Want to take your music with you, but can’t swing the bucks for an iPod? Apple and Motorola announced this week a partnership to enable millions of music lovers to transfer their favorite songs from their iTunes jukebox on their PC or Mac, including songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store, to Motorola’s next-generation “always with you” mobile handsets, via a USB or Bluetooth wireless connection.

Apple will create a new iTunes mobile music player, which Motorola will make the standard music application on all their mass-market music phones, expected to be available in the first half of next year.

The details of the arrangement are not yet finalized. Some analysts see mobile operators resisting the program unless revenue streams are offered to them. Another question yet unanswered is the memory capability of the new music phones, which of course translates into just how many songs a phone can carry.

In other iPod-related news, this fall the 1,650 incoming freshmen at Duke University will receive an iPod loaded with class schedules and course information, as well as the ability to download and play music and receive other information through a special version of iTunes. The school characterized the effort as a pilot program between Duke and Apple that will be evaluated at the end of the year. Regardless, the students get to keep their iPods. Cool.

There’s a major brew-hah-hah brewing between Apple and RealNetworks, the company that makes the RealOne media player and runs an online music store similar (but inferior) to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Seems that after months of petitioning Apple to let music purchased from RealNetworks’ Rhapsody music store be loaded onto the iPod, RealNetworks has “reverse-engineered” their music files to work on the iPod, without permission from Apple. RealNetworks calls the translation system “Harmony”, and is touting it as a victory for users who deserve choice and compatibility. Lawyers from both sides are researching the copyright and patent implications.

Personally, I wouldn’t run off and start buying music from Rhapsody just yet. A simple software update from Apple could render the Harmony files unplayable. Best to wait and see what the lawyers come up with.

Finally, Time magazine has named the 4th-generation iPod its “Gadget of the Week”, and is reporting that the new iPod contains secret, as-yet-untapped capabilities. It dices, it slices, it makes thousands of julienne fries!

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski