Espectr0 writes "Following the recent iTunes update, someone has been able to install the iPod update from Linux! The article explains how to hack the iPod's firmware in order to get it installed which is required to take advantage of new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store."
This is something that can help some linux users out. Though, it would appear if you have to use a windows computer to this in the first place you mine as well update your firmware that way. Perhaps use this method to backup your pre-existing firmware? I've not seen the.exe, can anyone tell me if it has an option to backup your old firmware?
-- :(){:|:&};:
What's The Point?
by
rsmith-mac
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I don't mean to undermine what the author did, but what's the point of being able to do so? I mean, you have to pull the Firmware from a Mac/Wintel machine in the first place, and even when you get it updated, you still can't actually use the iTunes Music Store on Linux to take advantage of any of the new features in the Firmware. It's a cool hack, but a useless one at that.
Re:What's The Point?
by
Nuclear+Elephant
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· Score: 3, Interesting
You probably won't have to have a Windows machine come morning, just a good copy of xMule and an Internet connection. If it's this easy to update firmware from Linux, perhaps this will nudge Apple in the direction of releasing Linux images.
Re:What's The Point?
by
ItMustBeEsoteric
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I can see a use or two for it. You have a firewire card, iPod, and no Windows. You want the latest firmware for whatever reason. Your friend has Windows, but no firewire card. You have him let you borrow his machine, get the firmware output, and then use your machine to put it on the iPod.
I know, a bit of an exotic situation, but I can see it.
Re:What's The Point?
by
sparrow_hawk
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Not so exotic. I had to take the FireWire card out of my box and put it in my sister's so I could install the update before this one, and though XP handled it fine, the hardware swap was a pain in the butt.
This should make it much nicer whenever I get around to updating again.
Re:What's The Point?
by
nathanh
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I don't mean to undermine what the author did, but what's the point of being able to do so? I mean, you have to pull the Firmware from a Mac/Wintel machine in the first place, and even when you get it updated, you still can't actually use the iTunes Music Store on Linux to take advantage of any of the new features in the Firmware. It's a cool hack, but a useless one at that.
It's not useless. It's another piece of the puzzle. This guy works out how to upload the firmware. Another guy worked out how to unlock his downloaded songs. Another guy worked out how to download and play the previews from the iTunes Music Store. Another guy worked out how to upload songs to his iPod. You highlight that obtaining the firmware requires Windows or MacOS. So that means getting the firmware purely with Linux is the next piece of the puzzle.
You remind me a little bit of the people who said the same thing about Linux back in the early 90s. "It doesn't have SCSI". "It doesn't have networking". "What's the point, without the feature I need it's useless". Ok, maybe it was useless to them at that time. But Linux isn't useless now. You keep adding a piece at a time until the entire solution is there.
Re:What's The Point?
by
MWelchUK
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Or just write some alternative firmware to make it work well with existing open protocols.
Seriously, people have hacked arround with the Xbox, why not hack the iPod to play the file types (minus DRM) that geeks want (I.E. Ogg...). I know its difficult, It probably doesn't have a standard PC architecture, or mac architecture, but I bet it's got a known processor in it.
Re:What's The Point?
by
OblongPlatypus
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· Score: 3, Informative
Possibly less exotic: VMWare won't recognize my firewire card, but it'll let me download and extract setup.exe just fine. Basically, there are tons of ways to get the firmware that don't involve using a computer that could do the actual update.
I've actually already used this procedure, for the previous update: The exact same method has been described here for ages.
-- -- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
"Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store" and this matter for linux, why? While I admit it's cool to be able to apply the update from Linux for the enhanced playback and for the ability to play Apple Loseless for the audiophiles out there, that doesn't seem like it would matter for those who are, you know, using their iPod with an OS that is unsupported in iTunes.
It works fine using any Linux web browser and PhpTunes
Re:Hacking
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I paid hundreds of my hard earned dollars for this iPod. I will do whatever I damn well please with the software and hardware I rightfully have a right to use as I please@
Originally, maybe. Then Apple realized they could make a hefty profit off the iPod alone, and decided to use iTunes to lure people to the iPod instead. Which has been a lot more successful.
