There's an article today about Apple being upset that Real found a way to allow music from RealNetwork to play on an iPod.

I'm strongly considering a portable music player and the iPod is high on my list because of its size (or lack thereof). If the iPod won't play any old song I happen to have as an MP3 file, I won't consider it. Will an iPod play any song iTunes (the app, not the store) recognizes?

What's ~20GB players are of the same size and form factor as the iPod?

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

The iPod natively supports MP3, AAC, MP3 VBR, AIFF, Audible Books, WAV and Apple Lossless

HP was going to get their branded iPod to run WMA, but that idea got squashed like a bug and HP went with AAC thru iTunes.

So you're saying any MP3 file I have regardless of source will play on an iPod? So what's Apple's beef with Real? That Real got the iPod to recognize a proprietary format?

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Apple is "upset" since Real used some reverse engineering to get past ACC's authentication process, making the files accessible on other players.