This is pretty interesting to me for two reasons.
First, I just came back from Germany where I've seen that thing in a shop. Didn't have much time to investigate due to the kids, but guessed that it's just NFC chips with data on the headphores.
Second, I've been thinking about building a simple MP3-player for my kids for quite a while now, and (minus the obfuscation there) that's not far from what I've been thinking about doing.
I love when people do this! Now we only need alternative software and the hardware is finally purchasable!
Would be cooler if the hardware was more OS before but I take what I can get…
Ouch, open Cosmos DB with geolocation logs publicly accessible...
Ugh:
... the application tries not only uploading the ID3 Tags, but also geolocation data,
which is most likely gathered from Wi-Fi triangulation from windows itself.
Doesn't seem like that'd be an accidental thing?
Awesome article. Just wondering, how can a hardware company voluntarily submit their device for reverse engineering and dismantling as a show of good faith? Given the right circumstances this is basically a free security audit and marketing for the company.
If a company wants somebody to do a hardware audit for marketing purposes, they should pay money for that. Please fairly value people's labor, especially when you seek to profit from it.
Well, influencers are able to work out alternative means of compensation because the content is more valuable than the work performed. For example a blogger that is renowned for teardowns might do the work in exchange for access to early release models so that their content is highly relevant. That is worth more than the hourly cost to perform the teardown work. Compensation negotiation is part of the art of that deal.
If an influencer is indeed able to monetize the content sufficient to match market price for the labor, then sure, that is also fairly valuing people's labor. But that's definitely not what's happening here.
If someone wants to do the hardware audit for free, or in exchange for some kind of promotional exchange, is that a bad thing? I’d breakdown a lot of devices if I could get a duplicate one intact, for free
This was a low-priced consumer good, so I don't think anything is stopping you from doing teardowns like this on your own.