Let's see... Users supporting a platform Mac hasn't bothered to... Could lead to more iPod sales... I'm going to go with yes.
Why bother?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 4, Informative
Steps 1 and 2 from the article are to download and install the windows version of the update first....if you have to download the windows version of the update to get this to work then why bother?
Is the "Linux way" now to take more steps then you need to just to prove you can do something?
Woo, awesome! Now we can use Linux to load a firmware update that lets us take advantage of new features for iTunes! All that's missing is the ability to run iTunes on Linux!
Bunch of rocket scientists, these guys.
Re:Awesome!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 5, Funny
Bunch of rocket scientists, these guys.
Who peed in your kernel today?
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
Have+Blue
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· Score: 2, Informative
There's a way to access the iTunes store from Windows right here.
Or does it seem really dodgy just to hack the firmware for the OS... shouldn't Apple be doing this? It should be easy for them to do as there stuff is already BSD based anyway (isn't it?)
Re:Is it just me
by
falcon5768
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· Score: 4, Insightful
And I will use the standard Windows user line given to mac users, why? there are more PC users than mac users so PC support was a eventual outcome, and it's Apple so mac support is a must, but why does Apple have to support Linux, especially when they might want to persuade linux users to Apple BECAUSE of the fact it has better support from companies but has unix underpinnings so you can still run your linux programs after a few tweeks
--
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
TravisWatkins
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· Score: 5, Informative
Uh, you can access iTunes from Windows. They wrote a windows version a long time ago.
--
"But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith. And I'm still right here."
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
aacool
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· Score: 2, Informative
I should have been more specific - I meant I would like a way to access the iTunes store external to the iTunes player - i.e. from a browser, perhaps.
Now, I know that iTunes is a free browser, and all, but I'd prefer to use other players perhaps, and not build up my library in two places
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
TravisWatkins
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· Score: 5, Informative
phpTunes lets you access iTunes from a browser, although buying might not actually work since the upgrade. I'm out of cash so I can't test.
--
"But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith. And I'm still right here."
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
vonsneerderhooten
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· Score: 2, Informative
Not only that, but if he RTFA, he would've noticed that the hack involves using a Win2K or XP box to get the Binary for the firmware update.
Re:Now we just need phpTunes/itms-4-all working ag
by
cbrocious
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· Score: 5, Informative
When the songs are bought, you're handed both the encryption key for the file, and your "account key"... those can still be used with PlayFair or DeDRMS, given that you know how to create the key files properly.
-- Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
The only way the hacking could be illegal would be if it were due to the DMCA somehow. The DMCA is a terrible, terrible act which never should have been signed into law. So yes, this is the best way to show our gratitude. Besides, it's not like we're hacking the firmware to run on something else (yet.)
-- "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
NotAnotherReboot
·
· Score: 2, Informative
No offense, but you clearly just skimmed the last article on iTunes and then regurgitated it and added a bit without actually knowing what you're talking about. A Windows version of iTunes has been out for quite some time.
Re:How hard can it be?
by
Jon+Proesel
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· Score: 5, Informative
iTunes relies heavily on OS X libraries. The user interface, QuickTime playback, CD burning,... the list goes on and on.
If Apple would just release QuickTime for Linux, then we could really get the ball rolling. The GNUStep program is getting better by the day, so hopefully Apple could use that for the windowing.
Here's to the collaboration of GNU coders and Apple!
--
--
Using GNU/Linux - Windows-free zone!
Why we need iTunes for linux
by
dcstimm
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In other 'Just Becasue You Can' news...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Install Garage Door with Cruise Missile Install votive candle with Forklift Install new batteries in Outer Space
Re:How hard can it be?
by
burns210
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Apple spent X dollars and Y man-hours porting iTunes to Windows because they had data/figures/hopes that it would Generate A sales for iPods over a given time and B sales on the iTunes store... in a given ammount of time, Apple likely believed that A+B >= X+Y, so it would be profitable to spend the money and port to Windows... can that same calculation have the same result when porting to Linux? Honestly, I don't think so.
