Comments on: Palm responds to Apple’s threats regarding the death of unsupported iTunes syncing

By: cassi

cassi — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:21:20 +0000

teachonly apple can’t kill the pre becuz it is then monopoly and then it will be ie and netscapeall over again

By: JC

JC — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:35:04 +0000

I don’t think anti-trust means what you think it means. iTunes is the iPhone syncing conduit. Palm doesn’t get to add features to iTunes like they’re trying to do right now. Also, no one expects Palm Desktop to be able to sync anything besides Palm devices. Why should anyone expect iTunes to sync anything besides Apple devices?

(More importantly, the Pre being unable to sync with iTunes does not lead to Apple having a dominant position in the cellphone market.)

In any case, Apple didn’t say they would block other media players from syncing with iTunes. They said they wouldn’t support it. That means as they write new versions of iTunes, they’re not going to make any changes in the code to make sure that Pre syncing continues to work. They’re not going to do the regression testing to catch Pre syncing failures before release. If the Pre ever fails to sync with iTunes, it may be a side effect of Apple improving iTunes for iPods and iPhones rather than any explicit blocking effort by Apple’s part. i.e., if you never test to see if iTunes works with the Pre before release, you will actually be the last to know if it doesn’t.

When Palm throws around language like “chooses to disable”, they’re arguing that if the Pre ever fails to sync via iTunes, it must be an explicit act on Apple’s part. That’s not necessarily true. In software, the behavior of anything you don’t put effort into working correctly to might as well be random. All Apple has said is that they will put no effort into third-party syncing working correctly.

Personally, I hope Palm is just using this as a stop-gap until they come up with their own syncing solution. If they can come up with WebOS, surely they can come up with their own conduit.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:53:15 +0000

Apple can’t actually actively block other media players from working with itunes. That is antitrust behavior and it’s illegal. They are however, not responsible for making sure other media players work with itunes, so that’s exactly what they are saying. Still, if they were to use more aggressive tactic to dissuade itunes users from using non-Apple products (such as conclusively stating that certain manufacturer’s product won’t work with itunes), that could also make the Justice Department interested in what they are doing.

By: russdogg

russdogg — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:18:22 +0000

Apple has no responsibility to always make sure the competitor’s product works with their software, why should they? If Palm wanted to make sure their own itunes-using customers were happy, they would have a licensing deal with Apple before they made claims that it worked. Especially since this same thing went down with other companies claiming to have itunes sync in the past.

By: john

john — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:23:21 +0000

Here’s the deal – if you buy music with itunes, there’s NO DRM – you *can* do with it what you please.

Palm is having the Pre fake out itunes by pretending it’s an ipod…and they’re likely doing it for free publicity for the Pre.

Apple has methods for syncing with itunes music that don’t involve itunes – use isync or copy the files directly to your device.

I’m sure Apple would license access to itunes to interested parties – HOWEVER what Palm has done is reverse engineer itunes and exploiting a hole in itunes in order to interoperate with it.

Apple can close up itunes tighter than a drum – but anyone with non drm’ed files in itunes has full access to those files and can easily copy them over to the Pre.

Obviously both Apple and Palm see the ability to sync with itunes as a competitive edge – unfortunately for Palm – Apple owns the rights to itunes and can do what they want.

Elevation Partners should shell out another 20 million and hire some people to write proper syncing software for the Pre.

By: gadgetchic

gadgetchic — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:49:05 +0000

YOU PEOPLE ARE SO FUCKING DUMB.

i mean really none of you read the actual terms because if you did you would realize that apple NEVER said they were going to intentionally cut off pre or any other non-apple device support. i understand hating apple is the ~kewl rebellious~ thing to do, but you suck at it. just shut up and stop talking out of your asses.

By: RM

RM — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:14:58 +0000

Apple makes some great products, and they design wonderful, intuitive, fast UIs — like they were born to do it.

On the flip side, they’re a bunch of fascist assholes and they are one of the most (secretly) anti-consumer companies in the world.

If the mock turtlneck overlord and his syndicate had their ways, they’d make every connector proprietary, create form-fitting docking stations for said connectors, then change their device footprint every year or two so you’d need to buy another proprietary form-fitting docking station or peripheral. Oh, wait, they already do that. And then, there’s iTunes. And other iNonsense, proprietary garbage, that they charge you knuckleheads for when Google and others gives away similar products for free.

So to summarize:

Apple = great products, cutting edge brilliant design

Apple = the most (secretly) anti-consumer company in the known universe, who would take your last dime and tell you to enjoy your iPod while you walk home.

This is why people hate Apple fanboys. Because who the F*#^& roots for fascism?

By: tyler

tyler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:03:36 +0000

… couldnt people just NOT UPDATE iTunes and it work fine

By: David Thande

David Thande — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:51:32 +0000

Blah I used to buy songs on itunes, but they make you buy the same song to make a ringtone?

Apple, kiss my apple bottom ass!

By: Truman

Truman — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:44:52 +0000

Agree with many of you. iTunes isn’t an end-all product. In fact, sometimes its annoying. And those of you who are saddened by the lack of sync support.. the BEST way to say fuck you to apple is to give your dollar elsewhere. After all, any company that says, “you’ve already purchased this track, are you sure you want to buy it again?” instead of letting you re-download something you’ve lost is insulting. I tend not to give my money to insulting companies.. that’s just me.

