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Palm Pre To Sync Seamlessly With iTunes
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."
While I enjoy the big fat middle finger to Apple as much as the next guy, I firmly expect Apple to give the big fat legal cock in the ass back to Palm.
And when it comes to a winner, the middle finger loses to the fat cock every time.
iTunes currently supports about 20 non-iPod devices:
Nomad II Creative Labs USB
Nomad II MG Creative Labs USB
Nomad II c Creative Labs USB
Nomad Jukebox Creative Labs USB
Nomad Jukebox 20GB Creative Labs USB
Nomad Jukebox C Creative Labs USB
Novad MuVo Creative Labs USB
Rio One SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio 500 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio 600 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio 800 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio 900 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio S10 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio S11 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio S30S SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio S35S SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio S50 SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio Chiba SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio Fuse SONICBlue/S3 USB
Rio Cali SONICBlue/S3 USB
psa]play 60 Nike USB
psa]play 120 Nike USB
SoundSpace 2 Nakamichi USB
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2172
A black hole is where God divided by 0
They are even documented on Apple's website. I'm not sure why it's a surprise that the Pre is also going to be able to sync with iTunes.
Honestly, who bases a whole product line on a "faking out" feature.
I'm no fan of DRM, and wish iTunes was more open to other devices, but to publish a whole iPhone "killer" on a kludge is just asking for trouble.
WTF are consumers going to do when Apple pushes an update that breaks this (intentionally, or not) and all of a sudden this marvelous sync stops working?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Am I the only person on earth that sees this as a direct affront to a free market system?!
I do not think that term means what you think it means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
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 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.
I was with you up until the DRM part. The iTunes store is almost entirely DRM-free by now.
If you don't like AAC either, Amazon.com sells MP3 downloads that are cheaper than iTunes downloads, and has about the same selection. iTunes was once a monopoly, although Apple's DRM practices ironically ended that rather quickly.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I guess you're entitled to view them as monopolists, but that doesn't mean that view accords with real world legal definitions. There are other sources for digital content online, and there are other players - Apple has a big chunk of the market, but by no means do they have total control - facts you note at the end of your post. Also, let's not forget that a big chunk of the pricing of content is driven by the deals the content providers are willing to cut with Apple - remember the recent change to a tiered pricing scheme from the $.99 for all music.
How is Apple a monopoly, if we understand the term monopoly to mean something other than "a company you don't like/does things that displease you?"
Will Amarok 1.4 work with the Pre?
I would love to have a Smart Phone that works well with Linux.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
As much as I'd like to mark you as flamebait, you actually have a point. Until the Palm Pre was announced, I was under the impression that Palm (as a company) had gone under. When looking to replace my faithful HP iPAQ h5550 PDA (god that was an awesome PDA) I asked around in the electronics shops about a palm device, the majority thought they didn't exist any more. So it's nice to see they've been working on something over the past few years (unlike the Duke Nukem Forever guys).
Meh. Lock-in across product lines is older than dirt. Its practice doesn't make a company "monopolistic" (though its practice by a monopoly can sometimes be illegal, which may be why you associate the two things).
Anyway, you appear to be wishing for legal action based on how much you like each company's actions rather than on any legal facts; which means you're also not looking at an accurate picture of the costs and outcomes if legal action does occur.
I won't speculate on the issues that would matter in a court case (such as whether any trade secrets were utilized by the ex-Apple engineers that allegedly made this work), but I will say that without knowing the details of those issues, I wouldn't be begging anyone to start casting legal stones.
Pure speculation here but what if during that whole patent debate that Palm and Apple had regarding touch technology Apple conceded to let the Pre sync? Just a thought.
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."
iTunes 8.1.2, "fixes syncing issues"
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
I wish I had mod points because this is a smart response. I hate it when people use the word "monopoly" as a synonym for "I don't like them." If there's a real reason not to like Apple--even a bad one, like, "I always prefer the underdog," is better than none--then use it. Don't just call it a monopoly.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Except for movies. And TV shows. And audiobooks. Oh, and applications.
But yeah, besides those things, *totally* DRM free.
Perhaps you don't understand what he linked to. Let me reproduce the very first sentence again.
"A free market is a theoretical term that economists use to describe a market which is free from government intervention (i.e. no regulation, no subsidization, no single monetary system and no governmental monopolies)."
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
That list, which is old, represents the 3rd party plugins which are bundled with iTunes by default. The SDK allows anyone to develop their own plugin. As someone else mentioned, Nokia has done this a long time ago. This could not be any more of a non-story. It's really bad reporting. It would've been more interesting to me if they had said that Palm made the Pre so that it could *not* sync music with iTunes. And the headline is incredibly misleading...it won't sync DRM music people may have in their libraries, and it won't sync movies, tv shows and most importantly apps purchased from iTunes. "This fight just got a lot more interesting." (sigh)
You mean the same negotiating power that introduced "variable pricing", which meant that "pretty much any vaguely popular or contemporary song" immediately jumped 30% in price, from 99c to $1.29, whilst Apple fanboys tried to spin it as "well, most tracks are going to go DOWN to 69c!", where "most tracks" was a synonym for "obscure low selling acts that you're lucky to have heard of, let alone desire to purchase" (seriously, did anyone but the most deranged Apple fan honestly believe that Apple and the record labels were going to voluntarily offer up a 30% reduction in revenue?)?
