Erstellt am: 2. 4. 2009 - 12:40 Uhr
Today's webtip: Take me to your Pod
At the end of the 90's, just about the time Napster was getting ready to scare the bejeezus out of the music industry and music geeks across the planet were starting to really explore the idea of small and highly portable music files, hardware developers were beginning to think about ways of getting them off the computer.
The Mp3 Man f10/20 was developed by SaeHan and released in 1997-8. It was a cute little device that ran on a single AA battery and had a whopping 32MB built in. The f-20 model offered an expansion slot for a smart media card which could get you another 32MB. Aside from the unpopular card format, which made it a dead end player, it was a pretty nice bit of plastic. Mine served me well as I waited to be able to afford the PBJ 1000. I'm still waiting.
The first player that did have some success was the Diamond Rio. It was so successful that it managed to attract the attention of the R.I.A.A. who did their best to keep it from being sold in the U.S. They eventually lost, and the Rio got so much publicity that it is widely viewed as being the first portable Mp3 player.
That was in 1998-1999. About the time Apple was developing the iPod. When the iPod finally came out, it was missing two things many of the other players of the time had. It didn't use any form of DRM, and it didn't allow easy access to its file structure.
At the time the iPod was released, the Music industry was working together with hardware developers and Microsoft to try to find some kind of workable copy protection. Most of them have since disappeared, but they all had one thing in common. You couldn't use them with a Macintosh.
I always assumed that the hidden file structure was a way for Apple to avoid having the music industry attack the iPod as a music copying device. Something that would have cost quite a bit of money for a product that was anything but proven. And it worked. The music industry let Apple (and Mac users) have their toy, and we all know how the rest of the story went.
But we still can't get our music off the darn things. Not officially anyway. Something which can be a serious pain in the tuchus if you have managed to torch your music drive. Again.
And then there is Linux. But since Linux users have to be able to figure things out on their own, I'm going to drop some freeware tips for everyone else.
Pod to Mac and Pod to PC do just what you might think. They help you get your music back on to your computer. That might not be a big deal to you Windows users out there, but right now it's the only freeware solution for saving your tunes when you find yourself in Dire Straits.