Real Hacks iPOD, Apple Irked

Published on July 30th, 2004

‘Stunned’ Apple rails against Real’s iPod move. I thought Apple wanted to sell as many of these things as possible. How does this hurt that goal? It’s doesn’t, which means Apple had some scheme up its sleeve that this product ruined. Apple says it will screw over the users with an upgrade that disables this software from working. Shades of Microsoft? “DOS isn’t done until Lotus won’t run.”

In a terse statement, a “stunned” Apple accused RealNetworks of adopting the “tactics and ethics of a hacker” with the release of its Harmony software. Harmony allows songs sold via RealNetworks’ online store to be played on a variety of portable devices, including Apple’s iPod and Microsoft-compatible rivals.

22 users responded in " Real Hacks iPOD, Apple Irked "

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# 1 LowLife said, on July 30th, 2004 at 6:52 am

First time here! Long time admirerer.

# 2 Cyber Lucky said, on July 30th, 2004 at 10:10 am

I’ve been running Dogster since it was in beta for the Dog Operating System (DOS). A funny thing happened with the new MSXD Media Dog upgrade installed. The upgrade was smooth, but I was downloading You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog, and XD detected a virus. It turned out that there was a Plug and Pee conflict and I just needed to go outside and do some business. I just got a patch and Media Dog Edition is fine again. I tried an Apple iPod but MS iDog has barking downloads. See Dogster. http://www.dogster.com/

Visit Stirling at
http://www.dogster.com/dog_page.php?i=49810&j=t&PHPSESSID=6543c97b21387162df86cc699973a64b

Favorite Food: Smelly cheese – the smellier the better and Breath Buster treats to follow! (we insist!)
Likes: To play 24/7 , car rides especially when he can stick his head out the car window, ,tongue lollin’, chewing his kongs…and when sleeping doing his “superman pose”

Visit my old home away from home at http://www.animalrescue.org
Woof!
Cyber Lucky

# 3 Cyber Lucky said, on July 30th, 2004 at 4:13 pm

I’m still trying to sort out Apple. I know about how their equipment works and I know Microsoft invested $150 Million in Apple and reportedly the company also paid Apple Computer an undisclosed sum, thought to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars range, to settle possible patent infringements and get a cross-licensing deal. That’s some serious rawhide!

Apple seems like the kind of company that should of died a long time ago. It seems like the zombie OS that Microsoft can’t kill, so it just feeds it and keeps it under control like Windows with fleas. Maybe it will die and the Linux developers can just convert the thing into something that grows and has some future. Apple is trying to be like the digital MoTown. You’re a computer company, not an entertainment company.

See the Yellow Dog on this!

Yellow Dog Linux is a complete, Red Hat and RPM-based operating system for PowerPC computers. Yellow Dog Linux version 3.0 is Terra Soft’s most recent release which offers a completely rebuilt Installer, 1300 packages on 6 CDs (3 Install, 3 Source), a unified KDE and GNOME desktop environment featuring shared menus, applications, and user interface.

With enhanced support for the latest ATI and NVidia graphics cards (full 3D support for the ATI Radeon series), “video issues” are a thing of the past.

Based upon the ‘Anaconda’ installer engine, the Yellow Dog Linux Installer leverages automated, advanced hardware detection; provides on-screen help, flexible package selection, multiple install methods (CD-ROM, FTP, HTTP, NFS), creation of ext3 partitions, embedded XFree86 (video) testing, multiple ethernet and wireless port configuration, and automated partition creation.
http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/products/ydl.shtml

# 4 James Dermitt said, on July 31st, 2004 at 11:28 am

MUSIC FOR NOTHING AND CHICKS FOR FREE

THAT AIN’T WORKIN’
As the media format war rages between Real, Apple and all of the others out there just trying to enjoy music without static, I’ve come up with an idea. Say some geek develops an open source or Linux iPod or walkman or whatever you want to call it. The thing sells for half of what the current inflated players are selling for and the music downloads are free. How do you get free music? Turn on the radio genius!

Now the geek that develop this thing is giving away an operating platform, selling 30 million cheap portable players a year, people are downloading a Linux platform for the Apple and HP iPods and they’re giving away music by operating like a radio station and serving ads with Google running Linux serving ads 24/7. Google is running Linux servers, which work well with the portable music things and now your player trades songs for Google Ads. Everyone is happy, right?

