XM Radio Hacked by Car Computer Hobbyists 189
An anonymous reader writes "There is an article over at News.com that talks about a small Florida company called Hybrid Mobile Solutions, that hacked XM Radio. They created a cable and software that makes the new XM Commander and XM Direct units work just like an XMPCR. They are in negotiations with TimeTrax to allow recording of XM Radio to MP3's. XMPCR was canned due to this late last month."
Hackers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Call me a nitpicker, but the term hacker is growing too wide for my taste.
Re:Hackers? (Score:5, Insightful)
seems like a reasonable effort (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:almost slashdotted, hurry up and get to it (Score:5, Insightful)
Either you can regulate satelite transmissions or you can't. Make up your mind!
-Nick
XM Radio isn't hacked. (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying "XM Radio got hacked" brings to mind ideas like
1) someone's broken the subscription requirement,
2) someone's broken into XM servers,
3) someone's taken over XM's broadcast satellite system,
etc.
Re:XM Radio isn't hacked. (Score:3, Insightful)
You and this guy [slashdot.org] totally missed the point. Hacking is just making a system do something it wasn't designed to do, or making it do something it WAS designed to do but the functionality was not enabled for one reason or another. Writing code is hacking because you're adding new functionality. Finding a better way to do something and replacing original functionality is also covered by this term. So, perhaps unfortunately, is unauthorizedly logging into computer systems through hook and/or crook, though many of us have campaigned for that meaning to be replaced by the word "cracking" so as not to tarnish the word "hacker".
Getting XM to do something it doesn't normally do is hacking.
Ah... the good old days (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, the ignorance, the ignorance.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Several companies have come up with a way to add and PC-controlable tuner interface between the XM Direct radio. No big deal.
This issue does not concern the FCC since the service itself is not being stolen as was the case with sat TV service.
I own three of the XMPCR boxes. Two are in use, one at work and one at home, and the third is my spare (gotta have my XM.)
I was just thinking yesterday... (Score:2, Insightful)
...that what I'd really like in my car is time-shifted:
Of course, the radio station's business model depends on my sitting through mind-numbing ads to catch the 20-second blast of traffic info, but with a subscription service, it seems like a perfect fit. I hope this idea goes somewhere.
Re:Seems a bit silly... (Score:2, Insightful)
All you need is any of the units and a tape deck instead of a vcr, or you could output it to your computer, or anything else that accepts audio input.
Re:Why do you need an extra set of hardware? (Score:1, Insightful)
This means individual MP3s on your hard drive.
The Only Way... (Score:3, Insightful)
Back when I was in high school and was lusting after a 4 track reel-to-reel multitrack deck from Tascam, there was a financial barrier to high quality recordings. But today, there are so many options out there that even if you aren't using AES/EBU digital connection (no SCMS DRM) you can still get much higher quality copies than you could with a cassette deck back in the 80s. So, even if the RIAA and MPAA do get DRM so intertwined into newer audio and video gear, it's going to be next to impossible to prevent older decent quality devices from recording. This is a battle that can't be won without draconian mesaures.
The shame of all of this is that nearly everyone with a computer has the facilities for making their own music and therefore bypassing the RIAA altogether. I do remember a period of time in the 80s when it was illegal to own a 4-track recorder in a residential area in my state. I wonder if they are going to try that with software based virtual studios? Likely not since most people with the ability and talent are just too lazy to make their own music. (It's easier than you think. If you can set up a Cisco network, you can make your own music.) So, what can the RIAA and MPAA do to stop people from pirating? How about they take away all sound cards and video caputre cards, digital audio and video recorders, and software based audio? They can't. The genie is out of the bottle.
With that out of the way, is it right to distribute music that you aren't authorized to distribute? Absolutely not. Quite a problem, ehhh?
Re:XMPCR? (Score:5, Insightful)
> You can go to bed and wake up the next morning with several hundred mp3s on your machine all labeled correctly and ready for distribution.
You just assume that everyone who uses TimeTrax does so for the purpose of distributing music.
Let me ask you .. what is the point of this? Do you really think people get a CD and go, "ooh, I can rip all of these songs and UPLOAD them to thousands and thousands of people I don't even know! W00T!" No. The point of TimeTrax was so people can listen to what they want whenever they want on whatever they want .. PC, Linux box, MP3 player, sunglasses [gizmodo.com], what the hell ever. They're paying for the music by subscribing to XM .. by using TimeTrax it gives them more control over the music than the RIAA wants them to have, so ipso facto it must be a "crime"?
The electronics industry are more and more doing their damnest to limit and restrain the freedom of their customers to use their products however they want. By assuming every customer might actually use their brain and think of a new way to apply the product, they work on the assumption therefore that each customer is a potential criminal.
Does it matter? (Score:3, Insightful)