New iPod Checksum Cracked, Linux Supported 422
An anonymous reader writes "After 36 hours of reverse engineering, the method for producing the checksum on new iPods has been discovered." You can also get linux support working if that's what you crave for your shiny new toy.
What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes Apple's offering any better than anyone else's?
I don't get it at all.
What I don't get more than that is the people who buy the iPod just to put Linux on it. That actually causes negative understanding.
hopefully (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Integration with iTunes (not necessarily the store), such as syncing Smart Playlists, and 3rd-party accessory support that's an order of magnitude greater than for any other music player.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
When shopping for an MP3 player, I considered alternatives (and in fact looked at alternatives first), and in the end went with iPod because:
1) Most of the alternatives I looked at weren't any cheaper than the iPod
2) Most of them got slammed in reviews for bad user interfaces
3) Most of them were not available in B&M stores allowing me to return it easily if I hated the UI.
In short, in the end the iPod wound up being the "safe bet", and unlike most Apple products, wasn't grossly overpriced compared to the competition. (Disclaimer: This was over a year ago, things may have changed since then.)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
DMCA violation? (Score:4, Insightful)
I doubt, Apple will tarnish its image by pressing it, but DMCA seems to apply. In fact, it may be out of Apple's hands. IANAL, but they may need to clarify, that they added the new checksum/whatever not to limit whatever it is, DMCA will try to help them uphold, but for some other, non-DMCA protected reason.
Otherwise, the prosecutors may have to enforce the Act whether Apple wants them to or not...
Re:DMCA violation? (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet that the only reason the hash is created is for some database integrity verification the ipod does.....just making sure everything is ok before writing data (play counts) to the database.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
A integrity checksum or a crypto checksum? (Score:5, Insightful)
A user can unplug a device at any time, even in the middle of a catalog write. It only seems prudent to checksum the data to make sure you don't have a corrupt file.
I'd be interested to hear if this is a tricky crypto algorithm, or the sort of simple MD5 or CRC of data that a programmer would whip out for integrity. This is important because if the intent was integrity we can expect it to not change. The problem is solved. If it was intended to detect reverse engineered and possibly incorrect files then we can look forward to more algorithms in the future.
TFA was silent on the matter. <wtbw> can i hear a fuck yeah? didn't really tell me much.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't have a lot of free time to go hopping from store to store looking for CDs, and I don't listen to regular radio (CBC or bust), so I don't get exposed to a lot of new music. But, when I do have some free time, I can fire up iTunes and checkout music at home, quickly. And, if I like it, in a matter of minutes I can have the music on my desktop and iPod, for less than I would pay in a music store. Sure, theres DRM, but I don't care, I'm playing the music on my iPod. And, if I don't want to play it there, I convert to mp3, or burn it directly from iTunes.
Yeah, it's not fantastic, but I want to support artists whose music I like. Since I'm much more likely to do that in iTunes than in a music store, and I'm not going to just download their music and not have them get paid for it (however little they make off an album, it's still money in their pocket they wouldn't get if I
Plus, theres the scrollwheel.
$0.02 CDN
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
The only thing that was a disappointment with it was the headphones, which, IMHO, sound awful. So I had to spend another $20 on a decent set of portable headphones. The iPod's sound quality is decent, though I greatly prefer the M-Audio Delta 1010lt in my home computer...
I'm probably going to buy something new around May, something that's 80gb+ and ideally something that supports Vorbis. As I'm fed up with using GTKPod to manage it, ideally I'd like to be able to manage it with rsync (all of my music is properly sorted, tagged, and has the artwork embedded in it). Does anyone have a recommendation?
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
Find me another audio player which:
...but doesn't require proprietary software, and I might switch.
If you can't find one, then you've answered your own question.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DMCA violation? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's nice to see Apple's "hard work" broken in such a short period of time, though.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
The scroll wheel actually tends to piss me off. Especially if you're doing something like exercise, it's all too easy to overshoot with the dang scroll wheel.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
I also suggest that once this has occurred, the discussion should cease (much like a Godwin). My hope is that such a rule would put an end to the pointless arguments over the device. People buy the iPod because they like it, and they pay for it themselves; why is this a problem?
