Palm Pre To Sync Seamlessly With iTunes 178
Wired is reporting that Palm's new handheld device, the Pre, will be able to sync automagically with Apple's iTunes. Thanks to a team of ex-Apple engineers the Pre will sync everything but iPhone applications and some of the older Fairplay DRM music. "It does it by faking out iTunes, making the jukebox software think that it is connected to a real iPod. Hook it up and you'll be given three options: USB mass storage device, charging only or iTunes sync. This is a ballsy move from Palm, and we totally love it: a big fat middle finger at Apple. Apple will, we are sure, be readying its legal attack dogs as I write, and don't be at all surprised if an iTunes update pops up around June 6th. This fight just got a lot more interesting."
Sue Those Monopolistic Apple Bastards! (Score:2, Interesting)
Plug the Pre into a PC and you're offered the option of using the device as a USB drive, charging it or beginning a "media sync." Interesting, using media sync the Pre does indeed sync with iTunes, though it's hamstrung by Apple's DRM protected songs. Can't imagine Apple's too happy about that. Presumably, Apple legal is already drafting a letter. Pre appears to make iTunes think it's an iPod.
How is Apple going to feel about that, asks Walt. Rubinstein dodges a bit noting that there are a variety of ways of getting music out of iTunes. Walt pushes back pointing out that this is the first non-Apple device that is recognized as an Apple device by a Mac. Rubinstein dodges again. Seems he's pretty obviously using his Apple knowledge here. McNamee jumps in. Apple is "practically a monopolist," he says, adding that people should be able to use music that they purchase in what ever way they see fit.
Such a letter would be the stupidest move Apple has made in a long time. I already view them as monopolistic bastards with their iTunes website & iTunes application & iTunes DRM & iPod/iPhone lock-in scheme. I am sick and tired of explaining to my friends and family how to burn a DRM'd song from their computer to a CD and then rip that CD to an MP3 and then put that MP3 on their player of choice.
I am begging Palm to sue the hell out of Apple if Apple comes after them. Palm should sue Apple to release an API to interface with iTunes music store and utilize iTunes DRM (I'm not against DRM if the artist wants it just so long as anyone can use it in their applications) and also an API for hardware manufacturers to plug into iTunes! Am I the only person on earth that sees the necessity in this? Am I the only person on earth that sees this as a direct affront to a free market system?! How is this any different from Microsoft packaging IE with Windows?! In my book it's worse since it transcends so many different industries--not just software!
Apple's evilest move would be to just watch this happen and throw a wrench into the works every time they do an update to iTunes. Let Palm spend hours trying to figure it out so the Pre still interfaces with it. That way the consumers will experience bumps, be more prone to buying iPhones and if anyone sues them for monopolistic practices they can throw their hands up in defense and say, "What!? The Pre works fine with iTunes! I don't know why you can't figure it out!"
I'm so sick of this whole mess that I personally buy CDs or Amazon MP3s, rip the CDs with CDex to a format of my choice and then move said songs to my MP3 player of choice. Hell, I can play my music on my DVD player if I put it on the correct media.
Option 2 (Score:2, Interesting)
Or Apple could realize that the iTunes store is BIG money and AT&T does not cover the whole US with their network and let Palm sync music. Music people paid Apple to download. Apple has other issues to tackle rather than worrying about a marginalized company like Palm giving it free advertising while encouraging people to buy even more music from Apple. Heck, Apple might even lend an engineer to Palm so that there is less faking and more playing on Apple's terms. It has happened before. Probably be some lawyer rattling for Wall St. but so long as Apple is keeping its head low to avoid anti-trust lawsuits and Palm doesn't look like they are going to become a major player, Apple might just let let this one slide.
So...? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this really such a "big fat middle finger"? It's cementing iTunes as the default player and iTMS as the default music store, and putting Palm in the position of trying to pick up some of Apple's leftovers. Plus, if Apple doesn't like it, they can issue firmware updates and update iTunes, making everything connect some slightly different way, and suddenly Palm's stuff stops working.