Re:How hard can it be?
by
Spolster
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Releasing a Linux version legitimises Linux, at least in the eyes of Apple, which is not something they want to do. Apple is competing with Linux for the No. 2 operating system place behind Windows and anything that helps Linux, hurts themselves. For people who are, or become, dissatisfied with Windows, there are basically two choices: Mac or Linux. (I'll admit I'm simplifying slightly so dont complain about me ommitting the *BSDs etc.) Why should Apple give users one less reason to choose the Mac over Linux by porting iTunes over to Linux. It would be like Nintendo porting Mario Kart: Double Dash to the Xbox, it would be one more reason to choose the Xbox over the Gamecube. With Windows it makes financial sense to port to that platform because of the huge user base, the same can't be said for Linux since the market is relatively small and actually porting iTunes to linux is non-trivial since all of the libraries that iTunes relies on (e.g. QuickTime) would need porting as well.
Get two ipods, so when some Anonymous Coward comes along and says, "well, yeah, but does it run linux?" You can poke his eye out with a sharp stick and then explain to him that the one with the new firmware which you updated from linux does not actually run linux but the other one sort of kind of runs linux command line it you log into it remotely...
-- Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Re:Buy two!
by
illusion_2K
·
· Score: 3, Informative
If it was me....
by
Rick+Zeman
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· Score: 4, Interesting
...I'd have just updated it from the Windows box. I guess I'm not enough of a linux geek to want to do everything the hard way just to do it the hard way. [shakes head]
Re:How hard can it be?
by
gremlins
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· Score: 2, Insightful
They could just get codeweavers to add in functions so they can just use the libaries they install, that way they don't have to offically support it but you can do it if you want
-- just because your a schizophrenic doesn't mean people arn't really out to get you
MS is NOT an investor in Apple
by
DavidinAla
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· Score: 4, Informative
Please, please, please retire this worn-out piece of disinformation. As part of a much larger agreement nearly six years ago, MS paid millions of dollars for some preferred stock (which means non-voting stock) in Apple. When Apple's stock went up after the company started doing well, MS sold the stock a LONG time ago for a nice little profit. MS does NOT own any piece of Apple and NEVER had any ownership influence through ability to vote stock. (I won't go into the details of why the deal happened, but it was a combination of Apple wanting MS's public endorsement and MS wanting to settle some patent infringement claims that Apple was pursuing.)
Re:MS is NOT an investor in Apple
by
sld126
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· Score: 2, Informative
One minor nit because people always seem to think this as well:
MS bought $150 million in preferred stock with this deal. They did NOT 'save' Apple with this cash as Apple had almost $4 billion in cash at the time.
-- You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
Re:Hacking
by
Powercntrl
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The story earlier today showed how easily Apple can change it DRM scheme which could potentially effect your entire music collection and thousands of dollars tied up in the hardware and music files and you are happy about it and actually justifing the action. Meanwhile completely oblivious to the fact that you have absolutely no control over what they decide to do and you have no choice but to accept it. If MS, the RIAA, TurboTax, or any one else for that matter did something like this, it would be the collective trend that it was a scary thing. Not with Apple though. I feel sorry for you guys/
I couldn't agree more. I'm even willing to put my karma on the line to echo your sentiments.
Hey Apple, my shit works fine right now!!! Maybe other people like to trust Apple with a new iTunes version AND new iPod firmware at the same time... I'm more of the mindset that if something isn't broken, messing with it will probably break it. I don't want the newest hottest version of iTunes & iPod firmware just because Apple says so. It brings nothing to the table that I need and could potentially introduce new problems.
Then, there's the issue of DRM. I happen to own another MP3 player besides my iPod... Burning and re-ripping is slow and a pain in the ass. I had less than 19 songs before FairPlay - now I have over 150. It's funny how it seems more worth the $0.99 when I don't have to deal with DRM saying "No, you can't listen to tracks on your MuVo2 or laptop that still runs Windows98." This latest version of iTunes not only updates the DRM scheme so FairPlay no longer works, but it also reduces the number of unchanged playlist burns down to 7, from the original 10. Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
Fine, so don't upgrade, you say? I won't - and because of that fact, I can no longer make new purchases at the iTunes music store. Oh well, Pepsi's promotion is over anyway... Mark my words, it's all gonna be downhill from here... Do you honestly think $0.99 a track is going to last? If you believe that, I've got some "$9.99 albums" I'll sell you for $13.99.
