But, every phone can sync with iTunes…
Yesterday, news that the Palm Pre was capable of synchronizing content with iTunes hit just about every tech and gadget blog on the planet. In fact, it even reached mainstream media blogs that typically shy away from little tidbits. Really? Fair enough — it’s pretty cool for Pre proponents to know that their future handsets will sync with iTunes out of the box. The level of excitement over this story got us thinking though… If people are this excited that the Pre can sync with iTunes, does that mean they think many current handsets cannot sync with iTunes?
If the answer is yes, that is most definitely not the case. While it is indeed true that many handsets lack the ability to sync with iTunes out of the box, it’s 2009, people — there’s an app for that. There are many, many solutions for syncing your phone with iTunes in fact; from OEM and Apple-sourced solutions to third party plug-ins and utilities. Here at BGR we have two apps in particular that we are fond of, both developed by third-parties: iTunes Agent for Windows PCs and iTuneMyWalkman for Mac.
Without getting too into the particulars, both of these awesome free applications allow you to sync iTunes with any device capable of connecting as a drive. Smartphones, dumb phones, flash drives or even digital cameras if you’re so inclined — if it has a mass storage mode, you can sync it. Several OEM options are a bit cleaner in terms of appearance and dedicated functionality but none are as universal the aforementioned apps. Since we go through phones like they’re candy, we can’t be bothered with 10 different OEM sync solutions. Even if you only get a new phone every year though, why bother with learning new sync software if you change brands? So, if you’ve been looking for a way to sync your phone with iTunes quickly, easily and even automatically, definitely give our recomendations a shot and let us know what you think.
Raining on Pre’s parade I see….
Zach, your Pre review was one nail in the coffin of becoming an irrelevent blog (horrible and lacking likely bc you had a pre-prod model) but now this post…..
Can someone say ‘Apple shareholder’?
I don’t look at an article like this so much as “raining on the Pre’s parade” as more like “Smacking The Dazzled upside the head to bring them back to reality”.
Palm had two things at D7 they “introduced” as fantastically wonderful which the mainstream media picked up on and repeated as if they were…well…fantastically wonderful.
Now it appears one is ho-hum standard across ALL platforms and the other, Twitter, is being scoffed at even on Pre Fanboy sites like TreoCentral.
A little more reality about the Pre is truly the wonderful thing – enough with rampant unfounded speculation and on to REAL info about why someone would buy this $300 phone instead of that $200 iPhone or $100 Instinct of $150 Blackberry or whatever (I don’t know what iPhones et al are going for so substitute in whatever prices are actual…). BTW, another speculation making the rounds is Sprint dropping the stupid mail-in-rebate.
lol you Pre fans are hilarious.
you are saying he is raining on the Palm parade because he points out a fact?
haha wow.
nice find BGR I actually did not know that and bought into the hype of that feature being some big deal!
Actually I thought this article was a good one, and necessary to remind everyone that all other phones can essentially do this too (not right out of the box, but with the smallest of elbow greese).
The Pre hype has been a lot like Apple-hype, where the inclusion of copy-paste gets everyone’s panties in a bunch.
I appreciate this article Zach, keep it up.
This was news to me I did not know about the sync apps! Good work BGR! Still doesn’t excuse the ridiculously bad “review” of the Pre! We all know the model wasn’t the best, buy why post a half assed review? Hopefully you’ll get a real working model and u can actually do the complete job!
Having functionality out of the box, and having to download a separate app from a 3rd party are two different things. One just works,and the other, you need to make work.
If the solution posted in the article above was ideal, tons of people would already be doing it.
If you are still using iTunes, you’re a n00b.
Get some WinAmp love! It’ll sync your iPod without using iTunes.
Why? because he was critical of some of its shortcomings? Wow, a fanboy of a product you haven’t even used. Impressive!
If Sprint did do instant rebates it would one-up everybody. Poster #3 is almost as bad as backbeat with the antagonistic things said
Yes, any phone can do it. As you point out, there’s an app for that. The big difference with the Pre is that, right out of the box, you don’t NEED an app for that. It simply works, without the need for extra downloads or configuration, just like an iPod/iPhone would.
THAT’s what people are excited about. Yeah, it’s not a huge deal for us, but for people who aren’t very technically inclined and don’t want to have to do anything else to get their iTunes library to work with it, this is fantastic news.
I, for one, see absolutely no reason to go through my phone using iTunes. When I had the Nokia n95, I could access it through it’s own PC suite..as well as access it like a hard drive and browse through files and folders.
I prefer that, over anything else. I really am quite surprised ppl would prefer iTunes over open-access or even drag-and-drop.
Maybe I am mistaken somewhere..?
Wow…..a little negative on the Pre I see. You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to try to minimize what is probably a good news story. I would have thought a “genius” would be a little more impartial – but i guess reality is what it is.
Boy Goons Report is back at it again. keep sucking on Steve Job.
That’s the point though. People don’t want something they have to go out and find obscure software for. They want it to “Just Work.” That’s why the iPod and iPhone are so successful.
BG: See what happens when you cave to the demands of the mental-midget mob-mentality of Palm fanboys? They slit your throat while they smile.
Being objective about any phone, any subject, is NOT being negative or a party-pooper. Objectivity, clearly, is only for adults.
I wasn’t a big fan of the pre review, however to tie this post to BGR being a fanboy is ridicilous, I think its just a frustration post for all the know it all dumbasses who claim they are tech gurus yet in 300 some odd comments on the pre review comments is about the Itunes sync.
The larger question is why anyone would want to use iTunes at all.
^^ Edit
“100 of the 300 comments, are about the Itunes sync.”
Kinda boring… sync programs have been available for quite a while, but they all lack one important ability(even the Pre)… none of them can deal with Apple’s DRM content.
So if you’ve got a lot of content that you purchased from Apple that’s DRM’d, you’re SOL.
What a silly article.
Being able to sync with iTunes isnt the big issue. The issue is the ability to sync with iTunes without the need to use 3rd party software…by just plugging it into a USB port.
There are quite a lot of iPod users out there who are shopping for a smart phone and by giving them an easy way to bring along all their music Palm is presenting them with yet another incentive to buy a webOS based device instead of a iPhone.
Remember folks…competition is a GOOD thing.
How could you idiots not know about these apps. Everyone knows that BlackBerries come with this feature out of the box in the desktop software. It is the media sync application. You guys are purposefully playing ignorant or you are the dumbest geeks on the planet.
The Pre itself cannot just sync with iTunes. You have to install software to get that to work just like this. Pre fanatics seem to instantly go on a rampage if anything negative is spoken about it, and are quick to point a finger and call them iPhone fanboys. It is quite sad really. I remember being called an Apple fanboy just because I pointed out that pre applications would be weak, and I was called an Apple fanboy for that. WTF? How does someone pointing out software flaws get translated to fanboyism? Just goes to show pre fanatics are like illogical rabid dogs … And it is no even out yet!
Having said that, you need one or several apps on iphone to do just about anything.
@Christopher Cox: These vicious Sprint-Palm whiners aren’t satisfied that BGR is plastered with Sprint banner ads for the Pre? What is wrong with these people?