Will iTunes truly support interoperability?

"songs are in the AAC file format, not MP3. While this arguably standard/non-standard file type is considered by some to be proprietary to Apple and/or the iTunes Store, this is entirely not the case"

Indeed, it's not the case at all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Standardization

#24: "Sorry, but we have some loose rules as to how long a 'front page' post can be before we have to cut it off and place the rest in a 'continued' section... You click once off the main page, as you had to with this post..."

Um... Sorry David, but this is exactly what #1 was asking for and it isn't there. He was saying that there should be a 'continued' link on the front page, but there's not. Yep, just checked it again. This post, in it's entirety, is sitting on the front page. No offense, but you seriously need to double-check what you write more often, especially when attempting to correct your audience.

#30: You're likely running a piece of Palm synching software, like Missing Sync or PocketMac, that is enabling your Palm to appear in iTunes' sources list. It doesn't do that by default, and those two packages (and I believe others) offer this as an option.

iTunes will still support many Mass Storage style players. I hooked up my Palm Zire 72 the other day to drag a podcast onto it, figuring I'd have to dig through my iTunes library, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it pop right up in the iTunes Sources list. I just dragged the podcast over, and it dumped in the right folder on the memory card in my Palm, simple as that. So this is really a non-issue for most cheap, lower-end "Drag n' Drop" based players. For higher-end devices like the Zens and the Zunes with their own specialized protocols that scream for their own programs, it's the manufacturer's fault that they are incompatible with iTunes, not Apple's.

Um, to address the inter-operability,
itunes has the ability to convert non-drm into a format of your choice.
Problem solved?

"these much, much higher quality downloads (higher than any digital store I know of)"

Another nice digital store with much higher quality is AllOfMP3, wich has CD-quality sound for many songs.

Apple doesn't support Dell hardware for it's operating system. Aside from iTunes Apple doesn't Support or Create Software for Other operating systems. Why should Apple all the sudden start supporting every tom dick and harry of the DAP universe? You want these High Quality Files? Fine, buy 'em. You want them on your Creative Zen Whos-a-whatsis 5GB? Figure it out yourself. Apple's too busy making Good Products. They don't need to start helping all the riffraff DAPs and MP3 Players out there. Besides, wouldn't that be a conflict of interest?

itunes did have support for very few other mp3 players. i cant find the apple support page, but did find this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Synchronizing_iPod_and_other_players

"Considering that the iTunes Store is far and away the market leader, there's no reason for them to try to attract non-iPod users. If they want to use a DRM-free iTunes purchase, they can drag it from any playlist to the desktop."

Actually, they can drag it from the playlist directly to the player icon. Getting a single unprotected song from iTunes into your MP3 player is (and always has been) easier with a non-iPod. It's *managing* the songs on the iPod that is easier with iTunes -- as it should be! Let the other MP3 players write their own song managers. Why should Apple do their homework for them? There is nothing stopping them. (And there never was for the majority of people's music collections -- and soon, there won't be anything stopping them for iTMS either.)

After this all plays out, the ugly truth about these other MP3 manufacturers will come out. As a group -- they are very lazy about desktop software for their players (it tends to do only the bare minimum, and that means no attempts to self-sync with iTunes), and when they aren't lazy, they're incompetent (this stuff is largely buggy and unreliable). There is WAY more they could have done in the past, but they didn't. And in the future: most of them probably won't, either.

Apple should neither be faulted for this, nor asked to fill in the gap. Leave the gap there as an embarrassment to the competition and a spur for them to the much better job we all know can be done.

#1: Sorry, but we have some loose rules as to how long a 'front page' post can be before we have to cut it off and place the rest in a 'continued' section. Fortunately, no matter how long a post is, we never have a '3rd click.' You click once off the main page, as you had to with this post, and you get the rest of the post in its entirety whether it's 500 words or 5000.