Apple can keep their update.
--
--- DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
There's more in the firm than iTunes support...
by
Otto
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· Score: 4, Informative
It adds support for:
-The "Grouping" fields in the iPod's Database (with regards to live updating smart playlists) -A new Smart Playlist field for referencing other playlists -Support for playing the new lossless compression format -Bugfixes with regards to live updating smart playlists that reverse their order for no obvious reason (I'm betting that's in there anyway)
And probably other stuff that hasn't been found yet. There's not exactly a fountain of info on the new firmware yet.
-- - Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
If you're running Linux . . .
by
levin
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
required to take advantage of new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store.
Did I miss something? If you're running Linux in the first place, what do you care if your iPod can take advantage of the new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store?
--
`which fortune`
It's doubly pointless.
by
BillyBlaze
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· Score: 2, Insightful
to take advantage of new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store.
Ooh, I can't wait to take advantage of the new features! Like, PlayFair no longer works. Yay! I'll never have to boot Windows again. Unless I want to play my music. I can't wait.
Re:How hard can it be?
by
trouser
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· Score: 3, Insightful
If iTunes relies so heavily on OS X specific libraries then how do you explain the Windows version.
The big problem with GNUStep is that it looks like shit. I've used it, it's great, all that Objective-C magic with all that NSFandanglery and NSThingamingywhattsit, but the GUI looks terrible.
And the tools crash. A lot.
Mind you XCode, man is that unstable lately.
-- Now wash your hands.
You got to give the title credit...
by
Thaidog
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· Score: 3, Insightful
For a second there I thought it was a hack for itunes on linux... but no... Update you fscking firmware on linux! Gee, that's just the thing to get everybody to switch to linux! You can update your firmware... on linux! There's 2 thing's that will never happen for 99% of everybody who owns an iPod... "wft is frimware?..."
--
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
I don't understand
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Interesting
You people do realize that your tracks can be burned to CD-R and ripped back into.MP3 form, all without even leaving iTunes, right?
If that level of DRM bothers you, you are heading for a long, boring life devoid of any form of popular entertainment.
Re:I don't understand
by
Powercntrl
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
You people do realize that your tracks can be burned to CD-R and ripped back into.MP3 form, all without even leaving iTunes, right?
If that level of DRM bothers you, you are heading for a long, boring life devoid of any form of popular entertainment.
So what you're saying is, instead of buying large chunks of music (Read: $$$ for Apple!) and converting them to a DRM-free format en masse while preserving the metadata, I should buy SMALLER amounts of music so it will be easier and less time consuming to convert by the burn/re-rip method? Despite the flamebait mods from ravenous Apple fanboys, I still would much rather purchase my music from iTMS than from AllOfMP3...
Time will tell if FairPlay rides again.
--
--- DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Re:iTunes update benefits
by
CoolCat
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Is Slashdot destined to be be have endless pointless updates to this particular story ("Linux for iPod now supports a new font")? Why not come back when the damn thing actually does something useful?
Pl.
I'd be a good reason.
by
ebbomega
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I went to their competition and have been singing the praises of the Karma ever since. I'm coercing a lot of friends that the iPod is overexpensive for the size, with less useful features and a few annoyances due to esthetics (I can feel around my karma blindly without accidentally skipping to the next track). Now I tell all my friends not to waste their money with Apple.
And to think that all that happened simply because I was looking for something with decent linux support.
-- Karma: Non-Heinous
My God, this is nothing new!
by
ZackSchil
·
· Score: 2, Informative
This is essentially what you do to get Linux on the iPod, only this guy isn't extracting the firmware and merging it with a Linux image, he's just extracting the Apple image from the firmware updater and using that. I wonder why he chose the Windows updater, the Mac updater contains a file called "Firmware" right in the application package's Resources folder, no hex editing involved.
Re:Now we just need phpTunes/itms-4-all working ag
by
nandhp
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I managed to get iTMS-4-All working again. You just have to take out the call to wget and replace it with something like this. They seem to have started checking for extra headers that iTunes doesn't send.
