Way back in October 2004 or so, there was a rumour that Apple would be releasing back then built-in support in Quicktime and iTunes for encoding and playback of files in the newer AACPlus (HE-AAC) format. Also there were rumours of iPod models being able to play back AACPlus encoded files properly (with full playback of the SBR part of the AACPlus audio file).

Has anyone heard anything since then?

Apple has been active in promoting OS X "Tiger" and mentioning Quicktime 7 and H.264 video support, but they have been almost silent about AACPlus audio file support.

Any updates or links about AACPlus in Apple's products would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. The reason I am asking is that I offer file downloads from my site and would like to offer 64k AACPlus .M4A files for download to make it easier for people to download (size, bandwidth and time wise). 64K AACPlus files are in my opinion suitable quality for the average iPod listener who downloads music files from my site.

It sure would be nice to fit double the number of songs on my iPod Shuffle or on an iPod Mini model I plan to get in the near future

I guess you'll have to wait for QuickTime 7 / iTunes 5...

A friend that works at a computer store that sells apple computers has been told it is planned to be released, alongside Tiger, in later march / early april.