Zune HD… holleeeer.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:38:00 +0000

By cutting of Pre users from sycning to iTunes, they are only forcing the 50k+ Pre users to become iTunes indepndent. There is other (better) music management software out there. This is the big issue that my non-techie friends

And the people that know that, the iTunes idependent people, feel A LOT more free to cross shop other music players.

By: Micky

Micky — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:15:33 +0000

What the FUCK does Apple think they are??? I hate Apple monopolizing their products.

I think Palm allowing users to sync their devices with iTunes would’ve been beneficial thing for Apple as people would purchase iTunes music but motherfuckers have some lunatics working for them to make stupid decisions like these…

Again, FUCK YOU APPLE

By: bbkernel

bbkernel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:13:08 +0000

If I were Apple I would allow every device on the market to sync with iTunes. Oh well, there’s a thousand ways to get iTunes music on to any device.

By: DJV

DJV — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:49:28 +0000

What’s great is that Apple is a small (i.e. 4% market share) player in the PC field because they tried to be a monopoly. That is, they tried to maintain a monopoly over their hardware and software. People sais screw that and they almost died as a company. MS, on the other hand, let anyone install their operating system and they became a monster.

Apple is making the same mistake now. With time the iFad will be over and people will leave to have more freedom with their content.

Plus, why would anyone buy music from iTunes instead of Amazon? Makes no sense. MP3 Files play on all music players. AAC not so much.

By: 3 Phones Jugglin

3 Phones Jugglin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:33:11 +0000

Apple should be glad people wanna put up with Itunes and the bullshit that comes with it in the first place…

By: skoobydoobie

skoobydoobie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:30:38 +0000

@Thande: When you were only a glimmer in either of your daddie’s eyes, MS was so far beyond Apple it’s not even close to being humorous. Palm is just playing games by forcing the issue.

It’s also obvious that you’ve never created anything that has value beyond your personal abuse by laughingly believing that “If I buy it, its mine and if I wanna use it to jack-off its mine.”

By: Truman

Truman — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:28:55 +0000

Anyone understand how awesome Zune’s pricing structure is?

What bugs me about apple is a lot of hippie tree huggers buy their products thinking the company is altruistic, and never pay attention to their ruthless capitalistic intentions.

By: Brandon E.

Brandon E. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:27:04 +0000

Thank you for making this point.

By: Brandon E.

Brandon E. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:25:35 +0000

Yeah, there aren’t any antitrust issues going on here. Apple is well within its rights to not allow third-party products to sync with iTunes.

Palm is just playing the PR game right now. They’re trying to make Apple look bad because Apple might stop allowing the Pre to TRICK iTunes into thinking it’s an iPod. Gimme a break.

By: tavella

tavella — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:20:05 +0000

So the kill off the Pre from syncing directly within iTunes. Who cares. My Blackberry can sync my iTunes play lists and media through Blackberry’s third party software. I’m sure this is the route Palm will take. Amazon MP3 store is better IMO.

By: user

user — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:08:18 +0000

It’s pretty lame that they’re “breaking” other devices. They should be happy that people want to use their store with the pre. Perhaps people will buy songs from their store to sync with the pre.

songbird anyone?
http://www.getsongbird.com/

By: rvzero

rvzero — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:06:19 +0000

How much harder is it to drag and drop your media onto your device? Not very.

By: RAS

RAS — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:03:31 +0000

It’s called “leveraging your brand” and no one does it as well as Apple. If Palm wants sync capabilities with iTunes then they should strike a licensing deal with Apple. Or just piss off. Either one really.

By: Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:55:37 +0000

This is no surprise. Everyone knew ahead of time that the method Pre is using to connect with iTunes is against the license agreement of iTunes. They are faking an iPod to connect to iTunes for gods sake! According to most software licenses, it is illegal to reverse engineer the technology and interact with it in was not intended by the developers.

It was a shady method of syncing with iTunes from the beginning and it should not be allowed to happen. When Pre fanboys were fanatically touting their syncing ability I laughed because I knew it would not last … and even posted that it wouldn’t numerous times.

So to all the pre fanatics … I TOLD YOU SO!

By: David Thande

David Thande — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:54:10 +0000

This is lame regardless….I’m in accord with “If I buy it, its mine and if I wanna use it to jack-off its mine.”
I used to root for Apple being the little guy, but now they are worse than MS ever used to be. Its simply Apple products, for Apple Software. This seems like there’s some Anti-trust issues here.

By: -

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:47:00 +0000

fuck you 5th

By: AllenKid

AllenKid — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:38:52 +0000

Oh please.

iTunes never pretend to get all snuggly with the Palm pre.

iTunes user expect this jukebox to work with iPod or iPhone, not the pre.

It’s a direct blow to pre user, yes.

You chose a phone which is da “iPhone Killer” so to speak, what do you think will happen? Seriously, whine all you want. Whatever.

By: MadMike

MadMike — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:35:41 +0000

@gadgetchic: People just like drama. So they make drama where there is none.

You don’t need iTunes to get iTunes music on other devices. So it’s a non-issue.

By: Beeve

Beeve — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:31:12 +0000

If Apple doesn’t want their business, so be it. It (was) is a free country. Just use Limewire and screw the Apple buffoonery.

By: gadgetchic

gadgetchic — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:23:45 +0000

i would hardly call it a threat. apple basically said is up to palm to make sure their device is compatible and that they arent gonna go out of their way to make sure of it. which i think is fair.