Who won out of that? Apple got a nice kick, and so did the labels. You and I didn't.
I'm not exactly sure why you're trumpeting that as a testament to "Apple's negotiating power", but okay...
and soon to be ex-Palm engineers.
Palm exec: I thank you for all your effort in giving us the inside scoop on how Apple work. No I will have to fire you because you have shown yourself to not be a trust full person and we have no confidence that you will honor our NDA, as you have shown not to honor your previous employer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Unlike the iPhone, which is hardly ever mentioned in the media...
You are welcome on my lawn.
They were on the verge because PalmOS is crap and Palm Desktop is steaming crap, and they both look rosey compared to palm's technical support.
I just threw away my T2 and got a touch, and love it. From repeated bad experiences of my own and almost everyone I know with palm, I hope apple reams them good, give them a twist for me while you're at it.
Too little, too late, palm.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
No, it won't. Think about it for a moment and you'll realize why.
iTunes knows which version or revision of iPod is connected because Apple has prepared iTunes to recognize each one -- first-party software recognizes first-party hardware. The icons are all stored inside the iTunes binary, and it's only relying on an identifier from a list of possible iPods it knows of (thus the software update after each iPod release).
Most likely, the Pre is presenting itself to iTunes as a 4th gen iPod, something that iTunes has to support and for which there is a lot of reverse-engineering work already out in in the hackersphere.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
Reverse engineering is perfectly legal for interoperability, if you don't copy the implementation code. My friend's company legally clean-room reverse engineered all of CIFS, so their proprietary boxes can act as a stand-in for Windows.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
Wasn't that all to do with the music industry refusing to let Apple sell DRM free music? As opposed to "Apple's DRM practices".
To hell with iTunes, I just want to sync my Palm (my existing Palm) with Palm Desktop on my Macbook, without going through a third party product that wants to OWN my PDA.
Back when I had Palm Desktop and Hotsync, I could sync my PDA with my office desktop and my home desktop and my laptop and everything Just Worked. Then I had to start syncing with Lorus Notes at the office, and tried two third paty syncing products, and the best I could manage was syncing with TWO computers. Then Palm gave up on Hotsync, and now I'm using Missing Sync and my PDA is tethered to my Macbook. Not only that, but I can't get it to sync notes at all.
I don't know what I'll do when my current PDA finally dies. I never liked PDAs at all until I got a Palm, I tried a Pocket PC for a while and it screwed up my data... but even Palm doesn't support Palms any more.
Yes, but RTA - the guys working on the project are ex-Apple employees. Dodgy much?
I've put off upgrading because I don't want to spend 0.30 on the free tracks I got from the Pepsi promotion. I didn't spend all that time looking through the bottoms of Sierra Mist bottles just so I could turn around and buy all those songs.
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
Of course it does. Having a monopoly is legal. Abusing a monopoly to create lock-in is the illegal part.
What exactly is the threat to Apple? It works with iTunes? So? I used to own a TDK MP3 player that also worked with iTunes. People forget that iTunes predates the iPod.
Some people never use iTunes to buy anything, but once you have iTunes it is hard to resist visiting the iTunes Music Store. Remember, Apple is getting rid of DRM in the ITMS, and music purchased there now "plays for sure" on any device. This is much more of a middle finger to the RIAA. Keep in mind that the recording industry is looking to reduce Apple's control and influence, not increase it.
If Apple allows Palm, iRiver and other device manufacturers to use iTunes, it gains access to potential music sales that previously would not have been Apple's. When it comes to personal listening devices, either you iPod or you don't. But - if you own an MP3 player and you buy music instead of downloading it on P2P networks, I am sure Apple would love to have your business.
Next, consider the potential market for sales to owners of smartphones, and Apple can broaden their potential market tenfold without lifting a finger. If Palm allows the Pre to utilize iTunes without prompting or overt permission from Apple, the FTC cannot really take action against Apple for restraint of trade, monopoly practices, etc etc etc.
Finally, iTunes exposes the user to the Mac user interface, even when running on Windows. Users may also see Apple product features "dimmed" in buttons and menus when their non-Apple product is connected. Apple could even detect that a non-Apple product is connected to their iTunes software and display marketing that targets sales to users of their competitors' products. Can you say "halo effect"?
"I've got you this time, Brer Rabbit," said Brer Fox, jumping up and shaking off the dust. "You've sassed me for the very last time. Now I wonder what I should do with you?"
Brer Rabbit's eyes got very large. "Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
Ask Me About... The 80's!