Filed under: Portable Audio

Earlier this week we told you about the first tool we’ve yet heard of that strips the FairPlay DRM from the iTunes Music Store v6 tracks you bought, called QTFairUse. Unfortunately, because this tool was still very raw and in Python, so it didn’t seem entirely there yet for the rest of us; well, today we’re one step closer with myTunes, a small (50KB), simple, graphical Windows app designed to strip the DRM off your iTunes tracks lickety split. Based on the QTFairUse Python code (and not that of the original myTunes from way back in the day), this app unfortunately only strips DRM in real time, meaning that while it automates the process as you churn through your playlist, it also requires you to play through your library song by song (compared to FairUse4WM, which strips PlaysForSure DRM en masse). Also, after the FairPlay has been stripped, you still have to use another tool to reconstruct your track from your raw AAC file (which also means you have no metadata). In other words, even though this tool simplifies a lot of the process, it’s still also a huge pain to use, so you’d better be prepared to bust out some shell scripting until the next version of myTunes is released (when they intend to automatically add the headers and metadata, making it a one step process). But it did most definitely work, click on to get an idea of what you’re in for with this early version of myTunes.

[Thanks, Pete]

So the first thing we did was, of course, update to the very latest version of iTunes for Windows (6.0.5.20) and buy a song from the iTunes Music Store.

We love Ultravox, so we picked an appropriate song…

As you can see, we’re prepared for major cash outlays for our editorial.

Once you have your track ready to play, fire up myTunes, set your decoding path, and enable myTunes.

Then, just hit play on your DRMed track, and it will begin the DRM stripping process.

Like we said, it goes in real time, so be patient. You’ll probably want to leave this thing running overnight (hey, that’s 8 hours of un-DRMed music a day, not too bad).

Once it’s done decoding, you have to use another tool called faad.exe to construct a playable AAC ADTS file. Kinda sucks, but it only took 2.8 seconds for Hymn to get built back up. Then we moved all our files (the FairPlay DRMed file, the raw AAC file, and the reconstructed AAC file) to our other machine for testing.

As you’d expect, this is what happened with the AAC file tried to play in VLC. No go — that’s copy protection for ya!

Neither would the raw AAC file play, but that wasn’t a surprise either. The resulting file from faad worked just fine, though.

Unfortunately it had no metadata (as expected).

However, as you can see the bitrate was kept intact, and the file size was almost identical to its original. We can’t yet confirm that this was a lossless DRM stripping method, but we’d wager it is (or at least very close to it). For what it’s worth, we heard absolutely no discernable loss in sound quality. Happy fair use everybody!

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

It would appear that the watering down and corporate-sponsored evisceration of the French iPod law has ceased, as today the French legislation cemented the final wording of the law, which is to be put before the French Senate and National Assembly in a vote without debate. It sounds as though the bill has attracted some chaff along the way and lost some weight around its DRM waistline, so what the latest down version will actually mean for Apple and French consumers if passed is a little unclear — but what is remarkably apparent is Cupertino’s steady and vehement opposition to the bill, or any that would imply FairPlay be gutted itself.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

France’s iPod law came and went, and Denmark‘s anti-iTunes Music Store pressure didn’t really seem gather a whole lot of steam; we just saw Norway turn to their own national consumer ombudsman for assistance in prying open Apple’s FairPlay DRM so Apple music will, um, play fairly on other devices. But now we can tack on another to the growing number of European nations dissatisfied with Apple’s DRM lockbox: Sweden. The Swedish Consumer Agency spokeswoman Marianne Aabyhammar had this to say about the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish anti-iTunes triumvirate: “iTunes’ terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries,” and “If iTunes fails to improve its terms and conditions in Sweden, we may take the case to Sweden’s market court.” Funny how this same spirit of Swedish openness drove Jens of Sweden out of business, but let’s keep focused; there’s no denying that we’re past the tipping point, and the pressure by European states for Appleto open its music systems is only going to increase in virulence. If Apple’s going to make it out of this one unscathed, it seems like they might have to seriously reconsider their business model — at least in Europe.

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Filed under: Features, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week.

