I've had iTunes for a while, and I've encoded hundreds upon hundreds of files with it. A new codec in iTunes is always a huge deal for me. When Apple Lossless was first introduced, I had to try it out. I encoded my file and looked at its size and everything, just to see what kind of compression ratio it had. I was suprised to find that my file had a *.m4a extension. That made me wonder...

Is Apple Lossless a new codec inside an M4A container?
or
Is Apple Lossless just AAC audio at VBR 100, like WMA?

My termology isn't great so if you could answer my query AND correct my usage, that would be great!

Yes, it's a new codec inside an mp4 container.

Edit: also, if you use the search you'll see Apple Lossless has been discused here before.

Apple Lossless is Fabulous. Any of you in the audio format industry know if this format will soon be used in home/car audio units without an ipod?

Doesn't seem likely given how proprietary it is.

For hardware lossless support FLAC is still the way to go.