This worked for me (iTMS-4-All). YMMV.
sub iTunesFetch {
my ($searchStringSafe) = @_;
my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new('phobos.apple.com:80') or return '';
binmode($sock);
print $sock "GET/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.searc h.DirectAction/search?term=$searchStringSafe HTTP/1.1\r\nAccept-Language: en-us, en;q=0.50\r\nUser-Agent: iTunes/4.2 (Windows; U; Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 (Build 1234)) DPI/96\r\nCookie: countryVerified=1\r\nAccept-Encoding: gzip, x-aes-cbc\r\nHost: phobos.apple.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n";
my $rv = "";
my $tmp;
while (read($sock,$tmp,2560)) {
$rv.=$tmp;
}
return $rv; }
Slashdot Mirror
I'm working on reverse-engineering the new stuff...
damn... they break it 4 days after I get purchasing working in phpTunes...
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
This is something that can help some linux users out. Though, it would appear if you have to use a windows computer to this in the first place you mine as well update your firmware that way. Perhaps use this method to backup your pre-existing firmware? I've not seen the .exe, can anyone tell me if it has an option to backup your old firmware?
:(){
I don't mean to undermine what the author did, but what's the point of being able to do so? I mean, you have to pull the Firmware from a Mac/Wintel machine in the first place, and even when you get it updated, you still can't actually use the iTunes Music Store on Linux to take advantage of any of the new features in the Firmware. It's a cool hack, but a useless one at that.
"Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store" and this matter for linux, why? While I admit it's cool to be able to apply the update from Linux for the enhanced playback and for the ability to play Apple Loseless for the audiophiles out there, that doesn't seem like it would matter for those who are, you know, using their iPod with an OS that is unsupported in iTunes.
Or am I clueless and is iTunes wine-able?
I paid hundreds of my hard earned dollars for this iPod. I will do whatever I damn well please with the software and hardware I rightfully have a right to use as I please@
Wasn't the iPod and iTunes supposed to lure windows users over to apple? I'm not surprised apple hasn't been quick to do this themselves.
Let's see... Users supporting a platform Mac hasn't bothered to... Could lead to more iPod sales... I'm going to go with yes.
Steps 1 and 2 from the article are to download and install the windows version of the update first....if you have to download the windows version of the update to get this to work then why bother?
Is the "Linux way" now to take more steps then you need to just to prove you can do something?
Woo, awesome! Now we can use Linux to load a firmware update that lets us take advantage of new features for iTunes! All that's missing is the ability to run iTunes on Linux!
Bunch of rocket scientists, these guys.
There's a way to access the iTunes store from Windows right here.
Or does it seem really dodgy just to hack the firmware for the OS... shouldn't Apple be doing this? It should be easy for them to do as there stuff is already BSD based anyway (isn't it?)
Uh, you can access iTunes from Windows. They wrote a windows version a long time ago.
"But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith. And I'm still right here."
Now, I know that iTunes is a free browser, and all, but I'd prefer to use other players perhaps, and not build up my library in two places
phpTunes lets you access iTunes from a browser, although buying might not actually work since the upgrade. I'm out of cash so I can't test.
"But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith. And I'm still right here."
Not only that, but if he RTFA, he would've noticed that the hack involves using a Win2K or XP box to get the Binary for the firmware update.
When the songs are bought, you're handed both the encryption key for the file, and your "account key" ... those can still be used with PlayFair or DeDRMS, given that you know how to create the key files properly.
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
Hmm. So now updating your iPod from a non-mainstream OS is illegal?
The only way the hacking could be illegal would be if it were due to the DMCA somehow. The DMCA is a terrible, terrible act which never should have been signed into law. So yes, this is the best way to show our gratitude. Besides, it's not like we're hacking the firmware to run on something else (yet.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
No offense, but you clearly just skimmed the last article on iTunes and then regurgitated it and added a bit without actually knowing what you're talking about. A Windows version of iTunes has been out for quite some time.
iTunes relies heavily on OS X libraries. The user interface, QuickTime playback, CD burning, ... the list goes on and on.
If Apple would just release QuickTime for Linux, then we could really get the ball rolling. The GNUStep program is getting better by the day, so hopefully Apple could use that for the windowing.
Here's to the collaboration of GNU coders and Apple!
