Apple denies mystery chip is DRM
FRUIT-THEMED maker of exploding laptops and expensive gizmos, Apple has denied that a chip it has installed in the ear buds of its ne Ipod Shuffle is anything to do with DRM.
The 8A83E3 chip, found within the control switch of the new Shuffle earbuds was claimed to be a form of DRM by BoingBoing and the Electronic Frontier Foundation which is designed to force users to buy only Apple earphones.
Apple admitted that the chip was designed to make sure that third-party headphones work properly with the third-generation Ipod shuffle, but it did not use DRM.
Kevin Lee, the vice president of marketing and strategic business development for Monster Cable, said it was DRM because it didn't use authentication. Instead it is a control chip which allows signals to be passed along the cable to control the volume, track selection and other functions that can be controlled via the earbud controls.
A quick search on the Interwibble reveals that a number of manufacturers are already offering third party replacements. µ
L'Inq
PCMag
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"Monster Cable, said it was DRM because it didn't use authentication"
I'm sure you left off the "n't" in "was" quite by accident
So it won't work without that chip... is that what I'm understanding? It sounds like they want to make it difficult to record using the iPod as an analog source. It's not impossible, most likely, but it would be tricky (soldering lil' wires will make in inconvenient). If they make a control with a headphone out on it, then I'll have been wrong-- but I guess that they won't. I have a walkman that has an external controller (optional to use) and has a HP jack... meh. It's DRM... but it isn't.