Plays For Sure: Microsoft's big announcement tomorrow
We already knew that Microsoft was planning to roll out the 2005 version of their Windows XP Media Center operating system tomorrow, but the bigger deal is that they're also announcing what's known as Plays For Sure. Basically what Plays For Sure does is certify that music and video files downloaded from MSN Music and other online services are compatible with any player bearing the Plays For Sure logo. Yes, it's really just a clever name for the DRM they're using with Windows Media, but this is more or less their attempt to counter the dominance of Apple's iTunes Music Store by helping to ease any confusion about whether or not you'll be able to buy music online and listen to it on your digital audio player, which is all the average person cares about (believe it or not, they could care less about all of our ideological warfare). Now we're just counting down the minutes until the first time someone reports that a Plays For Sure track fails to play for sure on a Plays For Sure digital audio player.