--
Using GNU/Linux - Windows-free zone!
goodread
keanmarine.com
They screw you over, you say thank you sir, may I have some more, and I'll write the program to do it with?
Er....no thanks. I think the proper way to show gratitude is to buy a Rio Karma or other portable player that includes Linux software.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
Install Garage Door with Cruise Missile
Install votive candle with Forklift
Install new batteries in Outer Space
Apple spent X dollars and Y man-hours porting iTunes to Windows because they had data/figures/hopes that it would Generate A sales for iPods over a given time and B sales on the iTunes store... in a given ammount of time, Apple likely believed that A+B >= X+Y, so it would be profitable to spend the money and port to Windows... can that same calculation have the same result when porting to Linux? Honestly, I don't think so.
Releasing a Linux version legitimises Linux, at least in the eyes of Apple, which is not something they want to do. Apple is competing with Linux for the No. 2 operating system place behind Windows and anything that helps Linux, hurts themselves. For people who are, or become, dissatisfied with Windows, there are basically two choices: Mac or Linux. (I'll admit I'm simplifying slightly so dont complain about me ommitting the *BSDs etc.) Why should Apple give users one less reason to choose the Mac over Linux by porting iTunes over to Linux. It would be like Nintendo porting Mario Kart: Double Dash to the Xbox, it would be one more reason to choose the Xbox over the Gamecube.
With Windows it makes financial sense to port to that platform because of the huge user base, the same can't be said for Linux since the market is relatively small and actually porting iTunes to linux is non-trivial since all of the libraries that iTunes relies on (e.g. QuickTime) would need porting as well.
Hmm. So now updating your iPod from a non-mainstream OS is illegal?
Of course not! iPods update from MacOS, too!
*ducks*
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
Get two ipods, so when some Anonymous Coward comes along and says, "well, yeah, but does it run linux?" You can poke his eye out with a sharp stick and then explain to him that the one with the new firmware which you updated from linux does not actually run linux but the other one sort of kind of runs linux command line it you log into it remotely...
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
...I'd have just updated it from the Windows box. I guess I'm not enough of a linux geek to want to do everything the hard way just to do it the hard way. [shakes head]
They could just get codeweavers to add in functions so they can just use the libaries they install, that way they don't have to offically support it but you can do it if you want
just because your a schizophrenic doesn't mean people arn't really out to get you
Please, please, please retire this worn-out piece of disinformation. As part of a much larger agreement nearly six years ago, MS paid millions of dollars for some preferred stock (which means non-voting stock) in Apple. When Apple's stock went up after the company started doing well, MS sold the stock a LONG time ago for a nice little profit. MS does NOT own any piece of Apple and NEVER had any ownership influence through ability to vote stock. (I won't go into the details of why the deal happened, but it was a combination of Apple wanting MS's public endorsement and MS wanting to settle some patent infringement claims that Apple was pursuing.)
The story earlier today showed how easily Apple can change it DRM scheme which could potentially effect your entire music collection and thousands of dollars tied up in the hardware and music files and you are happy about it and actually justifing the action. Meanwhile completely oblivious to the fact that you have absolutely no control over what they decide to do and you have no choice but to accept it. If MS, the RIAA, TurboTax, or any one else for that matter did something like this, it would be the collective trend that it was a scary thing. Not with Apple though. I feel sorry for you guys/
I couldn't agree more. I'm even willing to put my karma on the line to echo your sentiments.
Hey Apple, my shit works fine right now!!! Maybe other people like to trust Apple with a new iTunes version AND new iPod firmware at the same time... I'm more of the mindset that if something isn't broken, messing with it will probably break it. I don't want the newest hottest version of iTunes & iPod firmware just because Apple says so. It brings nothing to the table that I need and could potentially introduce new problems.
Then, there's the issue of DRM. I happen to own another MP3 player besides my iPod... Burning and re-ripping is slow and a pain in the ass. I had less than 19 songs before FairPlay - now I have over 150. It's funny how it seems more worth the $0.99 when I don't have to deal with DRM saying "No, you can't listen to tracks on your MuVo2 or laptop that still runs Windows98." This latest version of iTunes not only updates the DRM scheme so FairPlay no longer works, but it also reduces the number of unchanged playlist burns down to 7, from the original 10. Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
Fine, so don't upgrade, you say? I won't - and because of that fact, I can no longer make new purchases at the iTunes music store. Oh well, Pepsi's promotion is over anyway... Mark my words, it's all gonna be downhill from here... Do you honestly think $0.99 a track is going to last? If you believe that, I've got some "$9.99 albums" I'll sell you for $13.99.
