macfidelity

Der Musiker Neil Young hat sich im Rahmen der Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference über die Entwicklung der Musik im Internet-Zeitalter ausgelassen.

Unter anderem missfällt ihm die Tendenz mieser Qualitäts-Standards und sieht dort auch einen starken Einfluss von Apple & iTunes auf diesen Sektor.

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Ich habe lange nach brauchbaren Player Alternativen unter Mac OS X geschaut, primà�r weil mir der iTunes Ansatz so gar nicht in den Kram passt.

Warum ?

Ich fà�hle mich in dem Datenkonzept irgendwie eingeengt. Meine Audio-Daten liegen im Netzwerk und sollen von jedem Rechner egal mit welchem OS nà�tzbar sein. Eine breite Unterstà�tzung diverser audio-formate ist mir ebenso wichtig. Ein wichtiger Aspekt fà�r mich ist auch dass ich meine Daten so organisieren kann wie ich will ohne mir danach Sorgen um etwaige Aufrà�umarbeiten / Fehleintraà�ge in der Datenbank des Players machen muss.

Nachdem Wechsel zu Mac OS X � ist Amarok als Audio-Player fà�r mich leider entfallen (ja ich weiss er là�uft unter Mac, aber in meinen Tests bis dato � nicht so stabil und umfassend wie erhoft).

Nach endloser Suche bin ich irgendwann (vor circa einem Jahr) bei Cog gelandet, einem kleinen sehr simplen Player der inzwischen bei Version 0.08 (r 907) angekommen ist. Klngt nach einer sehr interessanten Versionspolitik wenn man sich mal ansieht das Cog heute schon alles kann.

Ein kurzer Blick aufs Interface:

Seit Anbeginn verwende ich eigentlich die Nightly Releases von Cog, welches sich in den Preferences des Programmes definieren là�sst. Mit einer kleinen Ausnahme (1 wirkliches Problem in einem Jahr) liefen diese auch immer sehr reibunglos und stabil.

Gerade die Nightlies bringen immer wieder nette kleinen Funktionen wie einen Mini-Player Mode oder à�hnliches mit sich und so ist es ein stà�ngies entdecken neuer Features.

Mini-Mode:

Fazit:

Jeder der eine kleine aber feine Alternative zu iTunes sucht ist bei Cog absolut gut aufgehoben. Hoffe dem einen oder anderen auf der mir gut bekannten unendlichen Suche nach Alternativen geholfen zu haben.

Links:

• Cog Homepage

A good article from John Lilly (Mozilla CEO) about Apples update behaviour on Microsoft Windows machines.

Quote:

What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that’s bad  not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.

Well a full agree to both writers.

Here the original post of John Lilly

Just found this public announcment of Mr. Steve Jobs from Feb. 6 2007 on Apple.com

Quote:

With the stunning global success of Appleâ �� ��s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to â ��œopenâ �� � the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Letâ �� ��s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in â ��œopenâ �� � licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the â ��œbig fourâ �� � music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the worldâ �� ��s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloaderâ �� ��s computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still â ��œhideâ �� � the keys which unlock the music on the userâ �� ��s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Appleâ �� ��s DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

With this background, letâ �� ��s now explore three different alternatives for the future………

Still haven’t found my “ultimate-wish” player for osx.

A short app listing

• Songbird
• Cog
• Play
• Toolplayer
• Amarok (2.0 should be osx native….lets hope for that)
• MacAMP Lite X (dev stopped)
• Whamb
• Audion (dev stopped)

some images

The question is….will there ever be a really good audio-player for OSX ?

Lets hope for Cog and amarok

Maybe i am NOT a default mac user and i must admit i dont like Apple’s iTunes idea and the way how i have to handle audio files on my iPod. Being forced to copy my music via iTunes was not a proper solution, so i searched for an alternative firmware and finally found it.

Rockbox

On the project page the short description is:

Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware for mp3 players. It runs on a number of different models:

- Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio

- iriver: H100, H300 and H10 series

- Apple: iPod 4th gen (grayscale and color), 5th/5.5th gen (Video - 30GB and 60GB models only), 1st gen Nano and Mini 1st/2nd gen (Nano 2nd gen and 80GB Video 5.5th gen are not supported)

- iAudio: X5 (including X5V and X5L)

- Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (the S model is not supported)

- Additional models are in development

You should REALLY take some time to read through the manuals before starting ANY installation. In addition there is a wiki to get more informations about the project itself and the firmware.

another quote:

Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of MP3 players. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device’s stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customizable. Rockbox is written by users, for users.

I am running now rockbox for about half a year on my g5 30 gb iPod and my impression is delicious. You can handle your re-formated pod, like any usb-memory stick. The firmware is customizable and free.
no more words needed…

Hello,

i have searches a long time for a good alternative for itunes. Finally i found an application which is really at its beginning, but looks at least for me, like a great thing so far.

Name: Songbird

It offers a large media-formats supports and includes an extension feature. The Feature listing can be found here

enjoy it

I must admit, its still not the way i like handling my music, as i really prefer the amarok way of doing that, but as the amarok port doenst work stable as i need it, songbird is a first step.

Best regards
fidel