Follow MacBlips on Twitter
iPod shuffle has ‘authentication chip’ on headphone interface because Apple cares about customers
MacDailyNews —
... Apple 'authentication chip' if they want to interoperate with the new Shuffle," Fred von Lohmann writes for The Electronic Freedom Foundation. "Why have so many of the reviews of iPods failed to notice the proliferation of these Apple 'authentication chips?' If it were Microsoft demanding that computer peripherals all include Microsoft 'authentication chips' in order to work with Windows... I'd think reviewers would be screaming about it," von Lohmann writes. Full article here . MacDailyNews Take: Newsflash for Knee-jerkers: The big, bad "authentication chip" (forgive us ...
Apple has put DRM the headsets of the iPod Shuffle ?
HardMac.com —
... The EFF follows along the iLounge path and is very critical of this behavior, stating that Apple adds DRM everywhere where they it can, in order to block the manufacturers of compatible accessories unless they pay royalties to Apple. ...
Mystery Chip Raises iPod shuffle DRM Concerns
iPodObserver —
... Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality? It's a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight." The Electronic Frontier Foundation picked up on the iLounge comments, but made the leap from opinion to fact with the site's statements. Fred von Lohmann said on the group's blog "The 'authentication chip' is there so that Apple's lawyers can invoke the DMCA to block ...
Apple criticized for iPod shuffle's new 'authentication chip'
AppleInsider —
... was also not designed to support click and hold signals used on the new shuffle that was still under development at the time. However, the same review saw the limitation in a different light and suggested: "This just appears to be another Apple trick to randomly break compatibility with pre-existing accessories that might have been semi-useful, but didnt contain its chips." The Electronic Frontier Foundation was among the industry watchers who sided with iLounge on the matter, chastising Apple for "continuing to add more DRM to its own hardware [...] even as it attacks ...
EFF: Apple adds still more DRM to iPod shuffle
Macsimum News —
... The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that “even as it attacks DRM on music, Apple is continuing to add more DRM to its own hardware” with the new iPod shuffle. ...
Article: Editorial: iLounge’s Editor, On Apple Authentication and Punishment
iLounge | All Things iPod, iPhone, iTunes and beyond —
... , or if you have a shuffle, connect it to either a sensitive pair of earphones or a computer’s audio port, then switch the power on. The signaling appears right before the music starts to play; it is a handshake, which if successful, can be followed by the exchange of control-signaling data. The Electronic Frontier Foundation picked up on the authentication reference in our review and declared it to be “DRM,” a term which broadly “refers to access control technologies used by publishers, copyright holders, and hardware manufacturers to limit usage of digital media or ...
iPod Shuffle's new mystery chip explained
APC —
... discovered the chip, and tried to determine what the exact purpose of the “8A83E3” which was found inside the earbud control pod. BoingBoing Gadgets and the Electronic Frontier Foundation theorised it might have been some sort of DRM. As it turns out, they were half right. Apple has defined the chip as needed for its “made for iPod” program, and though it didn't say so, this may be because it lost control of the iPod connector licensing, after electronics makers realised it was a simple pass-through connector, with no special authentication. Several vendors have already ...