Google is getting ad revenues, which get split with the artists who are getting rich doing what they enjoy, the geeks are getting rich selling Linux pod players which they love making and the music listeners are getting free songs without some goofy DJ talking every 10 minutes, which makes more time for listening to music and more space for ads which brings in more revenues for artists. Now all the geeks are DJ’s, they just don’t talk.

THAT’S THE WAY YOU DO IT
The MS-APPLE-HP Media Axis will deliver music content, which raises the question of at what cost. Microsoft wants in, Apple is in and HP is raising the stakes. Game on! The real promise of open source and Linux is in lower cost consumer electronics and better, less expensive content delivery including music and computer programs. Apple is known for high priced hardware, Microsoft offers high priced software and HP is now mixing those two concepts together for a media monopoly PC and HiPod, marketed as a Multimedia solution. That is the new HP, that has a solution for everything. Like the current iPod is a problem, that HP has a solution for. Yea right! The real deal is that Real is playing ball with the Linux geeks, http://forms.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html and that means war. I doubt Real is concerned, because Google proves that Linux is unsinkable and will change computing and allow consumers more power over how the Internet works on the desktop. Once a profit model that works is found, the cost of serving music online will be advertising supported like traditional radio is today. That can’t change, but it will bring change. Making music is still free, selling it is full of middle men and hangers on. The Internet has proven useful for eliminating the middle man, which could mean artist direct CD’s produced as they are ordered just in time and online MP3’s for a song, with the artists making more music and the consumers creating more demand. Hang on, it should be a fight to the finish.
TO BE CONTINUED

# 5 Mike Voice said, on July 31st, 2004 at 12:50 pm

John,

When HP starts selling their iPod, they will also begin pre-loading iTunes/Quicktime onto their new computers. Music and video in Apple’s format will be available to a lot of Windows-users – without a download/install of Quicktime required. I’m sure Apple has hopes/plans for leveraging that.

Also – iTunes sells iPods, but iPods also sell iTunes. Why let anyone else in on the fun?

I saw a good comment, on the “stunned” and “hack” drivel, at a Mac site, which mentioned the picture of the “two Steves” – in the early days – holding one of the “blue boxes” they used to build & sell, for making free phonecalls. And, wondering if that wasn’t once considered “hacking”

As a co-worker of mine used to say “Pot, Kettle, Black!”

Mike

# 6 "-" said, on July 31st, 2004 at 12:54 pm

One hair off current topic – When Microsoft talks about new search on local hard disk technology, does anyone remember that they started to offer this a few years ago, and everyone (you know, every single one) was alarmed about how MS was already peeping everywhere and communicating back to itself whatever it wanted. And does anyone remember how radically intrusive it was when we noticed that they (MS) were keeping records on our own disks?

Unfortunately, I can’t remember the details, but I notice this in the current discussions: if Google is doing it, MS will do it, and that’s okay.

I hope that community interest pressures MS away from search altogether. They’ve shown that they are technologically backwards and economically salient – in the bad sense.

sabadash

known as “-”

# 7 James Dermitt said, on July 31st, 2004 at 1:14 pm

SON OF NAPSTER

What made online music popular was the idea, that like radio the net would be full of free music 24/7. Napster and other pioneers got things advancing and then bang, the gavel fell and the courts became involved, lawsuits were brought and the media power elite made an example of the Napster pioneers. So now we are going to do this, in a corporate ethical manner with Hollywood executives and lawyers leading the way. The full-page ads in USA Today, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and other national newspapers started listing support from such artists such as Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette, Christina Aguilera, Blink-182, Sarah McLachlan and Garth Brooks, all with a beef against music downloading in general and Napster in particular. So the whole thing ends up in the courts and instead of impartial justice, we have a full blown media campaign to destroy the reputation of Napster. Ironically the media coverage made Napster more visible with tax dollars going for a windbagged trial and all kinds of artists claiming they would be reduced to driving Chevy Camaros and living, like their music fans, in 3 bedroom ranch houses in suburbia or little urban apartments in some city. Boo hoo hoo! So Napster had to go. Now we have the new corporate Napster, protecting society and artists from free music downloads, while promoting corporate values and Windows Media now an forever in the future. We are safer, but we aren’t safe yet! Music is still out there and it is free. God save the Queen.

