Dunno where to post this to get sensible suggestions and to be helpful to others - by all means tell me where.
Problem: I *wanted* a car with a jackplug socket on the radio to play my ipod touch on - I reasoned that would be a stable interface for the foreseeable future. But the car I got is a fiat and has a silly USB interface designed for Microsoft mp3 players (as if anyone ever heard of such a thing ...). Had to pay another 70 quid for an adapter to make apple kit work with it. This worked well until iOS 5 when it stopped working. No fix in sight, I doubt if Fiat will ever fix it (the later cars have hardware that works directly with iphones and stuff without the adapter - hey they noticed ;-) ).
Having fiddled for ages I've given up trying to get it working with my iTouch with iOS 5 and have been looking at what some people suggested - copying music onto a USB stick. That would work - it can play MP3's on usb sticks except for (drum-roll) DRM. They get you at every turn don't they.
Right, so my podcasts are in mp3, no problem. Some music is m4a - I haven't converted it but I believe conversion is easy. The problem is the m4p's which are encrypted. I am told the only legal way to convert m4p's to mp3's is to burn them to a cd, set the itunes import format to mp3 then import them. Well it kinda works .. but in the process they lose their metadata and become just plain numbered files - pretty unusable unless you really *do* want "random" music (you cannot know what's in the tin until you open it) which I don't. So now I'm stuck. I have 114 songs/movements/whatever in m4p - too many to laboriously transfer a few at a time and put the Metadata back by hand.
Any suggestions for a way to handle this ? Advice out there is to put the songs in a playlist then burn that - I have them in a playlist. So I'm thinking that with a bit of clever manipulation of xml somewhere I might be able to mechanically put the Metadata back. I have cloned versions of the OS so don't have to worry too much about screwing up my itunes data.
Apple, if you are reading I would say two things:
1. This is an excellent example of why control of all aspects of development are needed - the *real* solution to this depends on Apple AND Fiat getting in step, which is never going to happen - particularly when one side (FIAT) will not benefit from fixing up their software for iOS 5 (they would prefer I bought a new car!) It isn't a good idea for two separate companies to work around a changing interface unless they co-operate.
2. I don't want to steal my music. I don't want to put it on the Internet and give it away. I'm not trying to sell it to anyone - I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO IT IN MY CAR AS I COULD BEFORE - AFTER ALL, I'VE PAID FOR BOTH. Is that too much to ask for ? Doesn't this just show what's wrong with DRM on sold music ? I can no longer use what I've paid for.
andy
Problem: I *wanted* a car with a jackplug socket on the radio to play my ipod touch on - I reasoned that would be a stable interface for the foreseeable future. But the car I got is a fiat and has a silly USB interface designed for Microsoft mp3 players (as if anyone ever heard of such a thing ...). Had to pay another 70 quid for an adapter to make apple kit work with it. This worked well until iOS 5 when it stopped working. No fix in sight, I doubt if Fiat will ever fix it (the later cars have hardware that works directly with iphones and stuff without the adapter - hey they noticed ;-) ).
Having fiddled for ages I've given up trying to get it working with my iTouch with iOS 5 and have been looking at what some people suggested - copying music onto a USB stick. That would work - it can play MP3's on usb sticks except for (drum-roll) DRM. They get you at every turn don't they.
Right, so my podcasts are in mp3, no problem. Some music is m4a - I haven't converted it but I believe conversion is easy. The problem is the m4p's which are encrypted. I am told the only legal way to convert m4p's to mp3's is to burn them to a cd, set the itunes import format to mp3 then import them. Well it kinda works .. but in the process they lose their metadata and become just plain numbered files - pretty unusable unless you really *do* want "random" music (you cannot know what's in the tin until you open it) which I don't. So now I'm stuck. I have 114 songs/movements/whatever in m4p - too many to laboriously transfer a few at a time and put the Metadata back by hand.
Any suggestions for a way to handle this ? Advice out there is to put the songs in a playlist then burn that - I have them in a playlist. So I'm thinking that with a bit of clever manipulation of xml somewhere I might be able to mechanically put the Metadata back. I have cloned versions of the OS so don't have to worry too much about screwing up my itunes data.
Apple, if you are reading I would say two things:
1. This is an excellent example of why control of all aspects of development are needed - the *real* solution to this depends on Apple AND Fiat getting in step, which is never going to happen - particularly when one side (FIAT) will not benefit from fixing up their software for iOS 5 (they would prefer I bought a new car!) It isn't a good idea for two separate companies to work around a changing interface unless they co-operate.
2. I don't want to steal my music. I don't want to put it on the Internet and give it away. I'm not trying to sell it to anyone - I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO IT IN MY CAR AS I COULD BEFORE - AFTER ALL, I'VE PAID FOR BOTH. Is that too much to ask for ? Doesn't this just show what's wrong with DRM on sold music ? I can no longer use what I've paid for.
andy
