TechoLiO
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Summary

As a windows user, I wasn't sure how this mac version would fare on windows. After all, I knew it would be a format specific just to apple in the past, and the iPod.

The software is very nice and clean, yet has many features, such as ripping cd's and encoding to mp3, which is a nice touch since AAC is the store format. The burning is very simple to use as well. Songs seem to all be .99, and they have a lot of tracks only on iTunes. But just like all the others, there are some partial albums, and tracks that are only available with album download.

With iTunes, partial albums are a problem. If just one song is missing, the only option is to buy individual tracks. So if you have a double album set that likely would be $20 as a whole, just one track missing may make you download say 30 individual tracks, costing a lot more! They have to address this one.

With the windows WMA based music, I could burn using Roxio, something I can't do with iTunes. But iTunes burning although nice, can't write cd-text (song track titles) to music discs, which is a minus for me. Another thing they have to address.

Overall I like this a lot. The sound samples are full quality, and it is a nice presentation of new music, although I wish you could browse by years. The 128kbit AAC sounds as good or even better than all the rest! But just iPod exporting makes using other players a pain!

Pros: Nice interface, full quality samples, exclusive tracks, consistent pricing, simple DRM

Cons: Only ipods supported directly, no cd-text burning, partial albums expensive

Costs

Tracks are .99, and up, 9.95 for many albums. I haven't run across more expensive tracks, and most albums stick to the base price. Has partial albums, but not downloadable at album price, this is a bad thing.

File Format

AAC at 128kbps. This is a format that sounds very good at this bit rate compared to WMA or MP3. In fact to my ears it may sound the best. The files end in .m4p, which means they are protected, but otherwise they are AAC format. AAC is the latest MPEG standard, so it's not just apple (AAC=Advanced Audio Coding). Few players other than iPod play unprotected AAC, never mind protected.

Not having an iPod, I can't say if the files remain protected on the iPod or not, someone can let me know that...

DRM Restrictions

Apple is great here in that all songs have the same limitations, and they are the best overall. You may play a song on up to three computers. If you sell a computer, you can "unregister" it so it doesn't count toward that three count (and you won't be able to play songs on it anymore).

Burning to CD is limited to 10 times for an identical playlist, but otherwise unrestricted.

However, only iPod is supported right now for portables. So if you have anything else you will have to burn to disc, rip to mp3, export to your player. And you're technically illegal to boot, so you're paying to be a pirate! I hope players will begin to support AAC or apple finds a way to support plain mp3 exporting for convenience sake.

Again, this ripping step is really a pain because you will have to put titles and artists back onto those mp3's you rip because iTunes won't burn the titles/artists via cd-text for you. So here they are way behind in convenience for the iPodless masses.

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