# 8 James Dermitt said, on July 31st, 2004 at 1:29 pm

Commercial Use

Now for a word from my sponsorer.
“God Save The Queen” is in the public domain and may be used without having to obtain permission from the Government, unlike the new classics telling the kids they should show up at school and kill all the teachers and their classmates with hunting rifles. That stuff is protected by International copyrights, big Hollywood lawyers and the government of the United States of America. We are safer, but we aren’t safe. At least we have Napster under control now.

# 9 Thomas said, on July 31st, 2004 at 7:34 pm

This should serve as yet another dire warning that the DMCA is a most vile piece of legislation. The proponents of the DMCA swore up a storm that it would not be used to stifle innovation. We knew this day would come. The day has arrived when some sore loser like Apple would use the DMCA to prevent people from making compatible products. Is there any more evidence of the need to repeal the DMCA and fire the politicians that signed it?

# 10 James Dermitt said, on August 1st, 2004 at 6:57 am

And the King threatened the monopoly, so God Save the Queen.

God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter thine enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen.

Hey, just a minute, this is the United States calling are we reaching. We don’t even have a Queen. We have Steve McQueen with the cool, loner heroes who spoke through actions and rarely with words. I live for myself and I answer to nobody.

# 11 James Dermitt said, on August 1st, 2004 at 7:19 am

Crazy Joe (CJ) just wrote me.

CJ claims that he just burned his whole CD collection on some cheap disks he picked up on the cheap at eBay and is handing out free copies at the mall. CJ is also taking up a can collection for a local food bank. Drop off a can of pork and beans and grab a CD. Don’t try eating the CD! He says, “With Willie Nelson helping the farmers and all, I figured I’d help the starving people.” No word if CJ is handing out Willie Nelson CD’s.

# 12 James Dermitt said, on August 1st, 2004 at 10:50 am

HP is going to be putting out an iPod. Maybe next HP will start building a Mac that is running Linux. Maybe if the innovation war follows the music war, HP could develop an iPod telephone that calls Microsoft when your Mac crashes. Hell, by then Microsoft may just be running the entire phone system and your phone line will be connected with your ears by bluetooth and with the optional Napster chip plugged into your brain you can listen music by thinking about it.

This will eliminate the need for radio which in the future is all consolidated into Windows XZZ-Top http://www.zztop.com/ distributed by LinuXP a unit of Dell.

# 13 Mike Voice said, on August 2nd, 2004 at 12:06 pm

I am amused by the statement that music on ad-sponsored radio is “free”.

Other than the Grateful Dead setting-aside room for recorders during their concerts, and encouraging the trading of tapes, I don’t see much “free” music.

Most musicians seem to want to reach the pont where they can “quit their day job” – one of the evils of a capatalistic society – the requirement to have a source of income.

# 14 James Dermitt said, on August 2nd, 2004 at 3:15 pm

I wonder if Green Tea http://www.greenteatech.com/ will work on an iPod.
They say, “GT MP3 Encoder: a distributed MP3 encoding software based on GT platform that encodes audio CDs to MP3 files on several machines in parallel. Video/MPEG encoding feature can be easily added as well.”

All they need are a few hundred thousand users in order for you to have a “super computer” in your own living room. This might make Napster look like a Ford Model T. Here’s a download link
http://www.download.com/GreenTea-P2P-Distributed-Network-Computing-Platform/3000-2411-10123084.html

This P2P stuff is neat!

# 15 Mike Voice said, on August 3rd, 2004 at 9:30 am

Green Tea?

Why would lots of people (”a few hundred thousand”) be using a “super computer” to rip/encode CDs and video?

I thought only a few people needed to rip/encode – then everyone else is just sharing the results. Hence, the idea of the many, that the music is “free”.

Everyone would be distributing the originals to be ripped/encoded, and then collecting the results – for re-distribution? Doesn’t sound very efficient.

Besides, is there anything in existence that hasn’t already been ripped?

# 16 Mike Voice said, on August 3rd, 2004 at 9:40 am

Real’s is not the first, or last, try at breaking/bypassing Apple’s Fairplay DRM.

