Advertisement
Front, Kernel, Security, Distributions, Development. See your byline here on LWN.net.
Weekly Edition
Return to the Announcements page
| |||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
Video: What's Wrong With My iPod?
Benjamin Mako Hill has put up an
announcement of an 8-minute video called "What's Wrong With My iPod?"
It discusses the problems with DRM and covers the "iRony" party held last
year in Cambridge where iPods were liberated through the installation of iPodLinux or Rockbox. It's available in Ogg Theora
format.
(Log in to post comments)
Ipod nano 2nd gen? Posted Mar 15, 2007 16:44 UTC (Thu) by Richard_J_Neill (subscriber, #23093) [Link] Rockbox is brilliant on an ipod nano - so much more user-friendly (to a geek!) than the native firmware, and the display is clearer too, due to better fonts.
However, I understand that the 2nd gen nano (and the latest ipod video) have some new encrypted firmware, and therefore Rockbox/IpodLinux haven't been ported. Does anyone know if any progress has been made (or is likely to be made) with these?
Ipod nano 2nd gen? Posted Mar 15, 2007 16:52 UTC (Thu) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link] Encrypted firmware, really?
This suggests (to me) that Apple is actively Rockbox hostile. Is this a total reach on my part?
Ipod nano 2nd gen? Posted Mar 15, 2007 17:09 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] It's not just new encrypted firmware, it's all-new hardware (IIRC the peripheral wiring is radically different and the CPU is different as well).
Apple are Rockbox-semi-hostile, like many vendors: they don't take especially intense active measures (e.g. code signing) but don't help at all or provide any docs either. (IIRC Sansa are the only group which have provided docs...)
Ipod nano 2nd gen? Posted Mar 15, 2007 18:45 UTC (Thu) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link] I don't believe Sansa has provided any documentation at all. They did provide: hardware, moral support.
http://daniel.haxx.se/rockbox-sandisk-connection.html
I find "encrypted firmware" a bit of an extra step. Whether it is just an obstacle to analyzing the existing firmware, or a measure which makes it more difficult to replace the firmware, it is obstructive to alternative firmware more than just not releasing docs.
Ipod nano 2nd gen? Posted Mar 15, 2007 18:52 UTC (Thu) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link] Well it seems I am wrong about the signing being a special step, at least if Sansa who "supports" Rockbox is anything to go by. Apparently the new E200R is not running Rockbox nicely because they cannot sign the rockbox firmware.
Video: What's Wrong With My iPod? Posted Mar 17, 2007 16:21 UTC (Sat) by abovett (subscriber, #13139) [Link] Interesting film, but I doubt if I will be showing it to my iPod owning friends. I don't thnk it expresses the arguments against DRM in a way that they would find relevant or understandable, and seems too "geeky". I fear in many cases it would do the argument more harm than good - people saying "Apple is bad" when they like their Apple products doesn't really cut it.
I think we need to work harder at explaining what we think is wrong with DRM - and to accept that some people won't agree. Many people I've talked to are quite happy with the idea of "pay-per-play" and it needs more than this to explain what wee think is wrong with the concept.
Andy B
Video: What's Wrong With My iPod? Posted Mar 29, 2007 15:18 UTC (Thu) by makohill (guest, #25519) [Link] I should point out that while I was interviewed for the film and listed it on my blog, the film was completely put together by Mika Matsuzaki. While Mika is also something of a geek, she is not as heads-deep in this stuff as I am and tried to make the film attactive to a less geeky audience. Of course, the people she interviewed (ahem) may not have made her life easy in that regard.
|
|
||||||||||||