April 29, 2004

100 million or bust! Apple launches iTunes 4.5 with a free song a day for the next eight days, and another little surprise: new downloads won't play if DRM code is stripped.
  • I predict someone will have a patch for that problem in 3...2...1...
  • ...new Mac OS X code, which is included as part of the iTunes 4.5 installer, cripples the vast majority of DRM-removing applications... No fair, now I have to decide whether to get the new version for the free music, or not get it and be able to play my non-existent free music in any other media player. Oh, the humanity!
  • The free music is only available when you are in the US. Us Canadians are still discriminated. Ah well, bittorrent still works. And my iPod is full anyway.
  • i said it before, i'll say it again: this DRM crap is forcing us to get our free music the old fashioned way - by borrowing a CD from a friend, and copying or ripping it. your friends don't have to be local, either. mp3 is still DRM free, folks. don't neglect the mp3. small enough to, say, put on a personal ftp site and let your three favorite monkeys know about it. just so long as it isn't a peer-to-peer filesharing network, and you don't publicize it the way that oth.net used to, the RIAA won't know it exists. say, i have a personal ftp site... with a TINY hard drive. damn.
  • I had a chance to preview this last night and am rather ambivalent about the changes. The only good thing I see is hte lossless audio codec. that will help conserve disc space for mixes. i don't understand the point of the 'party mix' feature, it seems a bit useless. playing videos in the store might be cool, but there aren't any good ones. linking all my files to the itunes store is invasive (though you can turn it off). I really see no reason to upgrade if you will lose some ill got songs.
  • Authentication cracked in less than 24 hours. Damn. =)
  • Authentication cracked in less than 24 hours BOO YAH! I love the internet, it makes me smile :)
  • Minor nitpick: the new version didn't really disable non-DRM'ed tracks, it just made the unDRMers stop working.. and changed the stream protocol. They also upped the computer limit too (5 from 3 - but lowered the burning limit to 7). But the DRM strippers still don't work.