Thursday, July 29

Apple accused RealNetworks of 'hacker' tactics in music war

There are at least 5 different stories on this subject today, so I figured I should post one of them. Apparently, RealNetworks has (according to Apple) "hacked" their way into communicating with the iPod. The newest RealPlayer software is capable of downloading songs to the iPod, which was originally only able to communicate with desktop computers by way of Apple software such as iTunes.

I think universality is a good thing... I hate being forced to use one piece of software. Making the "iPod sync" code available to be used with other products only enhances the usability of the music player, in my opinion. If somebody never gets an iPod because they (for some godforsaken reason) love RealPlayer software and can't sync it to the device, now there is a path to purchasing and using the Apple product.

However, according to Apple: "We strongly caution Real and their customers that when we update our iPod software from time to time it is highly likely that Real's Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future iPods."

Read this as: "You're going down, Real. Nobody messes with Apple and provides competition on our own turf!"

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The Geek Code desperately needs updating, but in any case here's mine (as of 2010-02-28):

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GIT/MU d+(-) s:+>: a C++> ULXB++++$ L+++ M++ w--() !O !V P+ E---
W+++ N o++ K? PS PE++ Y+ PGP t !5 X- R- tv+@ b++ DI++++ D--- e*++
h--- r+++ y+++ G+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------


If you really care about knowing what that all means, you either know the code already, or you can get it decoded for you here.