Apple Exercise iPod Tempo Patents

[bankshot]

I don't like to take over threads with my pet peeve issue, but since you brought it up...

"Have albums with tracks that blend together with no break in sound?
Tired of that little jolt of silence in between songs?
Tell Apple you want true gapless playback in iTunes and iPod!"

bankshot: that's not the ipod's problem. that's how mp3s are. if you take an acid or soundtrack loop, (aiff or wav) and convert it to mp3, it would create a little gap at the beginning and end. it's part of the format. it isn't perfect.

Yes, there is an inherent gap at the end of the last frame. No, it is NOT a difficult problem to solve. I can think of 3 easy solutions:

• Look for and skip over silence at the end of the last frame.
• Rip the whole album as one file with chapter markers and treat "chapters/songs" just the same as individual songs/files are treated now, with separate metadata, the ability to put different songs in different playlists, etc.
• Add the precise end time of the song as another tag and honor that at playback, which some other players already do.

Furthermore, iPod and iTunes add a much larger gap between songs than can be attributed to that last frame of the file. This is due to poor software design that doesn't use proper buffering. It can be fixed easily, Apple just chooses to ignore it. So much for Mr. Jobs the so-called perfectionist.

Finally: http://www.pretentiousname.com/mp3players/

That's all I have to say. Back to your regularly scheduled Nike/iPod discussion!