Apple's Windows iTunes SDK

[MacRumors]

Arstechnica reports on a new Software Development Kit released by Apple for iTunes Windows.

The development kit allows for tighter integration between 3rd party Windows applications and iTunes. Mac OS X applications have always been able to play protected iTunes AACs through Quicktime.

Windows developers are just getting this capability, opening the possibility for playing AAC files through applications such as WinAMP or Windows Media Player.

[entropy1980]

OOO a shiny 10 bucks to the person who can get me to be able to play my iTunes AAC's through WinAmp!! I sure do miss WinAmp!

[PlaceofDis]

hopefully this will further the use of AAC as a format instead of WMA

[the_mole1314]

If this can get bundled into a new version of WinAMP, I think AAC will kill WMA.

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by entropy1980

OOO a shiny 10 bucks to the person who can get me to be able to play my iTunes AAC's through WinAmp!! I sure do miss WinAmp!

Really? I never understood why people like winamp so much...

-Nathaniel

[HenMaster6000]

Do you have to have iTunes installed to use these features?

[soosy]

Wow. this seems HUGE. Makes iTMS AAC a much less "closed" format.

[Frisco]

This is good news!

I am actually surprised Apple is doing this, because they have been so stubborn in the past with their technologies. Maybe Apple has learned a lesson?

Next I would like to see them license FairPlay.

[jared_kipe]

This can only be a good thing for the use of iTunes in windows platform. Maybe one day they could have the same integration we have with our iPhoto and the like.

[crees!]

Originally Posted by HenMaster6000

Do you have to have iTunes installed to use these features?

It said you need iTunes 4.5 or higher.

[crees!]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Really? I never understood why people like winamp so much...

-Nathaniel

Well when I was on a PC Winamp was it... I wasn't going to touch WIMP and none of my friends did either..

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by soosy

Wow. this seems HUGE. Makes iTMS AAC a much less "closed" format.

Not really. Apple really needs to allow other music stores to use the ACC format, and get the ipod and the iTunes to be able to play WMA files. They should push their standard on it merits, rather than forcing everyone to use it.

[Tulse]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

They should push their standard on it merits, rather than forcing everyone to use it.

I bet Apple shareholders think that they should do whatever is in the best interests of the company.

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by Tulse

I bet Apple shareholders think that they should do whatever is in the best interests of the company.

Are you an Apple Shareholder?

It was one thing back in the late 90s when all of us were rooting for Apple not to bite the dust, for us all to support what ever was in the best interests of the company.

But now that Apple is doing well, the allegiance I see to apple as a company, rather than just there products, is kind of disturbing.

I want apple to do what ever is best for me, as a consumer. So, I want them to open up the iPod, and iTunes. I don't care what Apple's shareholders think

[johnnyjibbs]

Good news. Apple has therefore made a choice. AAC or iTunes. They have chosen AAC, which should help to stop the spread of WMA. With iTunes 4.5 for Windows giving the opportunity to convert WMA to AAC, I think Apple has made it quite clear what their policy on supporting WMA is concerning iPod/iTunes. Apple and RealOne (to a lesser extent) are the only people who aren't kissing Microsoft's ass in the WMA arena, so this is a good thing.

[SiliconAddict]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Really? I never understood why people like winamp so much...

-Nathaniel

Because typically WinAmp has a really small memory footprint compared to many other music players.

[spankalee]

I'm a little bit confused by this since I thought that 3rd party Windows apps could already play protected AAC files through QuickTime. Isn't this how RealPlayer could play iTMS songs? Maybe that was just on the Mac.

I sounds like this SDK just brings to the Windows world the capabilities you get from iTunes + AppleScript.

What I would really love to see is iTunes broken down into a framework where a developer can come along and write a completely new client that still has access to the library, playlists, and the store. I would love an interface optimized for TV and remote control, or an iMedia app that handles songs, photos, movies, or an interface for a custom in-dash Mac.

[JGowan]

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

Because typically WinAmp has a really small memory footprint compared to many other music players.

32MB of memory? Yeah... that's a lot bigger than WinAmp, but in this day-and-age of ridiculous memory of 1GB or more, you pointing out the 32MB usage seems a bit trite.

It falls into the "who cares" category.

[Tulse]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

I want apple to do what ever is best for me, as a consumer. So, I want them to open up the iPod, and iTunes. I don't care what Apple's shareholders think

That's fine, but Apple is legally bound to listen to its shareholders. There are plenty of actions that would be good for consumers, but lousy for the companies involved. Heck, if Ford only charged $100 for Mustangs, that would be good for consumers, but wouldn't be very sustainable.

I'm not trying to cheerlead here -- far from it. Apple isn't a warm, fuzzy charity, it is a business out to make a profit. That being the case, sometimes its best interests won't be in the best interests of its customers. That's unfortunate, but that's also capitalism.

[Snowy_River]

Originally Posted by HenMaster6000

Do you have to have iTunes installed to use these features?

I would think that this is a no-brainer. After all, you need to have bought a pAAC song from iTMS, and you have to have it on an authorized computer. So, it seems to me, it should be completely necessary to have iTunes installed.

[aftk2]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Really? I never understood why people like winamp so much...

-Nathaniel

I think it comes down to habit. I have PC-using friends who, prior to iTunes for Windows, would scoff at me using iTunes and its built-in mp3 database (and playlists, etc...). They would, by contrast, use Winamp to play mp3s, and the Windows filesystem to organize them. So when they were ready to listen to music, they would navigate to the music in the filesystem, and right click on it, and select "Add to Winamp" (or some such thing.)

Ugh. To each his or her own, I guess. Their jaws do drop when I type an artist, album or song title in the "search" field and instantly navigate to that entry, however...maybe we'll get some converts yet.

[Snowy_River]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Not really. Apple really needs to allow other music stores to use the ACC format, and get the ipod and the iTunes to be able to play WMA files. They should push their standard on it merits, rather than forcing everyone to use it.

As they have now implemented a WMA to AAC converter, that seems a non-issue. Further, Apple has nothing to do with preventing other music stores from using AAC or FairPlay DRM. While the implementation of FairPlay may be proprietary, other music stores are free to license the technology and create their own implementation (which iTunes would then be unable to play, unless Apple paid for rights to access them).

[Memnoch]

I use WinAMP 5 for PC (Full Version) to play my *.m4a files right now. I know that only iTunes can play *.m4p files, but thats cool. So I don't understand all the interest. I use iTunes to rip my music to AAC, and I play those same files with WinAMP.

[hvfsl]

Originally Posted by entropy1980

OOO a shiny 10 bucks to the person who can get me to be able to play my iTunes AAC's through WinAmp!! I sure do miss WinAmp!

Just install 3ivx from http://www.3ivx.com/download/ . Once you have installed it, you can play (non copy-protected) AAC files in other Windows apps. I used to use it to play AAC files on my PC before iTunes for Windows came along.

[bathysphere]

Originally Posted by nsb3000

Not really. Apple really needs to allow other music stores to use the ACC format, and get the ipod and the iTunes to be able to play WMA files. They should push their standard on it merits, rather than forcing everyone to use it.

i think apple considers the success of the itunes music store the merit by which they push their standard. it makes sense, though it's rather limiting. i don't feel that they should offer wma, but i do think that they should license out their drm, it's foolish not too. and jgowan, 32mb of memory is a big deal. not the biggest by any means, but still notable, if you have less than a gig of ram in your machine (which most people don't have, i expect).