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Sources comment on new iPod chip, Mac OS X Tiger features

New iPod chip may sport encoding capabilities

According to a seemingly reliable, yet unconfirmed report, the microchip Apple plans to use in its 4th generation iPod will not only allow for hardware decoding of MPEG-4/AAC, but will also boast several ENCODE capabilities. The source of the tip refused to provide further comment on other known details of the chip, but claimed no inside knowledge of how Apple plans on using the ENCODE capability in the new iPod, noting only that it would would be churlish of the company to ignore the feature.

Meanwhile, several readers have noted that details of PortalPlayer's forthcoming chip and firmware combo appear to coincide with a number of rumored 4th generation iPod features published in previous AppleInsider articles.

PortalPlayer Inc., currently supplies the chips and internal software that power Apple's iconic music player, though company officials have never publicly acknowledged their relationship with Apple, for fear of offending the iPod maker or complicating partnership plans.

Among the many similarities between the two sets of reported features are, photo handling and manipulation code, TV output, USB 2.0, Firewire and Ethernet, and support for high-resolution color LCD displays.

Rumored Mac OS X Tiger features

While information surrounding the next major release of Mac OS X remains extremely constrained, one source claims that the rumored update to Apple's Xcode development environment will yield support for C# and .NET frameworks.

Apple Store London

In a somewhat interesting report from last month, the Crown Estate, the holding company for the Queen’s property assets, published a report implying that Apple Computer is currently the only retailer to confirm occupation of a retail space in the 229 – 247 Regent Street location.

The report also notes that the reconstruction of the building is currently ahead of schedule.