There's virtually zero information on the company behind this, or about the actual workings of the device itself, but if this miShare thing could be pretty hot if its creators can get it to market -- and the word is that it's in production in China as we speak. The concept is straight forward enough, involving the little $100 miShare unit with dock connectors on each end, allowing for speedy file transfers from iPod to iPod. We've seen
similar devices for traditional USB drives, but the iPod compatibility makes this a whole new ballgame. How exactly you select what gets transferred and what doesn't remains to be seen, but we know one thing for sure: Apple's not going to be happy about this, given its insistence on limiting your iPod to one library at a time. We can only hope that this spurs the company to get song sharing going on the iPhone and iPod touch sooner rather than later, but in the meantime it looks like we can have some fun swapping tracks in a physical fashion whenever this thing becomes available.
Update: We chatted up miShare's Nathaniel Wice who clarified the product a little bit. The unit is actually running a lightweight Linux installation and is using open source tools to access the iPod as a mass storage device and open up the database files. You can set the miShare to transfer music, video and pictures, and when in music mode it'll automatically transfer the most recently played song, or if you hold the button it'll transfer everything marked in your On-the-Go playlist.
[Via
Vanity Fair]
posted Nov 15th 2007 1:11PM
embed some drm-stripping in there and gene simmons would blow a gasket
haha nice
That had me laughing. There would be lawsuits flying EVERYWHERE if it included DRM stripping.
It may not include DRM stripping, but, if it copies songs from iPod to iPod it pretty much defeats the purpose of DRM. Next up would be a device that lets you transfer songs from your iPod to your computer.
I feel like there was some brown PMP that could do this...if you could find a person with one...
I'm starting to think that Verizon and Apple are run by the same person, with the way they clamp down on their products.
- Sgt Easton
how on earth does this remove the point of the iTunes DRM? You have the track but your device can't play it without further processing to strip the DRM. This affects DRM not one tiny bit!
Apple, welcome to the social.
sgt_easton - who still can't the songs from their iPod to their PC?
Looks pretty interesting. Id like to know how you pick what your transfering. Maybe its just whatever is in the "Currently Playing" on the IPod your transfering from. Any word on restrictions as far as IPod models or if it might work for Iphones as well? As cool as it may be though $100 seems a little steep.
I would assume the smartest way to implement the file sharing without any detectable way of knowing what is being transferred would just be for the device to locate what songs each of the players has and whichever ones they don't, transfer them to each other.
Or maybe it has some sort of display that is yet to be seen, who knows.
"the word is that it's in production in China as we speak"
... better check it for lead.
LOL, you don't need hardware to connect two ipod touches/iphones. wifi :P
i have both an sftp client and server on my ipod touch.
everyone i know with ipod touch has it jailbroken with the goodies on it.
if they don't and have 1.1.1, i can get a noob up and running with the help of that awesome installer app in no time
heh
actually, sftp doesnt help that much, because the songs are formatted and organized weirdly... i suppose you could copy the whole directory and concatenate the database strings, but that seems like a bit of trouble...
only other option is sendsong (one at a time :D)
I don't Know about windows but with panther and the ability to look, share and download from another mac running panther. All one need to do is first go to i-tunes preferences, select advanced then make sure you have select the option that keeps your i-tunes folder organized then go to finder open the music folder, then the i-tunes folder after opening the i-tunes folder, drag the music folder onto the target desktop after it has downloaded then open i-tunes and drop this folder into your library and now you have combined your two libraries
"We can only hope that this spurs the company to get song sharing going on the iPhone and iPod touch sooner rather than later,...."
The zune already having this feature isnt enough, but this shafty chinese ipod accessory will make them want to?
sorry for bringing up the zune....
And I do not own an Ipod or a Zune so ha
The Zune may as well not have it, for as well as it's implemented. If anything, that's encouraged Apple *not* to include it. It's kind of a joke on the Zune.
