Looking for an ebook read but don’t fancy messing with the complicated authentication schemes that often get in the way? New site eBooks Just Published focuses on newly-published titles that don’t use any form of digital rights management (DRM), making it much easier to read them on a wide variety of devices. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s more fiction than non-fiction on offer. There’s also a useful subcategory of entirely free titles if you’re looking to save a few dollars. eBooks Just Published
Windows only: DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free provides a clever work-around to stripping audio tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store—and, theoretically, other protected, purchased tracks—of their DRM. The free application installs a virtual CD burner on your Windows system, so your only job is to create a playlist, hit “Burn Disc,” and choose the “TurnsDrive” when prompted. If the app is running in your system tray, it catches the “burning,” and works in the background to split the virtual disc back into unprotected MP3s. Album art, tags, and other metadata are all preserved, and while the burning process took unusually long for one batch of protected MP3s, it delivered on the restriction-free goods. You’ll have to have authorised access to play and burn the tracks you want to unlock, but since iTunes allows unlimited CD burns (if you change the playlist just a bit), you’re pretty much in the clear. DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free is a free download for Windows systems only; a paid version adds OGG and other formats and a few other options. DVDneXtCOPY iTurns Free [via FreewareGenius.com]
Dear Lifehacker, Windows Media Player hijacked my MP3 files and converted them all to WMA. I want to change them back easily in one sweep—but am not the most savvy user. Help? Signed, Gimme My Beats Back Original photo by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary
Telstra’s BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we’ll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don’t have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!) [BigPond Music]
Want an easy way to share DRM-free music from your iTunes library to your friends? Twist me!, a Facebook app developed alongside the DRM-stripping DoubleTwist application, offers a fairly convenient way to do just that. You and anyone you share with have to have the desktop client installed, unfortunately, but files up to 10 MB in size can be passed back and forth from the Facebook app, or even from inside iTunes itself. Luckily, Wired’s How-To Wiki has just posted a helpful guide for getting started with both the desktop client and Facebook sharing. Both DoubleTwist and Twist me! are free, but still Windows only at this point. Share MP3s With Your Facebook Friends Using DoubleTwist [Wired How-To Wiki]
The other day we told you about the new DRM-stripping application DoubleTwist – which operates in a similar way to ripping and burning a CD. Now the Wired How-to Wiki folk have put together a guide on how to share MP3s with your Facebook friends using DoubleTwist.It uses the new Facebook app Twist me!The wiki points out two things worth noting:
The DoubleTwist application requires the .NET v2 framework to run, so you may need to run an update before installing it.DoubleTwist also forces you to create an online account, which means your activity is traceable should DoubleTwist ever get subpoenaed.Share MP3s with your Facebook Friends using DoubleTwist [Wired How-to Wiki]
Windows only: Freeware application doubleTwist converts your DRM-laden iTunes purchases to DRM-free MP3s that you can play pretty much anywhere. In addition to the DRM-stripping (which really is the marquee feature), doubleTwist is actually a full-fledged tool for sharing music with friends and syncing your iTunes library to any device—currently supporting devices like the PSP and Sony phones, Nokia N-Series phones, Windows Mobile phones, and even the Amazon Kindle. The DRM-stripping isn’t lossless (sound degradation is reportedly about 5%), but at a conversion rate of about 100 songs per half hour, it’s very fast. Brought to you by DVD Jon (the guy famous for cracking DVD encryption), this freeware, Windows-only (for now) app can free you from the shackles of Apple DRM. doubleTwist [via Gizmodo]
The Oz reports that “famed” hacker DVD Jon has co-founded a startup company called doubleTwist. Their self-titled product removes the DRM from legally purchased media (including the Apples iTunes store) so it can be shared on other devices. They’ve said they expect no legal “pushback” from Apple over their software. We’ll see.
Journalist and BBC World Service commentator Bill Thompson says Microsoft’s put way too many hurdles in the way of upgrading from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to the 120GB hard drive Xbox 360 Elite. Why? Having to send off for a special use-once-and-discard cable to transfer data from the old Xbox, having to swap hard disks and spending up to an hour to transfer just 20GB of data across. Worst of all, he says, is that the process wipes the old hard drive, so you can’t keep old games or even saved games on the older console. That’s not much chop if you want to keep using both consoles.So a question for the console owners out there (I’m partial to the Wii, never got into Xbox) – is this Xbox tale of woe a typical story, or do other console manufacturers handle upgrades and DRM better? It seems that DRM lockdown is a fact of life if you’re a console gamer.
