Volley and return: Palm re-enables Pre iTunes syncing
By Ronald O Carlson
Although there may not be such a thing as bad publicity, the company’s users could quickly tire of the on again, off again nature of their devices’ iTunes connectivity. Also, whereas I always pull secretly for the little guy in these David versus Cupertino clashes, Apple has a long and strong record of prevailing against competitors both big and small.
The Official Palm Blog has news of the release of Palm webOS 1.1, which includes remote wipe, PIN/password requirements, inactivity timeout and improved certificate handling, plus:
Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That’s right—you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1).
Ya, get it? “Oh, and one more thing” — It’s almost like they’ve got a marketing department or something.
Anyway, Palm’s got that “stickin’ it to the man” thing going on for the moment, but there will quickly come a time when the people in the middle (i.e. users) will be glad for an end to their role as shuttlecock between the two companies…
What’s your take?
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July 24th, 2009
I find that Palm’s efforts to emulate the cuckoo bird laying its eggs in other birds nests amazing. But I am not a sociopath. If I was in the market for a new phone I would only be impressed that Palm was a company that was not willing to do the hard work for their own product which is just a variation on their past behavior. If I remembered that ex-Apple employees went to Palm to resurrect it, I would think the Pre is just a tool for someone with an agenda to settle a score with Apple. Palm is done.
July 24th, 2009
Apple has many ways to have iTunes verify that is is connected to an iPod or iPhone.
My suggestion to Apple is to simply do a checksum on the firmware to verify the identity of the connected device.
After all, iTunes checks the firmware anyway to see if an update is needed.
The Pre doesn’t have Apple firmware. Thus, the Pre would fail a checksum.
That is an easy way for iTunes to connect to only iPods and iPhones.
July 24th, 2009
I don’t get it. It’s not like the people buying Plam’s device are the target market for iPhones. No one would pay AT&Ts fees just to have access to iTunes. Rather than make some money from Palm’s users, Apple would prefer to have none?
July 24th, 2009
Sorry, I was thinking, not about typing and misspelled Palm.
Don’t PC computer’s have access to iTunes? Why make the distinction between a portable device you hold in your hand, when a laptop or desktop PC already HAS access?
July 24th, 2009
Don’t PC computer’s have access to iTunes? Why make the distinction between a portable device you hold in your hand, when a laptop or desktop PC already HAS access?
July 26th, 2009
Firmware checksum check will not do it – since Palm could emulate that as well (assuming it is possible to request checksum).
Unless Apple have some other secret challenge/response mechanism available in their old iPods they are going to remain open to such emulation. I can’t see it worth Apple’s time to force firmware update on all old devices – so if they really want to stop this (rather than come up with a way that can be officially endorsed) then it is proobaly going to have to be via quasi-legal route.
E.g. some pressure from USB “authority” because Palm is not using their assigned id
All very silly. Apple could extract a few cents per Palm Pre sales by granting a licence – which might then also lead to other manufacturers going the same route.
August 4th, 2009
I think it’s kind of shady, but in the end… You own the music, so why should apple care where you put it?
It’s not as if people buying the Pre will suddenly abandon iPods in droves. And, having done it both ways, I prefer to just move my iTunes songs over by using the USB feature. & leaving the iTunes alone.