This week, not surprisingly the scribes from the mainstream press joined us at E3, checking out the latest from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft — though, from the looks of things, many of our ink-stained cohorts seemed more interested in seeing how the “booth babe” ban was going. The Los Angeles Times, E3′s hometown paper, had excellent coverage overall, but that coverage was somewhat overshadowed by the booth babe reportage, which included text, a photo gallery and videos. A few miles up the coast, the San Francisco Chronicle didn’t have the Times’ wall-to-wall coverage, but still managed to pay homage to the girls of E3, pointing out that the highly publicized crackdown on the raciest attire has had results: “Where once cleavage, upper thighs and midriffs were almost impossible to avoid, they have been more or less hidden behind baby T-shirts and more-modest tank tops. And it seems like there are fewer booth babes overall.” Of course, the biggest E3 scoop by the mainstream media came from Time Magazine, with its exclusive preview of the Wii, which appeared in the magazine a full two days before the conference started. For those of us who considered ourselves lucky to get a chance to try out the new console without having to wait in line for an hour, it was a stark reminder that the MSM still have a lot of clout when it comes to getting scoops from big companies.

Elsewhere in the media, The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg caused a stir with a column on Apple Computer’s “device model” vs. Microsoft’s “component model.” And, although Mossberg’s assertion was that Apple’s model of end-to-end control over its product line had, in the “post-PC era,”  benefited consumers more than Microsoft’s model of allowing PC makers to sort out the details, that’s not what caused a new cycle of debate in the blogosphere. Instead, it was one line in the column, where Mossberg stated: “Now, Apple is working on other projects built on the same end-to-end model as the iPod: a media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub.” If any other journalist had written this statement, it would likely have been dismissed as a mere assumption based on Apple’s current direction and rumors that have been floating around for the past year. However, given Mossberg’s stature, and the care he takes at presenting information, the comment was instantly hailed as conclusive evidence that Apple is indeed working on such products. And given word that leaked out later in the week that Apple may be working on an iPhone with Japan’s Softbank, and that the company plans to host the media at its New York store next Thursday, Mossberg’s assertion may turn out to have been quite accurate, quite soon.

Mossberg wasn’t the only one making controversial statements about Apple this week. Reuters reporter Duncan Martell dared to point out that you don’t really “own” music you download from the iTunes Music Store, since “owning implies control and if you bought the tracks on iTunes you don’t have complete control.” That, of course, is essential to Apple’s razor-and-blades model of linking the iPod to iTunes, but it pokes a hole in a major defense of iTMS vs. the PlaysforSure-based subscription model. After all, fans of iTMS have long stated that it’s better to own music than to “rent” it, via the subscription model. However, Martell rightly points out that you don’t really own anything you download from iTunes. You’re licensing it, as you do with software, and Apple can change the terms of that license at will.

USA Today – Videogame makers unveil the fun to come
LA Times – E3 2006
San Francisco Chronicle – Nintendo’s hot controller, booth babes under control
Time – A game for all ages

The Wall Street Journal – In our post-PC era, Apple’s device model beats the PC way
Reuters – Do you own songs bought online? Well, sort of

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Filed under: Portable Audio

As expected, the French Senate passed a controversial copyright bill on Wednesday -- and, also as expected, the bill dropped key provisions on DRM interoperability that were included in a previous version approved by the country's National Assembly. The earlier version had included language that would have required companies such as Apple Computer to open their proprietary DRM to consumers and competitors, so that music protected via one DRM scheme could be played on all digital audio players, regardless of manufacturer. The Senate's version of the bill pays lip service to the interoperability concept, but leaves enforcement up to a new government agency -- and exempts companies from the requirement as long as the original copyright holders agree to have their works protected by proprietary DRM. In Apple's case, that may mean renegotiating contracts with record companies to include such language. However, given that Steve Jobs recently managed to get the labels to back down on their demands that he offer flexible pricing, chances are he'll have no problem getting them to agree that Apple's FairPlay DRM is, well, fair play.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Last month we wrote about a CNET study that quietly laid claim to PlaysForSure DRM cutting player battery life by as much as 25%, and FairPlay draining iPod batteries by up to 8%. DAPreview put it to the test, though, by comparing playback time on 25 albums in 160KBps non-DRMed and DRMed WMA in sequence on a fully charged SanDisk Sansa e260 with volume at 50%, screen brightness at low, and the backlight left on. And wouldn't you know it, the DRMed files played all of 25 minutes less, or 2.8% less than the 14:55 pulled from the non-DRMed music. However, since the test was only run on a single device, this only means you can conclude that the Sansa e260 handles DRM well; with so many chipset designs for player internals, you couldn't expect all devices to produce the same positive results. But hey, it's encouraging, if nothing else -- especially if you're a Sansa e260 user.