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XM Radio Hacked by Car Computer Hobbyists
An anonymous reader writes "There is an article over at News.com that talks about a small Florida company called Hybrid Mobile Solutions, that hacked XM Radio. They created a cable and software that makes the new XM Commander and XM Direct units work just like an XMPCR. They are in negotiations with TimeTrax to allow recording of XM Radio to MP3's. XMPCR was canned due to this late last month."
Seems they don't need any help from these guys. They have made their own device to replace the pulled XMPCR...
It's the personal computer receiver for XM satellite radio. XM used to sell it but discontinued it when the TimeTrax software came out that allowed the XMPCR user to record music from the XMPCR hardware. The RIAA was apparently behind that action.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I wouldn't call it hacking. More like reverse engineering the old service and building a new.
Call me a nitpicker, but the term hacker is growing too wide for my taste.
Underholdning.info
a $250 profit
the XMPCR is a little box that allows you to listen to XM radio on your pc/mac/sun (mac/sun supported by 3rd party apps). it's a little box that has an audio out which you simply plug in to your mic or line-in. it's controlled via usb (the unit internally has a usb->serial adapter which happens to be well supported by *bsd, linux, etc).
the protocol that goes over the usb cable (used to change channels, etc) was reverse engineered, and people started making all sorts of applications to play with them. timetrax is one that allows you to record the music, as well as automatically add the title, artist, etc info to the ripped song
vodka, straight up, thank you!
XMPCR: Time-shifting software for PC-based XM radio receiveers.
The new replacement: XmDirect Tuner Interface Cable. From the manufacturer:
With this cable and our software you will once again be able listen to XM satellite radio in your home or in your car using the included Hybrid eXeM interface along with the xmDirect...The SDK is available for developers that want to continue using xm radio within their applications.
The email address to request the SDK (by the way, serious points for offering AND publicizing the SDK) is sdk at hybrid-mobile dot com.
A cool picture: This picture shows the adapter plugged into what looks like the butt of a Dell laptop.
What is going to happen: Someone is going to get the crap sued out of them.
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Someone recording sub-CD-quality music from a device they're required to have a subscription to use is a hack, yes, and may even be a good one if there are no native outputs... but it's not hacking the company.
Saying "XM Radio got hacked" brings to mind ideas like
1) someone's broken the subscription requirement,
2) someone's broken into XM servers,
3) someone's taken over XM's broadcast satellite system,
etc.
XMPCR is the XM PC Receiver for XM Satellite Radio. It is a USB device which connects to a Windows PC (with the included software, but there are Linux, Macintosh and Perl versions). It streams XM radio into your sound card and makes it extremely easy to record. It provide artist and title with each track so that you can even record songs and label them with the appropriate artist and title automatically.
:-) These were being offered for $50 dollars until about one month ago, when XM discontinued them. Since then, many folks have been trying to find a way to produce XMPCRs.
Of course, we are just speaking hypothetically.
For a little more info (and a photo), check out the XMFan Store. They are now very difficult (or expensive) to find. Personally, I don't know that I could be talked into selling mine!
> You can go to bed and wake up the next morning with several hundred mp3s on your machine all labeled correctly and ready for distribution.
You just assume that everyone who uses TimeTrax does so for the purpose of distributing music.
Let me ask you .. what is the point of this? Do you really think people get a CD and go, "ooh, I can rip all of these songs and UPLOAD them to thousands and thousands of people I don't even know! W00T!" No. The point of TimeTrax was so people can listen to what they want whenever they want on whatever they want .. PC, Linux box, MP3 player, sunglasses, what the hell ever. They're paying for the music by subscribing to XM .. by using TimeTrax it gives them more control over the music than the RIAA wants them to have, so ipso facto it must be a "crime"?
The electronics industry are more and more doing their damnest to limit and restrain the freedom of their customers to use their products however they want. By assuming every customer might actually use their brain and think of a new way to apply the product, they work on the assumption therefore that each customer is a potential criminal.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.