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
No-one says you'd have to press a "next" button 800 times. The firmware of the competing MP3 player could just as easily detect a sustained button press as a request for an accelerating scroll through the song list. Essentially, you can do exactly what the iPod's scroll wheel does with the scroll wheel. Whether or not any competing device has actually done that is another story. But there's nothing inherently special about the scroll wheel. You can accomplish the same functionality and more precision with standard buttons.
Re:A integrity checksum or a crypto checksum? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:1, Insightful)
WTF?
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
It also comes pre-installed on all Macs, so there's that going for it.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't. In my experience, iTunes will A) place the files listed in it into your existing playlist in a seemingly random place, and B) fail to sort them by track number. I had to manually arrange the tracks into the correct order every single time.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
People get an iPod these days because they are not willing to research a different brand. They've come to trust Apple's brand. I would warn you not to just go buy some mp3 player without going online and looking at a review first though, I've tried a few and some are good some are pretty bad. example: I really liked the player from Transcend I got, but I didn't like that after 3 months it locked up and refused to reset. something happen to the FAT file-system that caused it to get stuck in a loop every time it powered on.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
Same thing with linux. It's not linux, it's you! You're the problem!
No, guys. Things should be usable in a natural state. You should be comfortable with something as soon as you start using it. If you're not, then the products usability has failed you. If someone thinks the scrollwheel is better, that's a perfectly valid opinion. You can't tell them their opinion is wrong because YOUR mp3 player works just by holding down a button instead of the scroll wheel. Guess what... that's not natural to this person.
And no, I don't own an ipod. Yes, I've tried linux. No, I don't use a mac. I'm just a usability guy who builds websites.
And sorry if this seems like a rant.
Re:A integrity checksum or a crypto checksum? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some other reasons too. First of all, take iTunes. iTunes may not a real windows-like interface, and some apparently consider the Windows version to be bloated, but it does organize music well, and is easy enough to teach to people who are not computer literate. Some other players have good software, but others have software that is terrible.
iPod is easy to use. There is no denying that the scroll wheel interface is highly intuitive, and accessing features is fairly easy. Some other player do have interfaces that are just as good.
The iPod does not have feature bloat. Many other mp3 players have many extra features, but most of the times those features are very poorly implemented, and has the effect of just wasting menu space. These poorly implemented features also tend to drag the perception of the whole player down.
The headphones. For low to low mid-end earbuds, the ones that come with the iPod are some of the best. Of course, many headphones, or high-end earbuds are better.
The iPod has many accessories. It is one of the few players to support near full integration with some car head units (receivers).
It's name. Tell somebody you want an "iPod Nano" and they will be able to remember the name. There is no part of the name that looks like "z647", which people are quite likely to forget. Even if you wanted to specify the capacity it is still easier to remember. Many of the generations have distinct names like iPod Color, and iPod Video, which are easy to remember.
It has Apple's reputation for ease of use and reliability behind it. Most of the other closest competitors are marketed under brands with well known poor models, which can really hurt
The simple fact is that while many players are as good or better in some of those categories, they are lacking in one or more of the others. The combination of these atributes is why the iPod is the leading mp3 player.
Just a side note: people who are mentioning gap-less playback, please realize that many people have no such albums, and have no interest in this feature, so it should not be surprising that apple waited for so long before implementing.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course for a device that plays MP3s it should be simple to make one that people will just understand because most people already know how to operate a computer, but someone that has never used a computer isn't just going to be able to pick up an iPod and say "I know this! This is a scroll-wheel!" etc. A combination of a touchscreen with a slider bar at the side (like any OS window) to go quickly to a vague area, then a more precise area to scroll around locally would be an ideal option probably. Maybe 2 fingers for fast scrolling, and 1 for more fine control
Re:Good because linux support is better (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
I call B.S.
Feel free to make the argument that you like the scrollwheel better. But more precise? Nope, not at all. At least not in all cases.
If I'm running down the road or in a car on a bumpy dirt road, it can be damn well near impossible to do a single click up or down on the list. A button-based system would be cake: Tap the button and you're golden. But if you're in an environment where your body is anything but still, trying to move the scrollwheel exactly one notch can be a frustrating exercise in futility. Plus there's no tactile feel that tells you where your fingers are in relation to the scrollwheel, so you have to look at it to skip to the next song or whatever. And when I have my iPod in an arm-strapped case, I can't reliably interact with the scrollwheel through the plastic, I have to take it out of the case. None of these would be issues with a button-based player.
