Apple's ALAC codec is now open source

Just to inform. For a test, I have Stevie Wonder's Innervisions in 96-24flac format that I bought from HDTracks. By the way, an amazing 2000 remastering. Took these pieces of bits and converted it into Apple Lossless. Don't know what are the support limits for ALAC on iDevices, but iTunes play the 96-24 ALAC files flawlessly.
So, Apple Lossless does not stop on 16bit. The only limited lossless format I know of (which by the way captured no interest from public), was the MP3HD, which besides the critical feature of adding the lossless stream on ID3 tags, stops at 48khz/16bit. Even WMA lossless reaches 96/24.

Since we have WAV and AIFF as pairs for working with audio manipulation, I think that FLAC and Apple Lossless play their rolls propperly regarding lossless compression. Both are fast on encoding and have fast decoding. And are good for archival purposes. We never know, but if is there any demand Apple can also implement FLAC support on iTunes as well. I don't doubt it, considering the fact that FLAC is very popular amongst audiophiles and is a great format on file sharing. And also HDTracks catalog is growing. The so called "*******" major labels are putting their highly praised artists and their sacred albums on HDtracks for sale in high definition, as I've mentioned on my above example. Time changes everything. Long live lossless music!

"While FLAC fulfills many of the same functions as Apple's in-house lossless codec, it has no support on iOS devices,"

Exactly - if we all avoid ALAC maybe it will go away and iOS devices will have to play FLAC files.

"If more people begin adopting ALAC instead of FLAC, it'll make life a lot easier for audiophiles."

If Apple spent 1 minute implementing support for FLAC it would make life easy for audiophiles!

#justsaying

:)

On reading the headline, I was all ready to see this as Apple contributing an open standard that could benefit even non-Apple users. THAT would have been news! No such luck, though. They are just releasing an in-house version of something that already exists so people who are locked into iTunes can have something the rest of the world has had for some time: a lossless audio codec. Non-Apple users should see this as the non-event that it is.

Well done, Apple - you are being a good citizen.

Now where is that open FaceTime standard specification that Steve promised when FaceTime was launched?

www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177819/Jobs_has_lofty_goal_for_iPhone_4_s_FaceTime_video_chat_with_open_standard

This news is nice by all regards.

I do challenge any so-called audiophile to a blind test. Prize is $20 if you can correctly detect 8/10 samples of your favorite lossless format versus any "lossy" format of my choice in a BLIND test.

It's all in your head, guys.

If I understand the codecs correctly, one issue of flac vs apple lossless is that flac can provide 24 bit encoding where apple lossless stops at 16. Some people will care, some will not, and some will never know the difference. But, as more artists are beginning to release "high def audio" versions of their work, this could be an issue down the road. Personally, I'd like to be able to get the highest quality versions of my favorite artists and downloading 24 bit masters to play on my iPhone would be awesome. I understand that an iDevice is nt considered audiophile quality, but it's what I carry around all the time and I'd like to have the highest quality I can get. I do wish apple at least supported flac just for this reason.

As an audio junkie and an OSX/iPod user, ALAC has been my only choices when I have to rip CD or Vinyl for the past few years.

However, remember that FLAC is currently supported all Android devices （I guess that ALAC would be soon supported as well) and that it takes very few second and no loss of quality to convert FLAC to ALAC and vice versa.

An open-source reference implementation does not necessarily mean royalty-free. Until Apple discloses ALAC-related patents and waives its right to exercise those patents (like Google did with WebM and WebP), ALAC is can't be officially supported by 'free-as-in-freedom' free software.

Does this mean we'll see ALAC on the iTunes store soon? After all this could make ALAC as ubiquitous as m4a...