Fuck Apple and fuck their iPod Classic.
So, it’s finally happened. Unhappy with other media players being better than iTunes, Apple have apparently decided to stop them from working with the new range of iPods.
Who does this affect?
This affects Linux users – there’s no iTunes for Linux, so popular Linux iPod management tools like gtkpod and Rhythmbox will not work with the new range of iPods.
Windows users who just plain don’t like iTunes and perfer an alternative like Winamp, Ephpod or many of the other iPod management applications out there.
That is more than enough for me to ditch the notion of using their player at all and even if the gtkpod team gets it working that is just plain bullshit. Face Apple, iTunes is a steaming pile of shit and fucking worthless if you want to manage a collection bigger than a handful of tracks and locking people into it by way of the iPod db is a real asshole move.
Doctorow says it better (and with less cursing) than myself:
…this is about Apple limiting the choices available to people who buy their iPod hardware.
It’s hard to understand why Apple would do this, but the most likely explanations are that Apple wants to be sure that competitors can’t build their own players to load up iPods — now that half of the major labels have gone DRM free, it’s conceivable that we’d get a Rhapsody or Amazon player that automatically loaded the non-DRM tracks they sold you on your iPod (again, note that this has nothing to do with preventing piracy — this is about preventing competition with the iTunes Store).
Hopefully Cowon will roll out a large capacity player soon or I’m going to be one miserable bastard.
Ugh. Just saw this on Boing. We planned on buying a pair of the 80 GBs here, too. I’m trying to console myself with the constant reminder that synching w/ Rhythmbox is bug-filled as is (which prompted me to switch to the Rockbox firmware), so I’m better off with friendlier hardware. . . but, yeah, I can’t support this. So frustrating.
Yeah, Rythmbox tries to hard at sucking s much as iTunes which is why even though I’m a Gnome user I slip over the border into KDE to get my fix with Amarok. It’s the closest experience to Media Jukebox I can find.
I’ve made up my mind though…Archos 605 WiFi. Wide touch screen, browser with flash support, acts as a mass storage device, 160GB drive, movie playback, and can even read PDFs. All this things make me weak in the knees and if I can listen to tunes whilst checking Gmail? Fuck. I might just propose to the Archos engineering team.
gmusicbrowser has a ton of potential, but still a long way to go.
The 605 looks awesome. 800 x 480 in a Flash capable browser is impossible to beat right now. I think it plays music, too.
Are you using that link killing plug-in I read about on WP Dashboard or did I just blow it? Either way, http://squentin.free.fr/gmusicbrowser/gmusicbrowser.html .
Giving gmusicbroswer a whirl. For one thing it is a way fast import so big ups on that! Plus last.fm support, which I like to see.
Next month for the 605, with our vacation looming next week Management doesn’t want to see our hotel money dropped on electronics, no matter how awesome. Practicality.
Supported now
http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/496-iPod-Classic-Will-Be-Supported.html
Here’s the linux how-to:
http://www.backdot.com/?p=50
Patience is a virtue
You didn’t seriously think that it wouldn’t get hacked (like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that…)?
Naw, but I really hate those kinds of maneuvers and my stinging dislike for MS blinded me to the fact that Apple really is no better so unless Cowon comes out with a real stunner in the X7 I’m sold on Archos 605. But it does make me feel better that if I replace the wife’s iPod it’ll still work…