Apple Core Audio Update, DRM and Copyright Issues
The podcast begins with a discussion regarding technical delays caused by a recent Apple system update that altered Core Audio drivers. This update reportedly disrupted configurations for Jackpilot and other professional audio routing software. The changes are attributed to Apple's digital rights management (DRM) agreements with the music industry, which aim to prevent high-sample-rate audio hijacking. Companies like Rogue Amoeba have faced challenges on Apple platforms due to these restrictive low-level system modifications.
apple· core audio· jackpilot· drm· rogue amoeba· steve jobs
00:01 Have you ever done heroin, John? Fake Thanksgiving Day, everybody! Enjoy your shopping experience. Coming to you from the Minimum Security Containment Cell, Crackpot Command Center in Gitmo Nation West, San Francisco, California, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, where the weather is again awfully nice, especially for a Thanksgiving in November, I'm John C. Dvorak. It's Crackpot and Buzzkill! In the morning! Sorry, I fumbled that myself.
00:41 It wasn't too professional. That's okay. Nobody cares. I do. I'll listen to the beginning of the show going crap, crap, crap. I could have done that better. I'm very critical. So, um... Yeah, we're a little late. We're a little late. I think you should explain to the audience with the appropriate apologies. Oh, actually, why should you be apologizing? It's not your fault. It's not my fault. No. So I fire everything up. You know, I'm jacked down deep into the system on my MacBook Pro, working with a program called Jackpilot so I can actually reroute streams of audio. And that's not like a stream you get on your, like a shoutcast stream, but it's actual streams within the guts of the system. And Apple has this audio setup called Core Audio, which is
01:33 I mean it's fantastic because professional musicians use this a lot for exactly this type of functionality. They've got... Go into any studio these days, you'll see that there's a Mac running a lot of the basics of the system. And it's like everything was misconfigured, there was alerts popping up, because you have to... I have a configuration, I hit OK, route it basically, and it sets everything up, and it was like borking all over the place, and of course, I knew immediately that the system update that I'd received from Apple, which I waited three weeks on, and I'm very good about this. When the new system update comes out, I never install it immediately. I wait, I look around, I see if there's any problems. I always read the expanded change log. Nothing about Core Audio whatsoever in the change log, so last night I'm like, okay, might as well go, I'll install it.
02:30 I knew immediately this was the problem and I guess they replaced their audio drivers deep within core audio So I had to go and set everything up again, but you know, this is like a Thursday morning. It's it's 830 I'm freaking out here because I know the show's coming up and it took some investigative work under the gun But I got it done and I'll say something That the reason why Apple has to mess with so much of their core audio and all of their lower level stuff is because of DRM and copyright. And I know this because Steve Jobs told me so himself. So when you hear this, you know that Rogue Amoeba company that Leo keeps harping on as they left the iPhone development platform, you know why that is?
03:20 Why? Because these are the guys that get screwed by this whole DRM thing. It's about the hijacking of the audio at higher sample rates that Apple made a deal with the industry not to do that. Because you can basically steal songs that way. And they make a product called Audio Hijack Pro and another product called, I think, Airfoil, which lets you stream audio to your airport extreme or whatever. So the only reason this is happening is because they, you know, at the end of the day Apple did sell their soul to the music industry. Well, okay. So there were some changes going on. Pisses me off. Yeah, well I don't blame you. The question that comes to my mind is why don't you do the update after the show is over? Yeah, I did it. I did it after the last show.
04:16 Hmm I did it after the last show and before this show. What are you talking about? Well, I mean like, you know, not the day before the show So you just so we're late and you're complaining and you're you're in a nasty mood You're not your normal crackpot self I am I am my normal crackpot self John and I'm going to prove it to you by playing a nice little song for you Come on, everybody sing along The words are easy, follow the bouncing ball. Here it comes! Hide the decline!
