Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users 854
Will Fisher writes "New iPods will no longer be able to work with Linux. iTunes now writes some kind of hash (SHA1, md5?) to the iPod database which new iPods check against. If this check fails then the iPod reports that it contains 0 songs. This appears to be protection against 3rd party applications writing out their own databases. We haven't found out how to generate our own valid hashes (but we do know the hash includes the database itself, and possibly the iPod serial number), and are looking for help."
GAIM^WPidgin developers? (Score:3, Informative)
Rockbox (Score:4, Informative)
Not just the new ones I guess (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I've never understood the desire to use an Ipod (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So I guess... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Rockbox (Score:2, Informative)
MediaMonkey Is Much Better (Score:5, Informative)
DMCA? Please. (Score:2, Informative)
If they DMCA'd your site, you'd have even more against them. Especially if you publish the formula/code for the crack/cipher [wikipedia.org], there's not a lot you can do.
Re:Inevitable comment (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry, but if you're going to pun poorly, prepare to be critiqued.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash [wikipedia.org] which disambiguates the various uses.
Re:But but but... (Score:5, Informative)
Usability and simplicity. I've had three other music players, some of them having received very good reviews (cowon products). But I used my wife's iPod, and it is simply a better, more user-friendly experience. I was disappointed to go back to my old player; and will very likely be replacing it with an ipod when it dies.
Itunes is another reason for the casual user. They don't care about formats. Most of them can't tell the difference in quality. They don't need to transfer it to a million different locations. They know they can hear a song they like, and own it, and enjoy it -- relatively cheaply, and without any headache or hassle. I'm not a fan of it for the reasons you mentioned, but the vast majority of the paying public doesn't really care about those issues. Most aren't even aware of them.
Re:only a big deal for ITMS (Score:1, Informative)
Re:But but but... (Score:2, Informative)
Because it became so popular early on, there are lots of accessories for it, which creates its own momentum.
Also, the restrictions are something most people (non-geeks) can live with, sound quality is good enough (hell, I've no problem with the sound quality of the iPod and I'm an audio nerd), and it supports all the music formats most people (non-geeks) use.
And it's easily the best-looking music player around. No herd mentality needed to see that one, either.
Re:My wife was given an Ipod for Christmas.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I hate iTunes (Score:1, Informative)
Re:only a big deal for ITMS (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I hate iTunes (Score:3, Informative)
Now try to uninstall iTunes. EVERY SINGLE ID3 tag you edited with it will be completely wiped out. I was lucky that I had backups of all my music, otherwise I would have had to input tags for about 90Gb worth of music.
I'm good with what CDDB grabs, so no big deal.
Re:Oh boy (Score:4, Informative)
Encrypting of the database shouldn't directly affect rockbox, but they've been encrypting the firmware too, and the hardware will not run unencrypted firmware. It's not only the extremely new iPods that rockbox won't run on. I got a 2nd gen nano for free that I would love to install rockbox on, but the encryption thing appears to be one of the reasons they don't have a version for it yet.
So it's not that the encryption of the database directly prevents rockbox. The encryption of the database prevents users from using Linux with the Apple firmware, and since they've been encrypting the firmware for a while, installing rockbox isn't likely to be an option anytime soon.
Re:My wife was given an Ipod for Christmas.. (Score:3, Informative)
AAC and MP3 are still proprietary, you know. They're standards, yes, but proprietary ones. In contrast, the Xiph formats (e.g. Vorbis, FLAC) are actually not proprietary.
The thing that makes a format proprietary or not is whether anyone is allowed to implement and/or use it without paying royalties, not how popular it is.
Re:My wife was given an Ipod for Christmas.. (Score:3, Informative)
Are you sure that's because iTunes doesn't support the format you used (which I find unlikely unless you ripped to WMA, which as other posters have pointed out was stupid to begin with)? I ask because the other (and more likely, in my opinion) possibility is that your wife has the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" and/or "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" options checked in her iTunes preferences. If you turn those off, it should (theoretically) work without having to make a copy.
The obvious answer... (Score:2, Informative)
Cutting off Linux users is just a side effect of this.
Re:Could Apple be sued over this? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/specs.html [apple.com]
You have to consider that the iPod page on Apple's site is actually for iTunes:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/ [apple.com]
Then the title is actually, "iTunes+iPod".
Then when you click on the iPod classic there is an iTunes tab:
http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/itunes.html [apple.com]
They also describe exactly how iTunes+iPod works:
The moment you connect your iPod to a Mac or PC, iTunes syncs music and video automatically.
Re:I hate iTunes (Score:3, Informative)
Oh please. I have playlists with new music, old '60s music, favorite music by ratings, by genres, by year, by specific playlists, and so on. And the "notes" field is great for tagging songs and albums.
Typical notes field: rock, classic, 60s, folk, female, vocal, soft, background
Use that and the other fields (type, grouping, rating, and so on) and I can create hundreds of meaningful custom "subsets" of music. (Classic Rock Female Vocalists, Classic Rock Background Music, Favorite Female Vocalists, etc.) In fact, I often create a new smart playlist depending on my mood and end up finding stuff I'd forgotten about.
I think the real problem is that you spent no time whatsoever exploring what could be done with it. iTunes has a LOT of power hidden under that hood.
Re:The obvious answer... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So I guess... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I hate iTunes (Score:4, Informative)
Note that the aforementioned tool works only by using Applescript to make iTunes transcode files, then transfers those files to the secondary library's directories -- there's no attempt to transfer data directly between the iTunes Library database files. The secondary iTunes picks up everything just fine from only the file-stored metadata.
The possible exception to this may be album art downloaded from iTunes (as opposed to that originally embedded in tracks and/or manually acquired using something like the AmazonArt widget, web search, etc.). Haven't really experimented in this area much yet...
Re:Have you tried Corned Beef? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Danger, Will Robinson! DMCA Alert (Score:3, Informative)
Apple has added a hash to the iTunes Library database. The music is not encrypted*, so we're not talking about breaking encryption to bypass DRM, and the database is not copyrighted, so we're not talking about breaking encryption to bypass DRM. The DMCA doesn't apply.
* Unless you bought encrypted music from the iTunes Store, but even if you did, we're not talking about breaking that encryption.
Re:But but but... (Score:3, Informative)
Itunes *maybe*. I personally hate it and won't use it, but I can see how it might lock in some users. Usability though? No.
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Informative)
It's been a while since I purchased anything on iTunes, but wouldn't QTFairUse take care of that for you?
Re:Worst product launch in a long time (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, iFixit [ifixit.com] just disassembled a Touch, and found there is no bluetooth hardware [gizmodo.com] at all. It was just a mistake on the part of an Apple product-mock-up guy.
it's not stupidity (Score:3, Informative)
Apple isn't stupid. You can bet that this move was carefully considered and motivated by the bottom line. I agree that they probably aren't concerned that much with locking out Linux users, but you can bet that they are concerned about free tools that access the contest of the device.
Re:So I guess... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Rockbox (Score:4, Informative)
Listen and speak me after: (Score:3, Informative)