p2pnet.net News:- The new HP iPod is dressed up in night-time urban camouflage – abstract blue shapes and swirls on black – or the other way around, maybe.

Actually, it’s HP-blue because, “the clean white look was important to iPod customers,” says HP executive vp Vyomesh Joshi, quoted in an Associated Press story here.

But is the (h)iPod anything more than just an iPod in new clothing?

Apparently not.

In January, when news of the HP/Apple deal broke, one of the immediate questions was – ‘Would the HP version support the Windows Media Audio?’

The answer was: It’ll use Apple’s proprietary (and seriously misnomered) FairPlay DRM, based on AAC – Advanced Audio Coding.

Same old same old, then. In other words, Apple is doing a Big Four: It’s letting someone else sell standard product dressed up to look new and different.

Members of the Big Four record label cartel having been doing that since Day One. They operate in a happy little world where the same corporate music sites attempt to sell Big Four ‘product’ to the same small group of buyers at more or less the same prices, the exception being RealNetworks which is temporarily letting its tracks go as half-price loss-leaders.

But the HP/Apple pair-up is still intereresting.

“Despite being two of the companies that most clearly define Silicon Valley, Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., not far down the highway from Hewlett’s headquarters in Palo Alto, has never been particularly close to Hewlett,” says a New York Times story here, going on:

“The love-hate relationship between the two companies is part of the valley’s lore. As a teenager, Mr. Jobs brazenly called William Hewlett, Hewlett-Packard’s co-founder, to ask for parts for an electronics project. Later Mr. Jobs’ co-founder, Stephen Wozniak, then a Hewlett employee, asked his bosses if they wanted to market a personal computer before starting Apple with Mr. Jobs in 1976.”

“But with those days long gone, the new alliance underscores the feverish deal making going on as computer makers, consumer electronics companies, and content providers all jostle for position in the uncharted territory converging around digital entertainment.”

The hPod, will go for $299 for the 20-gig player and $399 for the 40-gig model – just like Apple’s iPod. It’ll kick off with an ad campaign slated for tomorrow’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Griffin Technology is marketing a $35 plug-in FM radio called iTrip that draws its power from the iPod.

(h)iPod + FM = ?

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 28th, 2004 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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