Author Topic: Old build-in software in Buffalo NAS broke iTunes-Support  (Read 1555 times)

Jogard

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Old build-in software in Buffalo NAS broke iTunes-Support
« on: September 26, 2010, 10:44:14 AM »

Buffalo sells its NAS with a feature called "iTunes support". Now iTunes 10 shows up and the feature no longer works. What happened you ask?

 

Here is the reason: Buffalo build on a software called Firefly which got not maintained for more than 2 years!!! At this time iTunes version 7.6 was current.

 

With iTunes 10 Apple seems to introduces a change to the protocol named Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP). Now guess what: The 2 years old build-in software of Buffalo NAS stop working.

 

Will Apple fix this? NO!  (edit by Admin - Apple has fixed this issue)

 

Apple did not publish the documentation and it was originally intended to work between iTunes clients and their devices only. Firefly is build on a protocol which got reverse engineered! Apple never supported this officially and will have no interest in fixing the hacks the NAS manufacturer build on their features.

 

How can Buffalo get iTunes work again? They have to change the old build-in software! And if they really want this feature back, they would support a guy named Julien Blache, who created a fork of the old firefly project and improved it.

 

IMHO Buffalo should support him by sent hardware to set up a decent development environment and some money so he can focus on bringing iTunes support back again!

 

Check out his project at: http://github.com/jasonmc/forked-daapd/commits/master


davo

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Re: Old build-in software in Buffalo NAS broke iTunes-Support
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2010, 06:00:26 PM »

Buffalo are not the only one's having this issue since the release of iTunes 10, Netgear, Qnap and other are also experiencing the problem.

 

So why should Buffalo fix it since the issue is clearly upto iTunes.

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ObiMatKenobi

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Re: Old build-in software in Buffalo NAS broke iTunes-Support
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2010, 12:30:22 AM »

New iTunes update fixes the problem. 

 

Not buffalos problem to fix or any other manufacturer except Apple who disabled it in the first place surely?


Jogard

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Re: Old build-in software in Buffalo NAS broke iTunes-Support
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2010, 11:53:02 AM »

"Buffalo are not the only one's having this issue since the release of iTunes 10, Netgear, Qnap and other are also experiencing the problem."

 

Right, every NAS manufacturer builds upon this outdated software. But this doesn´t make it any better. Buffalo sell it as a feature and they have to take responsibility if it doesn´t work as expected.

 

"So why should Buffalo fix it since the issue is clearly upto iTunes."

"Not buffalos problem to fix or any other manufacturer except Apple who disabled it in the first place surely?"

 

@ObiMatKenobi, davo: Obviously you didn´t read to what you reply to!

 

Once again: "Apple did not publish the documentation of the protocol and the open source Firefly software is build on a reverse engineered documentation" -> If Apple like to change it, they can without asking and they are not responsible for any dysfunction in software build upon reverse engineering their protocol. 

 

NAS manufacturer take the feature as granted and sell it to their customers without taking care for it. They could be glad that it works again without spending a second of their worktime.

 

Normally one can expect that manfacturer take part in improving and support the software they build on. There are many ways to do so, but instead they pointing to others or say "others experiencing the problem".