New iPod Has Hardware DRM

The new iPod Shuffle might be able to tell you what song you’re listening to, but only through official sanctioned headphones.

The new iPod shuffle is so small that it doesn’t have any room for a screen or any controls, so Apple have given it the ability to tell you what song you’re listening to and moved the controls onto the headphones.

What if you don’t want to use the headphones that came with it though, then what?

Ideally, you’d pick up some third-party headphones and get on with your day, but Apple has decided to make that difficult. The new Shuffle’s headphones have an authentication chip built into them, allowing Apple to invoke the Digial Millennium Copyright Act on anyone that attempts to reverse-engineer the headphones interface.

This comes not long after Apple tried to get jailbreaking made illegal and shows that while Apple may be shedding DRM on its iTunes music downloads, it seems as keen as ever to keep a vice-like grip on its hardware.

Source: Boing Boing