First was “PlayFair”, associated with DVD Jon of DeCSS fame. It is software which removed the DRM from iTunes songs. Hounded by Apple – even when hosted in India! – the software is now “HYMN” – Hear Your Music aNywhere at:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/hymn/?branch_id=49161&release_id=168607

A recent attempt to bring iTunes to Linux (via Windows emulation?) is from CodeWeavers. Mac-based story at:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=578

# 17 Mike Voice said, on August 3rd, 2004 at 9:55 am

YellowDog

Is it really a selling point to the non-Geek, that it has:

1. a completely rebuilt installer with 1300 packages on 6 CDs.

2. a unified KDE and GNOME desktop environment featuring shared menus, applications, and user interface.

3. multiple install methods (CD-ROM, FTP, HTTP, NFS), creation of ext3 partitions,

Is this going to attract non-hobbyist users, or intimidate the heck out of them.

I vote for: intimidate the heck out of them, since they have no idea what any of that means.

# 18 James Dermitt said, on August 3rd, 2004 at 11:34 am

Super computers will become a commodity. Software won’t require a factory or a large company like Microsoft burning and boxing CD’s or DVD’s. Music CD sales will also die. Proprietary document formats that carry viruses will be gone. Open standards will ensure that no one document format will create costly upgrade cycles.

# 19 john fleming said, on August 4th, 2004 at 11:43 am

your numbers don’t add up……. over 2 billion $$$ for ring tones? huh

# 20 JOhn C. Dvorak said, on August 4th, 2004 at 2:02 pm

The folks at Samsung tell me the number is actually $4 billion!!! Hey, I can hardly believe it myself. I was shocked when someone told me one billion.

# 21 Jim Dermitt said, on June 3rd, 2005 at 2:41 am

TO BE CONTINUED….
Apple offers $50 credit for iPod battery problems.
AP reports that, “Consumers will be notified of the tentative settlement in three ways: by e-mail, by letters, and through advertisements in USA Today and Parade Magazine in the next month.” I saw the credit called a coupon and on TV news it was a voucher.

For 400 bucks, you would think they would give you a decent battery. They could just send you a battery, but this looks like it is being spun into a new ad campaign for Apple. I bought a $250 PDA which runs on standard AAA’s batteries. The thing just drains the batteries and although it still works it is useless. You can trade it in and get a $50 credit towards accessories when you buy a new PDA. This might be how the Apple deal works. Instead of sending consumers new batteries, Apple gets off with a $50 credit and benefits by selling more stuff since you were “going to upgrade” sooner or later. Right! That’s why it is running bad battery ads in USA Today. Look for rave reviews from the press on how Apple is cutting edge and the ipod is better than ever. The AP story that ran even had a hot link to Apple, which should be good for free web traffic compliments of AP. Thanks! No link to the Apple consumer claims site, if Apple even has a claims site. Reuters reports tha “iPod owners who show proof of purchase receive a one-year extension of their warranty. Consumers who experienced battery failure can make a claim for a new iPod, have their current player fixed or receive a $50 credit for Apple products”. I’ll bet Apple will not be fixing too many units. They aren’t worth fixing. It is cheaper to ship another unit out of a warehouse.

The best thing would be to have consumers send in to Apple the defective batteries in exchange for the new battery. This would be environmentally responsible. Apple would then have to deal with recycling the old batteries, which I’m sure they don’t want anything to do with. If you lost your receipt, the battery is proof you own it. I would send my bad battery back to Apple and demand a new battery or just buy a battery for 30 bucks and forget about it.

Macsales.com has a battery upgrade for $29.95
The site says, “Is your 1st or 2nd Generation
iPod battery wearing out?
Newer Technology has the replacement battery you need! And, as a bonus, our replacement battery for your iPod adds a whopping 46% extra run time! The original Apple battery was rated at 1320mAh, our High Capacity version offers a fantastic 1800mAh!

The Newer Technology replacement battery uses the same Lithium-Polymer battery technology as the original battery that Apple used. A detailed instruction manual, and installation tool is included.”
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BIPOD1800M12/

# 22 ChrisMac said, on October 4th, 2006 at 6:47 pm

wow.. the good ol days

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