HUGE news!! This, from another elist....some info. not posted yet.

[Fred A. Miller]

Fred A. Miller wrote:
<snipped>
 > It can be incorporated into Apple's iPad,
> iPhone and the iPods that support video. This is huge news.

and this a few weeks ago:
http://newteevee.com/2010/04/30/apple-may-be-gunning-for-open-source-codecs/ 


"The latest indication that Apple is trying to strong-arm publishers to 
adopt HTML5 and H.264 came today, as Steve Jobs reportedly claimed by 
email that a patent pool was being assembled to “go after” Ogg Theora 
and other open source codecs. That news comes just a few weeks before 
Google is expected to release its VP8 codec as open source, and could 
come as a big blow to the search giant’s plans to offer an alternative 
to H.264."


I do like Monty's response:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit 



Update: 05/01 00:38 GMT
Monty Montgomery of Xiph (the group behind Theora, as well as Ogg 
Vorbis, and more) provides a pointed, skeptical response to the implicit 
legal threat, below.

Monty writes: "Thomson Multimedia made their first veiled patent threats 
against Vorbis almost ten years ago. MPEG-LA has been rumbling for the 
past few years. Maybe this time it will actually come to something, but 
it hasn't yet. I'll get worried when the lawyers advise me to; i.e., not 
yet.

The MPEG-LA has insinuated for some time that it is impossible to build 
any video codec without infringing on at least some of their patents. 
That is, they assert they have a monopoly on all digital video 
compression technology, period, and it is illegal to even attempt to 
compete with them. Of course, they've been careful not to say quite 
exactly that.

If Jobs's email is genuine, this is a powerful public gaffe ('All video 
codecs are covered by patents.') He'd be confirming MPEG's assertion in 
plain language anyone can understand. It would only strengthen the 
pushback against software patents and add to Apple's increasing PR mess. 
Macbooks and iPads may be pretty sweet, but creative individuals don't 
really like to give their business to jackbooted thugs."


and 'no' I'm not an Apple fan and don't support them...