Eshin Direct

I’m continuing to hold off on frivolously buying an iPod. Of course, a lack of funds also helps to make this quite an impossibility.

Rumour has it that when Virgin isn’t busy conquering private commercial space with SpaceShipOne, they’re set to challenge the iPod mini with a 5GB version called the Virgin Electronics Player. Those folks at Virgin sure know to come up with imaginative product names. The plus point about the VEP is not that it boasts an additional 1GB of space for your ripped songs, but that it supports the WMA and MP3 format.

iPod, much to my amazement, doesn’t. It uses an altogether different media format than WMA and MP3. It’s only in the latest incarnation of iTunes for Windows that there is a converter tool to help change your whole WMA system into iTunes compatible files. iTunes for Mac does not include this feature, so if you’re stuck with just a Mac then you’ll have to rip all your CD’s again.

This cross-platform functionality will help Virgin’s chances of a successful entry into the market; although it should be no time before we see better intergration of the WMA standard into Mac’s products.

The iPod still wins hands down on looks.

Tags: Techie Rants