If Palm really wanted to make trouble for Apple, they'd make their own alternative to iTunes, which wouldn't take much work. If they really didn't want to do it from scratch, I'm sure there are even some open source projects [getsongbird.com] that could be used as a jumping-off point. And if they didn't want to make their own music store, they could probably strike a deal with Amazon. Now that would be a problem for Apple.
Re:iTunes Has Always Supported Other Players (Score:2, Interesting)
Because it has additional functionality not even available to Apple products.
Wireless syncing with iTunes puts the Palm Pre ahead of the mighty iPhone in terms of functionality. While this alone isn't a huge deal.
The big deal will be how Apple reacts. Specifically, if Apple intentionally cripples the Palm's unique functionality to create an artificial advantage for the iPhone.
But... (Score:4, Interesting)
Will Amarok 1.4 work with the Pre?
I would love to have a Smart Phone that works well with Linux.
Speculation (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean I'm sure Apple told Palm, "Hey, you can't use multi-touch or anything like it."
So Palm said, "Oh yeah? Browse our portfolio. We've highlighted a number of patents the iPod, Touch, and iPhone clearly violate."
Apple: "Cross License?"
Palm: "Sure! Oh, and we want to sync to iTunes."
Re:Why go the legal route? (Score:3, Interesting)
DVD Jon agrees with your appraisal of the situation. [nanocr.eu]
Re:Why is this a big deal? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not so simple as that. What you call an "unlock" gets you double the bit rate too. A workaround that Apple execs have talked about publicly is that you burn it to CD and rip it back. If you're not at all interested in doubling the bit rate, the small amount of loss in re-encoding probably isn't going to be a big deal.
We can talk about coulda woulda shoulda, but I doubt Apple is the main problem here. If the RIAA is involved in the mix, I think the RIAA should get the lion's share of the blame if it doesn't go the way you think it should.
Re:Why is this a big deal? (Score:3, Interesting)
The big deal is that Apple's not supporting iTunes interfacing with the Pre. The support is coming from Pre's side.
If that's true, then the Pre could emulate one of the non-ipod devices and sync to iTunes. Can Apple sue Palm for emulating a Rio? Possibly, I guess, if Rio's paying royalties for the privilege of syncing to iTunes...
Amusing... (Score:3, Interesting)
I find it more than a little ironic that before this item became news all the Pre supporters were saying iTunes was craptastic and claiming the lack of syncing on the Pre as a feature. Everything's in "the cloud", so who needs desktop tethering?
Ahhh, but now that it syncs with iTunes, suddenly Palm is super-genius for supporting and iTunes support is [i]obviously[/i] a major selling point.
Whatever. When Apple blocks it and it doesn't sync, I'm sure syncing will suddenly not be important again.
Re:Sue Those Monopolistic Apple Bastards! (Score:3, Interesting)
No, it makes them unpalatable to customers who like to have a lot of choices for how to use the products they buy.
The original reason I didn't buy an iPod was because I didn't want to have to use iTunes. When other options became available, I had already become a customer of other manufacturers of mp3 players.
The original reason I didn't buy an iPhone was because I didn't like the idea of having to use AT&T. By the time iPhones will work with other carriers, I'll already be happy with some other manufacturer's smart phone.
I started using the Apple operating system during the brief few years that Apple was licensing to other hardware manufacturers. I really liked the interface and got extremely comfortable with some Apple apps, such as Logic Audio Platinum. I was very unhappy when Apple withdrew their licensing program, but I still keep at least one Apple computer in my studio, now with Logic Pro. Because of the limitation to only Apple hardware, if Logic Pro was ever available for Windows, I probably wouldn't buy another Mac Pro. As it is, I use it less and less now that Reaper is my go-to DAW application.
I think Apple makes some great products, but by locking them down and limiting their use, they become much less attractive to me. Fortunately for them, there are plenty of people who can afford to buy Apple, and don't care about having choice. You will hear these people defending Apple's appstore policies, their phone carrier lockins, how wonderful iTunes is.
This is what keeps Apple's share of the PC market pretty static. The people who really care about personal computing care a lot more about having choices than the people who buy consumer electronics, I think.
Re:Sue Those Monopolistic Apple Bastards! (Score:2, Interesting)