More bad news for Apple keeping its grip on iTunes and its related technologies – DVD Jon has cracked the encryption behind AirPort.
Jon Lech Johansen came to fame five years ago when he co-authored DeCSS, an application for decrypting DVD video content. He wrote the software so he could watch his legally acquired DVDs on his Linux PC. I would like to point out that he was just 15 when he managed that. Now the Norwegian programmer has managed to discover the key that AirPort Express uses when sending data between iTunes and Apple’s wireless base station.
Apple is currently in cat fight with Real Networks over Harmony, a technology that allows Real content to be played on the iPod. DVD Jon has just made it possible for third party software and hardware producers to stream music to AirPort express from other music programs. An example picked from random, I suppose, would be Real Player – music lovers will now be able to stream music from Real Player or Windows Media to their AirPort receivers.
Johansen has released the source code to JustePort, a command-line tool that demonstrates how music can be streamed to AirPort.