Friday February 22, 2008

- iTunes fairplay protection broken again - Yoc - 21:56:37

While for years we did not have a solution on the Mac to remove DRM music bought on iTunes without any loss of quality, since the beginning of the year two programs (that we will not cite) have pointed the ends of their noses up at DRM and allow in a few seconds to remove all traces of protection.
Their approach is different: The first reads the mp4 (permission/licence must be installed on the computer) and scans what passes through the memory of the Mac to intercept what looks like the mp4 audio. The second is much more radical because we are dealing with a program that for the first time simply removes the DRM file by reverse engineering, without the help of QuickTime libraries and especially without the user needing to have the rights to the mp4 in the first place. It seems that the latter program that has exploded since its publication, Apple's lawyers have sent a nice letter (Cease and desist) to the forum hymn-project and others in rapidshare asking them remove all links to download. Oddly, they did not respond to the first (above), or any other software that already existed for Windows.

It is clear that we move slowly in a new era without DRM, and it is high time that the Majors leaves users free to do what they want with their music legally purchased. ITunes + is a first step for Apple, and we hope that the arrival of Amazon mp3 to the global stage pushes the majors to generalize the practice.
Only regret: hackers seemed really to enjoy amending their programs as soon as a new version of QuickTime and iTunes came out. We all have good memories to play cat and mouse in the course of recré.

[translation by jeremy]

- Apple scores €100 extra for Apple TV in Europe - Lionel - 20:40:35

Since MWSF Apple TV costs only $229 in the United States, and Apple has not seen fit to lower its price in Europe (250 Euros excl tax).
Converted into euros HT, it costs € 155 so we pay almost € 100 more!
That is a lot of money to pay for a 2-prong European plug (the only difference) so we are surprised that wholesalers have not begun to be import it via the grey market.

We do not know whether to go to Steve Jobs or Pascal Cagni to request the price is brought into line, so we are go to both:
Gentlemen, it would be nice if you would consider Europeans not to be complete idiots. They can also count and you make a fat profit from the exchange rate anyway.

[translation by jeremy]

- Nessy is about to be delivered - Lionel - 20:23:38

Source : TGdaily

Almost three years after its original announcement and after many announcements rescheduling of its delivery, the Loch Ness monster of IT, the keyboard Optimus is finally en route to be delivered.
Well at least to those customers who agreed to pay $1564.- to preorder this product.
For this price, they will the joy of a keyboard fitted with 113 mini LED screens totally programmable and capable of displaying a fixed image or a video.

[translation by crispin]

- iPhone wide open - Lionel - 19:58:47

Last week we told you about our experiences vis-a-vis the iPhone and the latest hacks for sim unlocking.
Since then things have changed and protections for iPhone have now been undone in large part by the famous Geohot.
The latest hack lets you change the bootloader of the iPhone, ie the first piece of code that loads the the hardware drivers, the software that tells the iPhone what it is. The bootloader contains basic information on the iPhone, and these were exploited in its first draft, stamped 3.9.
Apple has responded by offering a new bootloader, 4.6 in the latest equipment (roughly since the launch in England) , which removed these flaws and is relatively reliable. However, its reliability has also been compromised, at least in a certain way.
A flaw has been found and allows easy reflashing of the iPhone to the previous bootloader (3.9)with the software Ziphone reflasher . This manipulation returns the iPhone to a much more malleable and fully transparent state.

This is a hard blow for Apple, which is in the situation of having to try to change the keys while hackers have the means to change the locks.
There is no doubt that their engineers are in the process to do everything possible to find ways to block changes to the bootloader. But it will be too late for the millions of phones already sold.

Beware, however, if you decide to reflash the bootloader in your iPhone, because this manipulation is risky. Any crash during the modification can lead to permanent destruction of the phone! Of course, before you ask, we have tried ourselves. It all went smoothly and we had, in 5 minutes, an iPhone with bootloader 3.9, 1.1.3 firmware and "baseband" 04_03_13G desimlocked.

[translation by jeremy]

- BBC iPlayer for the Mac in a couple of weeks - Lionel - 17:09:42

Source : Macworld.co.uk

Although at the beginning of the month BBC foresaw that its iPlayer for Mac would be available only by the end of the year, now they have announced that it will be available in some weeks time and it would also support the iPhone and iPod Touch.
This reversal is probably related on the grumbling of the Mac users, and also to the recent partnership passed with the iTunes Store.
The chain of French television, led by TF1 , should be inspired and also propose VOD service compatible with other things beside that of PCs running Windows.

[translation by crispin]

- iTunes Update 7.6.1 - Matrix - 14:44:28

Apple has just released, via the Software Update, an update for iTunes - to version 7.6.1.

Rent and download your favorite movies with iTunes on your computer or directly to your living room on Apple TV. Enjoy rented movies in sizes up to 720p HD with surround sound on your Apple TV and sizes up to DVD-quality on your computer. Transfer your rented movies from iTunes to your iPod or iPhone and enjoy them on the go.

Also, purchase and download your favorite TV shows, music, and more directly on your Apple TV. Effortlessly transfer purchases made on Apple TV back to your computer with iTunes.

iTunes 7.6.1 includes several bug fixes and improves compatibility with Apple TV software version 2.0.

A download of 44,1 MB, and needs Mac OS X.3.9 or later version.

[translation by crispin]

- Speed up filetransfers in 10.5.2 - Lionel - 14:06:06

Source : MacFixit

Some people have experienced a noticeable slowdown when copying large files over an ethernet network, since their upgrade to Leopard. MacFixit has a solution for this problem: enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

(The system will prompt for an administrator password)
Pay attention, this modification will be reset after reboot. If you want it to stay forever, download the following script and let it auto-launch when your computer boots up: http://systemsboy.blogspot.com/

[translation by xavier]

- MacBook Air - expensive to manufacture - Lionel - 08:09:08

Tech-On , a publication of Nikkey, gave engineers a MacBook Air, which was torn to pieces and they gave their views on its architecture.
They were very surprised, admitting that they have never seen anything similar in their career: it does not resemble any other machine.
Mostly they were surprised by the complexity not of the motherboard, but of the assembly of the machine. Imagine it took 30 screws to remove the keyboard. These cannot be for securing the keybord - there is not the slightest chance of the keyboard moving if the laptop is knocked. One of them has even said that he would never have dared to propose such a solution to his employers for fear of being given an earful.
Overall, there are simply an enormous number of screws in the machine: What mount several laptops from other brands!
They presume that Apple has completely supervised and imposed its own design of the inside of the machine without taking advice from external engineers, and without seeking to reduce the time of manufacture.
Hard to say whether less screws would reduce the price of the machine, but with so many screws the customer service engineers will lose a lot of time at the slightest repair.
Overall, this is nothing new: Apple has always loved the screws, especially in its laptops. We have fond memories of the time required to remove the fifty screws providing access to the heart of a MacBook ... The worst in this area have certainly been the Powerbook 12 "... there were always some over at the end of reassembly.

[translation by jeremy]