![]() When Sony got into their own record labels and into their own stupid file formats (atrac anyone?) and building walls around their crippled hardware, that was the point at which they stumbled to the extent that it opened up the consumer space the iPod now dominates. I mean, come on, all this talk about open source unixy goodness and then Apple goes and get in a hissy fit about some other company getting something to run on their product? Is Harmony gonna sell less iPods or something? One good reason to be a hardware company (making your money on the hardware) is so that you can avoid this type of pig headedness. While it is certainly interesting to note the Harmony userbase is so infinetesimal that no one actually noticed this between Nov 15th and today, it is dissapointing that Apple is disabling capabilities in the ipod because of the lame shift in tone that it represents. The changes apparently came in an update to the iPod software released by the company in mid-November. In this initial effort to block Harmony, Apple reportedly made changes to the iPod's firmware, which is the low-level software that powers consumer electronics such as MP3 players and cellphones. To create Harmony, Real created a way to translate songs downloaded from Real's store from Real's Helix DRM scheme to an equivalent of Apple's FairPlay when loaded onto an iPod.Īpple immediately responded to the announcement of Harmony in a public statement, claiming that Real "adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." ![]() To combat Apple's unfavorable response, Real in July announced its Harmony technology, which lets users play music bought and downloaded from its online music store on the iPod. ![]() In March of this year, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser used several avenues to exhort Apple to open up the iPod to additional file formats. ![]() The move could render tunes purchased by many iPod owners unplayable on their music players. An Apple firmware update has disrupted Real's Harmony.Īpple Computer has quietly updated its iPod software so that songs purchased from RealNetworks' online music store will no longer play on some of the Mac maker's popular MP3 players, CNet is reporting. ![]()
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