Humiliated and now defeated. iPod.

If mine is any example to go by, iPod has been a bitch of a device from the outset. With constant battery failures and other "unexplained" problems causing the thing to freeze or die, and with a shocking service record from Apple leaving unhappy customers with reconditioned replacements instead of a new unit, it really wasn't a surprise to see it hit the Shonky list for 2006.

But it is a very pleasant surprise to see that iPod's other mean 'n' nasty feature is about to come to a welcome end. Jon Lech Johansen, the guy who worked out the trick to DVD encryption so that we could all copy and play DVDs on any device to our heart's content, has now figured out how to get around Apple's FairPlay technology which has restricted iPod users from listening to music bought from non-iTunes digital music stores. According to Sydney Morning Herald, Johansen's motivation to do this was fuelled by "his belief that users have the right to listen to songs they have bought legally on any device they own", and if he makes lots of money out of it in the process (which he of course will) well that's ok by me.