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Well, Real Networks is managing to suck many people in with their spinning tales of “We're supporting you against the evil bastards at Apple”. They certainly do weave a wonderous vision that has a lot of support, including the normally more analytical Hiawatha Bray from the Boston Globe. Bray wrote the strident “Apple's music operation hits a sour note” article that, within the first three sentences, accuses Apple of fostering music theft. However, there's a few problems with his, and most of the Pro-Real articles on this, namely, the minor facts they seem to all overlook.

It's well-written article, hard - hitting, no soft-pedaling of the issues. After I read it, I thought, “Damn, maybe I should look into this more.” So I decided to go check out the RealPlayer Music Store, to see what iPod users have been missing out on...and Lo! I couldn't get in. In fact, if you log into Real's site using a Mac user-agent in your browser, you can't see the link to the Real music store at all.

Well that seems odd. I mean, I want to see this great choice I'm missing out on due to The Evil Bastards At Apple“, (TEBAA). Luckily, I'm crafty. So I pop a new browser window, and change my user agent to MSIE 6 on Windows...go into Real's site disguised as a WIndows box, and there it is in all its glory, the RealPlayer Music Store.

A-ha! I say. Now I have the URL. So I enter that URL into my first window, (the window with the Mac OS X user agent), and Lo! We're sorry, this service is currently not available for Mac. I'm confused. I, as a Mac user, and an iPod owner, (one each of the first three generations of iPod) can't use the RealPlayer Music Store, (RPMS). The requirements for the RPMS state that it's only for Wintel users, even though QuickTime is a requirement, since the RPMS uses AAC. The system requirements for RealPlayer 10 with Harmony shows it to be a Wintel - only technology.

But Real is saying iPod users are denied choice due to Apple's unwillingness to open the platform. Well, evidently, over half the iPod market doesn't matter to Real, because what they mean is Windows iPod users. Evidently Mac users don't fit in to Rob Glaser's Harmony.

So I go back to the article, because I obviously didn't read it correctly. There's no way that a writer like Bray could fall for Glaser's pathetic attempts to spin his company as a force for choice. (Anyone with a clue about Real's past can take a fiver to finish laughing hysterically) and leave that critical piece of information out.

But Bray did, (Along with everyone else in Real's camp). In all the polemic about Steve Jobs' religious war, in all the ranting about Jobs' first major mistake since 1997, in all the cheering for Mr. Glaser's attempts to give the poor, downtrodden iPod users a ”choice“, in the accusations that Apple is ”forcing“ people to commit a crime, Bray, and many others, didn't point out that only WINDOWS iPod users get this choice, thereby making Real just as guilty of everything they're accusing TEBAA of. Real is not opening its music stores to Mac users, nor have they ever done so, nor is there any reason to think they ever will.

You would think, considering the iPod's presence in the Mac Market, and Glaser's deep need to get any kind of presence anywhere, that this would be just obvious. Of course, a journalist with Bray's credentials wouldn't deliberately leave out such a critical piece of information, especially one which shows that Real isn't nearly the ”hero of the iPod masses“ they're trying to paint themselves as. Paul Thurroit? Sure, he's about as much a journalist as Oliver Hardy was a contortionist. So I'll assume that Bray just didn't try to use the Harmony beta on a Mac, and assumed, (understandably) that Real wouldn't be so stupid as to pander to the masses while screwing over half the people they claim to be helping. (That's almost ”Land war in China“ stupid).

Bray also mentions Napster as being a part of the legal download market, insinuating that iPod users are being screwed by Apple because they can't hook up Napster to their iPods, but again, doesn't mention that Mac users can't use Napster regardless of which music player they use, because Napster is, like the RPMS, a Windows-only product.

Bitching at Apple about Napster being Mac - only is just silly. There is nothing keeping Napster from writing the software and the drivers so you can use their product with Mac OS X. Oh wait, there is... That other great crusader for the rights of the poor, downtrodden iPod users, namely MS is the reason why you can't use Napster on a Mac.

You see, Napster is based on WMA, and almost none of the WMA DRM is compatible with Mac OS X's version of Windows Media Player. It seems Microsoft doesn't want to allow their Mac customers to have much choice in music either. It seems that like everyone but TEBAA, ”choice“ is defined as ”You have to use Windows“.

In fact, from what I can tell, there is only one major music store that gives users on multiple platforms the access to the full range of its features...the iTMS. Maybe TEBAA aren't so evil after all. At least they're up front about what they support and why, unlike the spinmeisters at Real and the WMA team at MS, who are just bullshitting everyone about this, and not even doing a good job of hiding it. Bray also had a curious statement in the article: ”Songs purchased from iTunes can be played only on a limited number of computers,...“ I'm really curious as to his definition of ”limited“, since the iTMS is accessible from essentially any computer that is running Mac OS X, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.

If we are to go by that definition, then Sony/Napster/Real are even *more* limited, since Mac OS X users can't use any of those services. But hey, when you're spinning like a Maytag, who has time for facts or reality, or all the information. I'm kind of depressed really, I used to enjoy reading Bray's articles. I may not have agreed with them, but he always presented the whole story, good and bad. I'm hoping this is just an aberration. Once again, you have a loud nimrod suckering a bunch of people into buying his story hook line and sinker, and no one seems to be doing any damned analysis. Glaser uses the right buzzwords and BAM, he's a hero. The fact that he's completely full of crap doesn't seem to matter, because he said what the sheep wanted to hear.

I'm just surprised that Real's predatory past has been so roundly ignored here. Then again, what am I saying...the computer press ignore facts for a big headline surprises me? Feh, just another day on the Mac Web. (Note: This is based on a letter I emailed to Bray a few days ago. I was hoping to get some sort of response so that I could include it with this article, but I haven't yet, so I didn't.)

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