If there's one reason that I've considered ditching my iPod and getting some other MP3 player, it's the scrollwheel.
Yeah, the scrollwheel is nifty, it's different, and it's novel for about 5 seconds... thereafter, it's a pain in the *ss.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why? Because the operator can move her finger slower when she approaches the song she wants. The scroll wheel can detect the speed the finger is moving at. In short, not only can you accelerate as the operator continues to spin the wheel, but when she starts to slow how fast she's spinning the wheel, you can detect that and respond appropriately. The finger speed is something the operator is aware of. If the screen scrolls too fast, she'll slow down. If it scrolls too slowly, she'll speed up.
With a button, in the best case you have a button that can sense not only if it is being touched, but how hard it is being touched. The feedback isn't as direct, though. There's a reason the steering wheel in a car hasn't been replaced with two buttons, and the gas and brake with two more each. (Not to mention, most buttons have only two states. The really good ones have three states - off, light touch, heavy touch.)
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, actually you can't.
Oftentimes after the thing has overshot the target. And then you get back into a zone where it can be hard as heck to target a single entry--I can't say how many times I've seen what I want on the screen, I scroll up only to end up a song above it, then scroll down only to end up a song below it. And that's when I'm not moving. Doing any of this when you're running or on a bumpy road is simply frustrating.
Perhaps you can make the claim that the scrollwheel is better for quickly getting into the general area of a song, but it's certainly less precise when you're in the general area of the song and you want to select it. The claim has been made that it's more precise than buttons. No, it's definitely not. It may be faster at general navigation, but it's not more precise.
Yeah, because you don't need to navigate your car to a millimeter accuracy nor adjust your gas to within a milliliter/minute accuracy. Like the scrollwheel, the car controls are great for general navigation but not for precise control.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
(I agree with you but for a slightly different reason
Re:What's the draw? (Score:2, Insightful)
Then why haven't you done it? :)
You can overshoot with either, but with buttons you at least have the option of precise single-taps when you're already in the right area of the list. The problem here isn't the fast-scrolling. I personally don't like the fast scrolling of the iPod, but I can live with it. My problem is that when I'm already close to my target song, it's still hard to target the song I want whereas just a tap or two with buttons would get me precisely the song I want and I'd be done with it--even on a bumpy road or while running.
Again, you are seldom trying to get exactly 0.001 gallons of gas in the car. The scroll wheel and the gas pump is tolerable for general navigation and approximation, but not for when you're looking for precision. With the gas pump, you don't need it. With the scroll wheel to select a song, you do.
Please don't tell me that you really don't have enough imagination to envision any other type of button-based interface that could effectively navigate 800 songs without a scrollwheel and without 800 button pushes? If you can't, I assume you're not in the software or hardware design industry. You're probably an accountant since accounting is a great industry for people that lack imagination and originality.
Re:What's the draw? (Score:3, Insightful)
Say I can't read, and I pick up a book. Has the book's usability failed me?
No, it's either me, or my education, or my parents. The book works for anyone who can read; it's not the book's fault, or the book's failure, that I can't read it.
Now, in the case of Linux, if Linux does something in a different way, one that's not natural to you... It could actually be a failure, like the nightmare that is configuring X, on the occasions where it doesn't just work. (I've gotten good at it, but whenever I get someone's graphics working, I tell them to save the xorg.conf, because I don't want to go through that again.)
Or, it could be something that was a conscious design decision, that many people -- including non-programmers -- find to be much more usable. Only it's not as usable to you, because it's not Windows. Windows is usable, because you've used it so much that so many things are second nature to you.
In this case, Linux is damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. If it's more like Windows, it's easier to use, but it gets accused of being a copycat, not innovative, no point in using it when you can just use the real thing (real Windows). If it innovates, it gets accused of being hard to use, because people who've used nothing but Windows all their lives can't adapt to a new interface.
So, sometimes, it is actually Linux that's unusable. But sometimes, Linux is actually doing the right thing, even if it's unusable to you. In these cases, I suggest you try to swallow your pride and listen to what these people are trying to tell you -- even if you're right, showing some humility is a lot more likely to get you help, even from people who were behaving like assholes a moment before.