Beware the Apple iPhone iHandcuffs 406
Nrbelex writes "Randall Stross makes a fresh and surprisingly accurate review of one of the biggest "features" in the upcoming iPhone and the iPod in general, 'fairplay'. Stross writes, 'If "crippleware" seems an unduly harsh description, it balances the euphemistic names that the industry uses for copy protection. Apple officially calls its own standard "FairPlay," but fair it is not.... You are always going to have to buy Apple stuff. Forever and ever.' Can mainstream media coverage help the battle over DRM or will this warning, like those of the pas, continue to go unnoticed?"
Re:Just rip your CD's fool (Score:5, Informative)
1. Rip your own CDs. Legal.
2. Borrow your friends' CDs and rip. Not legal in USA.
3. Buy MP3s from AllofMP3.com. Legal in Russia.
4. Buy MP3s from eMusic.com. Legal.
Plenty of sources for music that don't involve iTunes Music Store.
Choice (Score:2, Informative)
The article does make a good point, though. If a label is willing to let its music out on eMusic without DRM, and even willing to let Apple have it for iTunes without DRM, then why does Apple not post it on iTunes without FairPlay? I'd guess this is (A) more of Jobs consistency bug, don't get people expecting different behavior from different objects in the store, and (B) Apple has begun to feel proprietary about this music and wants to sell more and maybe feels a wee bit fearful that an open tune will suffer sales decline. Who knows.
Anti-Apple week (Score:5, Informative)
I own an iPod (3rd gen or something), works great with the hundreds of CDs I own and ripped. I bought 1 song on the iTunes store. The article lie in implying the iPod is limited to FairPlay music. This is not the Zune, iTunes doesn't add a DRM layer to your music. It plays non-DRMed songs just fine.
I own a Mac, plays all the fansubbed unlicensed anime series I get on bittorrent. Works even in FrontRow. And on the video iPod and Apple TV if I batch convert them to H264. Again, non-DRMed video plays fine.
So, allow me not to be scared.
If you want to worry, check the big brotherish content protection in Vista:
A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_
Re:DRM = Incompatible (Score:3, Informative)
They got it part right in the article. The whole lawsuit is that one flavor of DRM is incompatible with another variety of player. While they were at it, why pick on just Apple and Microsoft. Toss in the Sony Minidisk and the Sony DRM format too.
They poked the lawsuit at the wrong end of the market. They complained that the players would not play each others incompatible formats. They should have gone the other way and insisted the Zune store, the Plays for Sure stores, and iTunes store all sold compatible MP3's instead of incompatible DRM files.
Re:Just rip your CD's fool (Score:0, Informative)
Re:Just rip your CD's fool (Score:5, Informative)
Well, he also blames Apple. He gives the example of eMusic, which sells a lot of music from independent labels without DRM (and that of course with the labels agreement). The same music is sold by Apple in the iTunes Store with their fairplay DRM. It seems that in theses cases Apple's assertion that "we have to use DRM, otherwise the labels would not allow us to sell the music" is not true.
So I guess he has a point, although I don't agree with everything he says. Starting with the headline: the problem is not the iPhone (or the iPod), the problem is the iTunes Store. If you decide to buy your music somewhere else (like - gasp - CDs) you are not locked in at all. But, OK, the iPhone is what all the buzz is about right now, so that's probably the reason for the choice of headline. He also says that by buying the iPhone, you have to use the iTunes Store if you want to buy music online. Then he goes on to give the example of eMusic, which sells millions of songs online in MP3 format without DRM. Obviously, these files will also work on any Apple device.
So, his arguments are at some points a bit flawed, but I think the general intention of raising the awareness for the possible pitfalls of buying DRM music has to be applauded.
Re:Forever and ever, amen. (Score:2, Informative)
Really, the iPod platform was much more fun before Apple opened it to you PC-using fucktards. We thought there were schisms in the Mac community before; the arrival of you tasteless party crashers, though, has united us all against the slow of mind and still of soul. You ever wonder why Apple discontinued the "switcher" campaign? It's because they noticed too many of you were actually taking the bait. Drown in beige and die.
Re:Apple picked the least evil option (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't buy it if you don't like it... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Locked music? What about locked OS? (Score:3, Informative)
Lack of 3rd party apps will kill the iPhone, at least as a smartphone. While the Blackberry is pretty cool out of the box, it takes a couple extra 3rd party applications to really make it shine.
Hopefully, Jobs statement is more in line with what is required for the blackberry - applications must be signed, and you pay ~$100 for a developer license which lets you sign anything you want. Time will tell.
Re:Don't buy it if you don't like it... (Score:4, Informative)
I think I'll go buy a Zune then sue Microsoft because my iTunes songs don't work on the Zune. I hope this case gets thrown out and the woman has to pay the court costs.
