Warning: All iPod/Songbird Users

[jmszr]

For All iPod/Songbird Users,

Please read this link: http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/songbird-bug-ac.html

[PenguinsFan]

Yikes. Now that's a scary defect!

[dmizer]

Since this isn't a support request, I've moved it to the cafe.

Also, please do not create duplicate threads for the same topic. Thank you :)

[frup]

I've experienced that twice... It happens about 2 weeks after the songbird use though!

[pwnst*r]

yay for backups!

[billgoldberg]

All I can say is:

LOL

[Ms_Angel_D]

My Gods look at the comments on that article, it looks like people were just waiting around for a reason to bash songbird...hmmph bandwagon hoppers...:rolleyes:

[ELD]

Unnnlllucckkkyyy

For people who think data is safe on one device, you are a moron. Backup, backup, backup!

[gnomeuser]

Wait, they knew about the issue and yet they shipped the release any ways with no changes. Not even a warning pop up or disabling support pending an update.

How would anyone ever trust their QA again? This is a horrid frikkin bug that affects the single most widely used portable player on the market and they shipped with it knowing it was in there.

Even if the asserted prior knowledge of this problem are false, the iPod makes up what 80% of the portable player market, QA should have picked up this bug. If they don't test with that, what else can't users expect to be tested?

[ELD]

Where does it say they knew about it and shipped it anyway? Stop accusing them of crap.

As soon as they knew they stopped it being a recommended add-on.

Also gods read the article it only affects a few users, they can test all they want and it may have not affected them. Not every bug shows up in testing you know.

[gnomeuser]

Where does it say they knew about it and shipped it anyway? Stop accusing them of crap. If you read the article and the linked blog post they didn't know about it when it was shipped.

As soon as they knew they stopped it being a recommended add-on.

Also gods read the article it only affects a few users, they can test all they want and it may have not affected them.

I apologize, it was my impression reading all the sources on the issue I could find that the bug was reported before the release of 1.1 final. Comparing the dates manually the bug is filled a day after the release of 1.1. I still don't think this exonerates them from lacking QA.

I do QA work, one of the areas I volunteer my testing is for mediaplayer interaction and the iPod. Trust me they should have hit this in QA, it is very hard to correctly handle iPods since the protocols aren't open. I don't blame anyone but Apple for that but till such a time as they are, testing widely is important, something that is widely known - also it's not hard to pull the resources to do so if you don't have them yourself just provide people with a testing matrix and IRC resources. Free Software projects do it all the time (at least one large project I know of does this about once a week, surely Songbird can pull together for a pre-release test day).

[ELD]

Well if it was reported and they did check it then it is partially their fualt but i wouldn't hold it against them since ipods are not open. I will always buy an mp3 player that is easy to use (i can simply mount the memory card). Take my G1 for example it is my phone and my mp3, i simply mount it and copy or sync files over, no fuss, sounds great etc etc i don't care for ipods at all heh.

[gnomeuser]

Well if it was reported and they did check it then it is partially their fualt but i wouldn't hold it against them since ipods are not open. I will always buy an mp3 player that is easy to use (i can simply mount the memory card). Take my G1 for example it is my phone and my mp3, i simply mount it and copy or sync files over, no fuss, sounds great etc etc i don't care for ipods at all heh.

You forget that the existing cash of iPods makes up what, 80% of the market. That is not likely to change any time soon, so it is a required area to test heavily. They know that, blaming the victims is just poor style, then better to admit that iPod syncing is impossible and have the player pop up a dialog saying that when they plug in an iPod with the option to complain to Apple.

That being said, I have probed around to find a major Linux vendor willing to investigate the possibility of complaining to the EU over Apple on monopoly charges since their recently added crypto hash served no other purpose than to make life difficult for 3rd parties. This might force some openness to the platform. There is as of yet no definite word though Aaron Bockover did talk about taking such a suggestion to Novells Legal department a while back.

Regardless if we go back to the pure numbers, if iPods make up 80%, then discounting Zunes and other players which have similar problems we have a maximum of 20% of players on the market that we could interact with. This number is likely going to grow as Android grows it's market and phones take over more and more of the portable player space. In the future hopefully this won't be a problem, now it is we need to deal with it. We also need to ensure users a smooth an experience as possible along with education on open standards. If something doesn't work because Apple are being douches, then we should tell the user politely and request that they help us. We definitely shouldn't put blame on their shoulders for once making the choice to buy an iPod before they understood the implications for possible future decisions.

[Dale61]

Everyone is guilty of releasing software that has contained bugs, unaware to the developers.

I vividly remember, a few years ago, when an x-server update crashed Ubuntu systems by the thousands.

[Giant Speck]

I remember when I first started using Linux and Amarok would delete the database file on my iPod, which caused the iPod to not recognize the music stored on it.

[rburkartjo]

yea stuff happens. songbird is still the cat's meow as far as i am concerned, but glad my daughter uses a creative zen instead of an ipod. a lot cheaper and works great

[Sinkingships7]

I think they announced that they fixed this bug just yesterday.

http://blog.songbirdnest.com/2009/03/19/ipod-add-on-updated-bug-bites-the-dust/

[Dale61]

Checked for any Songbird add-on updates earlier, and it appears the iPod support add-on is now fixed as it updated and installed.