Well, maybe that's an overstatement. But it appears that even though the new XM radios implemented DRM and kept recordings captive on the device, the Recording industry filed suit anyway.

The CEA press release (obviously bias, but still a good read):

<strong> CEA DECRIES RECORD INDUSTRY LAWSUIT AGAINST XM RADIO </strong>

<em> Record Labels Turn to Courts Once Again to Stifle Innovation, Eliminate Private Home Recording Rights

Arlington, Va., May 17, 2006 - The following statement was issued today by Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®) Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Petricone regarding the lawsuit filed yesterday against XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. by a group of record labels:

Given debate about the proprietary code and linking done on the DM320 platform, I've done a considerable amount of research. http://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm and particuliarly http://www.rosenlaw.com/Rosen_Ch06.pdf and http://www.rosenlaw.com/Rosen_Ch12.pdf

There's a great deal of debate as to exactly what folks want out of the PC side supporting the N3, but everyone agrees that flexibility is desired.

Of course if you just want a device that's not connected with any software, then the N3 will work just like an external hard-drive, but there is certainly a group (myself included) that wants something to sync databases from PC to device.

See below

http://news.com.com/Open-source+iTunes+rival+launches/2100-1027_3-6037582.html?tag=nl

http://www.songbirdnest.com/

Is this a reasonable candidate for that software for the N3? Anyone used it?

There has been speculation forever about a wireless iPod and who knows if it will happen, but Portalplayer is partnering to offer it

http://portalplayer.com/news-and-events/CSR_PPI.htm

and considering that 95% of Portalplayer's revenue is coming from Apple, it surely seems to imply that they believe that Apple at least *might* have some interest.

This has been discussed (and speculated) on the maillist before, but I do believe that if Apple includes bluetooth or WiFi on their player, not having it will be like having USB 1.1 on your player.

Conclusions from the meeting last night we're that we're going t o modify the boards with the new changes (USB, audio) to make it conform to the R3 better and send them out. We only have about 20 boards to distribute, so there won't be enough for everyone. But we're going directly to form factor boards for the R3 next, so we will make some dozens of them to satisfy everyone interested in hacking that and likewise with the 442v2 which will happen shortly thereafter.

The unedited log is below

http://open.neurostechnology.com/irclogs/neuros-2006-01-18.html

there's also a thread on the google groups if you want to chime in.

This is just something sketched out by "Snufalufagus," I thought you might enjoy. This is just a sketch, there will be 100 of them before the N3 comes to market. If you hate it, don't worry too much, if you love it, don't get too attached. In any case, it passed across my desk and I thought you might find it interesting.

I put a product chart up on the wiki, See here

<a href="http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/DM320:Product_Chart" title="reference on DM320 Product Chart" target="_blank">DM320 Product Chart</a>

This will have a lot of the details for the next gen products in one place, please feel free to contribute, give input etc.

Also, if anyone has tips on creating wiki tables out of spreadsheets,
let me know. I did this one by hand. I'm using openoffice calc 2.0 and
it can output XHTML, but it's a mess and it was easier just to re-create
by hand.

I put up a "hackers manual" on the wiki as a place to put stuff like this, at least its a start.

<a href="http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/HackersManual:442" title="reference on 442 "Hackers Manual"" target="_blank">442 "Hackers Manual"</a>