WMA and DRM Silence

[dowzer]

I discovered a few weeks ago that I cannot purchase music from Walmart, Napters, etc., and then upload it to a storage card on my Pocket PC.

I find it curious that Microsoft's quiet response has been that the Pocket PC is simply not "Music Service Friendly". I guess they are expecting you to toss your Pocket PC and then buy another product that is music service friendly.

That conclusion just doesn't sit well with me. The Pocket PC is perfectly capable of playing the music. I legally purchased the music. I can't play the music on the Pocket PC because it would reside on a portable storage device? I would think burning a CD of the music would be even more portable and there is no problem doing that.

I also find it odd that there hasn't been much discussion on the topic in the community. How many people out there are also frustrated? What is the industry doing about it? I think it would result in a loss of revenue for the music services and they would put pressue on Microsoft to fix it. Is Microsoft coming up with a better solution?

Does anyone out there have more info?

[OSUKid7]

Oh, this has been discussed. Even made the front page (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31725) after my post (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31699) reminded Janek Parekh and Jason Dunn of this problem. More recently, we've seen that WMP10 Mobile (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33394) fixes this DRM problem.
It supports the full Janus DRM, which means you can download your Napster-bought or Napster-subscription songs and it will work...even on a memory card. :DAnd unfortunately, as Jason and the article in that post point out, WMP10 Mobile is only available from OEMs that make it available for their products. Right now, only the new Dell Axim X50s have WMP10. However, HP should make it available via a ROM upgrade for all of it's current/new models.

[famousdavis]

Dell has a ROM update for the X30s, too, which adds WMP 10 to the updated X30s.

[Jimmy Dodd]

This is why I don't buy music online. I have a few downloads (from iTunes, from Circuit City, and from Walmart) but each was a promotional freebie. Alas, none of these can be played on my iPAQ from the sd card. Until MS resolves this issue, I won't be buying any in the future, either.

[OSUKid7]

Until MS resolves this issue, I won't be buying any in the future, either.Microsoft has resolved it - partially. They've developed WMP10 Mobile, but are only releasing it to OEMs. So in one way it's the OEMs fault for not releasing upgrades for their devices. But in another way, it's still Microsoft's fault for not releasing a RAM upgrade for all devices. That's the part I don't understand. :bad-words: