Creative Quebra Drivers Intencionamente para não funcionarem

[07_Phantom]

A notícia não é tão nova mas não vi nada por aqui:

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/03/s ... om-so.html
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/d ... ho-fi.html

The forum thread titles say it all: a full-scale customer revolt among buyers of Creative Labs' sound cards, complete with boycott demands, online petitions and wild threats of class-action lawsuits.

It's the denouement of a short, fiery saga. The alleged villain of the piece is Creative, which advertises its add-in PC sound cards as Vista compatible, despite offering only limited functionality under that platform in its Vista drivers. Our hero is fan developer Daniel_K, who fixed Creative's gimped software and made the modified package available to other users.

In doing so, he attracted the attention of Creative's vice president of corporate communications, Phil O'Shaughnessy, who posted a warning to its official forums on Friday. In the letter, addressed to Daniel_K directly, he accused him of stealing and told him to cease distribution of the upgraded software.

"The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you are distributing," O'Shaughnessy wrote. "By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods."

All hell broke loose, but not before the very first response calmly summed up the collective thoughts of dozens of fans.

"My God, you guys got some balls on you," wrote a poster nicknamed TrooperTom. "Either that, or you're all borderline mad".

"My name is Daniel Kawakami and I'm Brazilian," he writes. "I'm NOT a cracker, a hacker, just an enthusiast modder with basic assembly knowledge and very persistent."

Kawakami's expertise allowed him to enable advanced features in sound cards that Creative advertised as Vista-compatible, but which did not perform as well under that operating system as they do under Windows XP. After tolerating the distribution of his unofficial drivers for a time, Creative's vice president of corporate communications, Phil O'Shaughnessy, ultimately asked him to stop, and accused him of "stealing their goods." O'Shaughnessy also wrote that whether or not it cripples its Vista drivers is a "business decision that only we have the right to make."

[21_Sokol1]

Bem feito para estes abrutres da Creative.

As suas placas de som sempre foram conhecidas por drivers bugados,
com o advento do inVista, as funções avançadas das placas ficaram desabilidatadas por falta de drivers da Creative. Passaram a funcionar como um AC97...

Então o Daniel-K desenvolveu drivers para o inVista, e descobriu caracteristicas que não era habilitadas pelos drivers da Creative, mesmo no XP.

A Creative disse que se alguem quisesse usar estas caracteristicas deveria compra uma nova revisão da Audigy, com drivers apropriados...
E acusou o Daniel_K de estar "roubando" seu mercado.

Esta semana a Newegg relatou que em 48 horas houve 5000 devoluções de compras de placas da Creative.

Parece que a ASUS tem uma boa alternativa as placas da Creative, inclusive com suporte a eAX 3.0

Sokol1

[MaGOid]

Realmente, o comentário na net está grande sobre esse moido da Creative. Chega a ser inacreditável como ela está disparando, sem tirar o dedo do gatilho, contra o próprio pé. Garanto a você que, depois que esses diretores forem demitidos, eles nunca mais arranjarão emprego de novo no mercado de tecnologia.

E olha que a Asus está crescendo em todas as direções: notebooks de grife, o Eee PC, placas de vídeo e agora placas de som hi-end. Se eles souberem aproveitar a onda, estarão no topo das empresas de hardware logo logo. Basta agora eles darem uma de Apple, fazer um monte de propaganda criando hipe nos seus produtos, e eles vão virar uma marca cult. É só aproveitar a chance.