technology than for playback.  MS can offer the crippled recording for
cheap.  Of course, they might have been able to work something out if
they had really wanted to.

--Michael

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