Comments on: Lost in Translation: How Do You Say That in Geek?

By: Dan Frommer

Dan Frommer — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:00:11 +0000

“AAC files make up the majority of tracks sold on Apple’s iTunes store and play only on Apple’s iPods”

Exactly what Michael said. Microsoft’s Zunes will happily play AAC tracks. (DRM-protected AAC is a different story.)

By: Michael Alderete

Michael Alderete — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:16:21 +0000

“Files that you rip (copy) from your own CDs are usually converted into MP3s, though iTunes users can automatically rip tracks into that program’s special format, called AAC.”

Although AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) was first popularized by Apple’s iTunes and iPod, it is actually an industry standard audio format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....io_Coding), in use on devices such as the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and is part of the MPEG-4 standard.

By: Kawika Holbrook

Kawika Holbrook — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:31:36 +0000

Thanks for the handy guide, but Wi-Fi doesn’t seem to stand for “wireless fidelity.” From Wikipedia:

“Despite the similarity between the terms “Wi-Fi” and “Hi-Fi”, statements reportedly made by Phil Belanger of the Wi-Fi Alliance contradict the conclusion that “Wi-Fi” stands for “Wireless Fidelity”. According to Mr Belanger, the Interbrand Corporation developed the brand “Wi-Fi” for the Wi-Fi Alliance to use to describe WLAN products that are based on the IEEE 802.11 standards.

In Mr Belanger’s words, “Wi-Fi and the yin yang style logo were invented by Interbrand. We [the founding members of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, now called as the Wi-Fi Alliance] hired Interbrand to come up with the name and logo that we could use for our interoperability seal and marketing efforts. We needed something that was a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence’.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance themselves invoked the term “Wireless Fidelity” with the marketing of a tag line “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity,” but later removed the tag from their marketing.”