But I agree, this device is not going to change anything. Especially given that it basically can't work very well. Beyond how you select songs to transfer, what happens next time you sync? Obvious answer: either your new songs get nuked, or you have to turn off syncing.
jeff: why the fuck would you sync anyway?
seriously, it's a hassle at first to put all of your music on your ipod (especially if not all of the music is yours) but it's well worth it when at a friend's house to get a song or two, etc.
best thing i ever did; unsync my ipod.
Reminds me of the iCopulate from ThinkGeek a few April Fools ago... http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/icopulate.shtml
First thing that popped into my head too. I remember when I first saw that and thought that it was a pretty slick device. I really love ThinkGeek's April Fools Day jokes!
Already been done?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mp3/8604/
Maybe I'm not thinking straight or something, but why not just save yourself the hundred bucks and pirate the music you want?
You're thinking too logically. This device isn't designed for the recipient of the music, it's obviously made for hipster indiefans who want to force their crappy low-rent music on everyone around them. If you know someone who purchases this device do NOT let them use it on you, as it will just validate their trustfund slumming lifestyle.
"given [Apple's] insistence on limiting your iPod to one library at a time."
wtf?
am i missing something? or have all my iPods been magical exceptions to this "rule"?
I can use as many iTunes libraries as i want... and i've never had an issue.
What exactly was that supposed to mean?
please allow me to redirect that "wtf?". because, dude, wtf do YOU mean? in all fairness, surely you realize that you can't plug the same ipod into more than one computer without it first erasing the ipod and then refilling from the new machine.
.......seriously?
I can plug my iPod into as many computers as i want and add whatever songs from that library i feel like (minus DRM'd songs of course).
It's called "manually manage"
If we were talking specifically about auto-syncing, then maybe you have a point, but considering that "Manually Manage" is an out-of-the-box option (no hacks or 3rd parties involved) that will allow you to hook up to whatever library you want and dump songs onto your iPod, i'm going to re-redirect my "wtf" back to where it belongs.
petey - "surely you realize" you don't have to sync...
wtf
This is a response to all the people who think like Petey, I.E. "incorrectly" the only time iTunes will erase your iPod in this type of situation is if you have it set to automatically sync your music. If you have it set to manually (I.E "correctly") sync your music you can plug your iPod into as many computers you want; the only thing that will hinder you is the amount of space you have.
*disclaimer - you're right, there are a few caveats. If you're only dong this on macs, it's fine. If you want to do bot Windows and Macs, you have to make sure your iPod has initially been set up on a PC, otherwise you can only plug into other macs.
This isn't going to work very well for anyone using iTunes. As soon as you plug in your iPod to your computer, iTunes is just going to resync and delete all that extra music you got from your buddies.
You'd also need to start using a 3rd party sync app to really take advantage of this device.
Yet another reason that iTunes sucks.
does no one realize that there's a checkbox in your options of itunes that says 'manage music manually'?
definitely UNSYNCS your ipod.
i had mine synced for about ten minutes, and then i found that unsync button.
please see my comment directly about yours.
I didnt realize anyone was silly enough to use the autosync feature?
Am I reading this right? Engadget is getting their up-to-the-minute late-breaking gadget information from Vanity Fair? I guess there wasn't anything coming in off of the Harper's RSS.
Why do I think of Requiem for a Dream when I see this pic?
This is gonna make Apple soooooo mad :)
I love it!
Apple is so pleased?
Elaborate or correct the title.
Sarcasm?
I'll fill you in on some of the details:
- miShare does not strip DRM
- it's easy to pick what you want to transfer
- miShare is smart about sync'ed iPods, but prefers 'manually managed' iPods
- it's not an April Fool's joke
Thanks for all the feedback!
-Josh (from miShare)
Feel free to contact us with comments and questions: info@mishare.com
Why do you act like it's any of Apple's business what I do what my files, or how I use my iPod? OK, what about the artists? Is it really any different from recording music onto tapes off the radio?
auto sync? what the? I think I know better what music I want to listen to than itunes does...or am i being weird now?
This is a great development but I think they have been software around that do exactly the same thing. For now I continue using my ipod and iphone for more music and movie downloads at http://www.ipodtunesdownloads.com