Apple & Net MD...still not compatible!!

D

DCD

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What is up with this!! Here in Japan Net MDs are all the rage. I have one and its really cool to use and keep your music nice and organized. Problem is that there is still no support for Net MD on the OSX platform(not that there was any on OS9!!)

What the hell is up with this?? Why am I forced to use a crappy PC runing WindowsXP when it would be so much cooler to use my Mac. Why is Apple being boycotted like this??
 
Yeah, my girlfriend has one. I plugged it in and downloaded xmd, then saw that it only lets you edit track names and cant even copy songs to it, or off it (the minidisc).

So I put her on the pc with the openmg software and showed her how to use it, I gave up and said something along the lines of 'just use my ipod, you drag it and drop it and its done' as opposed to the openmg pc software where you import your mp3s into a custom sony format, wasting extra hdd space, then import the custom sony soundfiles into a playlist, then copy the soundfiles to the md.
Oh and I forgot to mention, it takes a minute or so to convert each song to the custom format, then a minute or two to actually copy it to the netmd.

So with sony netmd - you can probably copy a cd in 20mins!
With an ipod, in about 20 seconds.


She now uses the ipod and is selling the md to some dumb friend who knows no better :D
 
I know the iPod is great, but that still doesn't answer why Net MD are not compatible with Macs!

Plus until Apple makes the iPod a bit smaller and llighter I'm not getting one:D ;)
 
Net MD is a proprietary format owned and trademarked by Sony. It is the responsibility of Sony to maintain the software for this format. One of my concerns with products like this is that when their product life cycle ends and they are no longer profitable for the company, the software will no longer be maintained. This shouldn't happen for a long while, but it will happen.
Apple would not be eager to invest in developing drivers for a niche device such as NetMD, since that would mean paying license fees to Sony, and is competition for the iPod anyway (albeit pretty weak in comparison).
 
Yep point taken, but why doesn't Sony design the software for Macs! It does for PC and it just seems they are assuming their Net MD are not used by people with Macs! Seems pretty stupid to me to ignore a market sector, even if it is on the small side.

Ah well....can't win against the big coorporations!! Bloody dictators!!:D
 
Or maybe they realise that people using Macs already have an MP3 player that will work with their already free MP3 software SEEMLESSLY and EASILY. I mean honestly. Sony make good TV's and stuff. But when a hardware company starts making devices that need custom software and use custom data types, it's a sign they are going the way of Microsoft.
 
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