They play one tune and dance another
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Apple open sources its lossless audio codec
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Apple has open sourced its lossless audio codec and has released a set of security updates for Quicktime.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) was developed by Apple for its gadgets and now Apple has released it under the Apache licence. ALAC compresses the size of audio files with no loss of quality. So, for example, if the original file is 30MB, this could cut it down to 15MB, but still retain the sound quality.
Packaged with the codec are an example command line utility, called alacconvert, for reading and writing audio data to and from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files, as well as tools for use with files based on the ISO base media file format, such as MP4.
The ALAC codec is supported on the Iphone, Ipad, most Ipods, Mac and Itunes, and the fact that it was developed with them in mind is probably what will make it most appealing to developers for those devices.
Also, earlier this week Apple released an update with bug fixes for its Quicktime video player, version 7.7.1 for Windows, which addressed a dozen issues.
The potential problems fixed include the use of maliciously crafted movie files to access computer data or crash systems, cross-site scripting attacks and arbitrary code execution.
Apple explained that for Mac users the problems have been fixed in the latest Mac OS update, OS X Lion v10.7.2. µ
Tags: Apple
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I'll keep using FLAC, thanks.
For a company that has a VERY LONG history of Not-Invented-Here mental issues and a VERY VERY LONG history of aggressive legal assaults for even the most trivial of issues, I think would be wise to tread very carefully.
Wow! That's EXACTLY the same ratio as a lossless compression codec shipped in OS/2 since 1993! If I recall correctly, it's CT-ADPCM, for CreaTive (Labs) Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation. It's just simple twiddling that takes out implicitly known bits. Never much used as MP3 codecs can easily hit 10:1 compression ratios (with reduced quality that's okay for voice), so CT-ADPCM just never had a niche as cutting in half isn't by much.
Point is, like ALL of Apple, the brand name is the only practical difference from what everyone else has. -- FLAC, Free Lossless Audio Codec, for instance. -- But of course the fanboys aren't at all technical, so think no one can do what Apple does, let alone long before.