Although I am vehemently anti-DRM I couldn't agree with you more. If a consumer purchases a device with DRM, they ultimately must live with that. Hopefully the judgment will we "tough, too bad so sad...". It will actually be a victory for anti-DRM as it will force consumers to spend their money on non-DRM products. Then we will see some real progress.
When I rip my audio CDs, everything goes into DRM free MP3. I even keep them on a Linux share as so Microsoft can't get the originals. It may be paranoid, but that license file in XP bugs me even though I haven't been hit by it yet. I will even hold off on Vista until it is certain Vista will not alter the collection.
No just DRM like the iPod, but signed apps too (Score:2, Informative)
I have a Treo, and am aware of the various things that are around for it, but iv'e also discovered what a crappy sync/update/install system it offers, and how it's unlikely that apps, once installed, will continue to work past two sync cycles. Vindigo refuses to sync all the time. Palm's own HotSync for photos is simply brain dead. A hack to support Google Maps required tracking down and installing a problematic Java VM, another library, and a flakey shareware app that never worked quite right. Most users don't want a toy box to hack on, they want a friggen phone that just works.
Part of the Treo's problem is shoddy 3rd party programming, part is the minimal memory available on the Treo, and part is simply the difficulty of managing a random assortment of apps installed on a platform with minimal regard for security (the Palm OS running a phone is like the classic Mac OS running a webserver - yes it can happen, but it's far beyond anything it was ever inteded to do).
RoughlyDrafted has a series of articles looking "Inside the iPhone," exploring why Apple didn't target faster 3G networks in EDGE, EVDO, HSUPA, 3G, and WiFi [roughlydrafted.com], a substantiated look at how the iPhone is indeed running OS X (contrary to yesterday's uninformed reports that it isn't), what it means to users and developers, and how ARM is involved, in Mac OS X, ARM, and iPod OS X [roughlydrafted.com], and why the supposedly "closed system" Apple describes for the iPhone won't preclude third party development in Third Party Software [roughlydrafted.com].
Re:So, how do you... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Just rip your CD's fool (Score:3, Informative)
iPhone doesn't handcuff you, iTunes store does (Score:3, Informative)
From the article:
This is not true. Only tracks bought from the iTunes store are DRM'd. You're perfectly free to rip your own music, or - legally or illegally - download it from sources without DRM. I encourage everyone not to buy from the iTunes store (although I have to admit to buying about 10 tracks and 2 albums for convenience's sake).
Re:Just rip your CD's fool (Score:3, Informative)
Try this: http://www.emusic.com/browse/all.html [emusic.com] I think this will work for you.
Re:You wanted a pony? (Score:3, Informative)
It comes from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, where Susie is wishing some bad things would happen to Calvin for teasing her. After making a number of such wishes, she thought something along the lines of "well, as long as I'm wishing, I also want a pony", recognizing the odds of getting any of it.
-dZ.
Re:No just DRM like the iPod, but signed apps too (Score:5, Informative)
"With the iPhone, Apple is forcing Cingular to support and subsidize a phone that will save users money."
Apparently, RoughlyDrafted feels WiFi is ubiquitous and free while 3G data forces users into high fees. Couldn't be more stupid than that.
Likewise, its "substantiated look at how the iPhone is indeed running OS X" is nothing but substantiated. For example:
"Microsoft has intentionally referred to its various operating environments under the brand Windows, despite the fact that its Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows CE products lines are all significantly different systems."
In other words, iPhone OS X is "OS X" like all flavors of Windows are Windows just as
"Despite losing the Finder, key ideas are retained on the iPhone that will be familiar to Mac users. Along the bottom of the home screen is an iconic list of its four principle functions: phone, mail, web, and iPod."
They are suggesting that the icons across the bottom of the screen are like the dock, never mind that my dock doesn't run across the bottom of my screen. Apparently, the dock constitutes the "key ideas" that make OS X what it is according to RoughlyDrafted. "Substantiated look" indeed.
The third party software article is even more absurd and offers nothing constructive at all. In fact it's not even worth a read. The author attempts to redirect the argument to the iPod, Zune, and Xbox ignoring the fact that those are fixed function devices while the the iPhone is specifically advertised as a pocketable computer. He also parrots the Apple line that 3rd party software is of unacceptably low quality while ignoring that fact that it's never hindered other computer platforms including the Mac itself and other smartphones before the iPhone. The rest of the article is full of mental masturbation, attempted demonstrations of expertise, and claims of Apple genious and capability. The most blatantly transparent apology of the three.
RoughlyDrafted is just another Apple apologist blog and brings nothing new or interesting to the discussion.