Apple can keep their update.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
It adds support for:
-The "Grouping" fields in the iPod's Database (with regards to live updating smart playlists)
-A new Smart Playlist field for referencing other playlists
-Support for playing the new lossless compression format
-Bugfixes with regards to live updating smart playlists that reverse their order for no obvious reason (I'm betting that's in there anyway)
And probably other stuff that hasn't been found yet. There's not exactly a fountain of info on the new firmware yet.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
required to take advantage of new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store.
Did I miss something? If you're running Linux in the first place, what do you care if your iPod can take advantage of the new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store?
`which fortune`
Ooh, I can't wait to take advantage of the new features! Like, PlayFair no longer works. Yay! I'll never have to boot Windows again. Unless I want to play my music. I can't wait.
If iTunes relies so heavily on OS X specific libraries then how do you explain the Windows version.
The big problem with GNUStep is that it looks like shit. I've used it, it's great, all that Objective-C magic with all that NSFandanglery and NSThingamingywhattsit, but the GUI looks terrible.
And the tools crash. A lot.
Mind you XCode, man is that unstable lately.
Now wash your hands.
For a second there I thought it was a hack for itunes on linux... but no... Update you fscking firmware on linux! Gee, that's just the thing to get everybody to switch to linux! You can update your firmware... on linux! There's 2 thing's that will never happen for 99% of everybody who owns an iPod... "wft is frimware?..."
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
You people do realize that your tracks can be burned to CD-R and ripped back into .MP3 form, all without even leaving iTunes, right?
If that level of DRM bothers you, you are heading for a long, boring life devoid of any form of popular entertainment.
I'm out of cash so I can't test.
:)
Dude! it's only 99c!
Is illegal hacking really the best way to show our gratitude, after all of the great things Apple and its iPod have done for us?
Please, Apple/Steve Jobs can not walk on water, part the seas, or turn water into beer.
Only Linus Torvalds can do these things.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
How does it run on BSD systems? My guess would be pretty well, because of the fact that MacOS is based on BSD. Is that correct?
Is Slashdot destined to be be have endless pointless updates to this particular story ("Linux for iPod now supports a new font")? Why not come back when the damn thing actually does something useful?
Pl.
I went to their competition and have been singing the praises of the Karma ever since. I'm coercing a lot of friends that the iPod is overexpensive for the size, with less useful features and a few annoyances due to esthetics (I can feel around my karma blindly without accidentally skipping to the next track). Now I tell all my friends not to waste their money with Apple.
And to think that all that happened simply because I was looking for something with decent linux support.
Karma: Non-Heinous
This is essentially what you do to get Linux on the iPod, only this guy isn't extracting the firmware and merging it with a Linux image, he's just extracting the Apple image from the firmware updater and using that. I wonder why he chose the Windows updater, the Mac updater contains a file called "Firmware" right in the application package's Resources folder, no hex editing involved.
I managed to get iTMS-4-All working again. You just have to take out the call to wget and replace it with something like this. They seem to have started checking for extra headers that iTunes doesn't send.
/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.searc h.DirectAction/search?term=$searchStringSafe HTTP/1.1\r\nAccept-Language: en-us, en;q=0.50\r\nUser-Agent: iTunes/4.2 (Windows; U; Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 (Build 1234)) DPI/96\r\nCookie: countryVerified=1\r\nAccept-Encoding: gzip, x-aes-cbc\r\nHost: phobos.apple.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n";
This worked for me (iTMS-4-All). YMMV.
sub iTunesFetch {
my ($searchStringSafe) = @_;
my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new('phobos.apple.com:80') or return '';
binmode($sock);
print $sock "GET
my $rv = "";
my $tmp;
while (read($sock,$tmp,2560)) {
$rv.=$tmp;
}
return $rv;
}