ml_ipod useless with Shuffle 3rd gen

[dg57]

Any mp3s loaded on the device through ml_ipod or the default Winamp plugin will not play and a prerecorded message is played instead ("Please use itunes to sync music").

I was given this Ipod about a week ago, it has been initially formatted and tested (by loading a few music files) in Itunes.

I have tried re-formatting the device from ml_ipod with no success, and I am always properly ejecting before disconnecting.

I can't find anything about this issue on the FAQ or wiki.

Is this issue known/being worked on? Are there any other (non-itunes) softwares that work with Shuffle 3rd gen?

[Fredke]

Originally posted by dg57
Any mp3s loaded on the device through ml_ipod or the default Winamp plugin will not play and a prerecorded message is played instead ("Please use itunes to sync music").
...
Is this issue known/being worked on? Are there any other (non-itunes) softwares that work with Shuffle 3rd gen?

The 3rd generation shuffles use a different file format for iTunesSD and iTunesStats. AFAIK, no one is doing anything to document the new file formats or adapt ml_ipod to use them.

[abu]

Too bad, the list of unsupported devices grows. Shame on Apple.

[Fredke]

Originally posted by abu
Too bad, the list of unsupported devices grows. Shame on Apple.

See here: http://shuffle3db.wikispaces.com/iTunesSD3gen for some reverse-engineering of the new format iTunesSD.

I've done some work at reverse-engineering the new iTunesStats file: the header is 6 bytes long, followed by records of length 0x20 (32 decimal) bytes.

0- 2: 3 byte record-length (big-endian)
3- 7: 5 byte unknown
8-10: 3 byte play count (big-endian)
11-13: 3 byte unknown
14-15: 2 byte timestamp, in seconds relative to some arbitrary zero-time (little-endian: note opposite byte-order from the rest)
16-17: 2 byte unknown
18-31: unknown. Generally zeroes.

Hopefully this helps. Meanwhile in other software, MediaMonkey seems to support the new shuffle file formats, including voiceover, except that it doesn't scrobble playcounts correctly when synching.