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Apple Issues Advisory Regarding Third-Party Devices Syncing With iTunes
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Palm is piggybacking on the hard work of the people who created and maintained iTunes. That's not competition. That's stealing. iTunes isn't Linux. It belongs to Apple. Not Palm.
As others have pointed out, Palm could've sucked it up and developed their own means of syncing. But they didn't.
It's one thing to be angry at Apple for something they legitimately did wrong (e.g., taking away matte as an option for 15" MBPs). However, this is not one of them.
Thats the problem you get when you have people that work for you and then leave with all you secrets...
I guess your definition of stealing is a little different than mine. PALM would be stealing if they were claiming it was there software. Theft occurs when you take something that is not yours and claim it as your own. I don't think PALM is doing that at all. If anything it makes Apple more competitive because they have more devices using iTunes. If Apple were to publicly open it up they would be better off. Then there sales would blow everyone off the charts.
Yep, also plainly stating that the device isn't supported. I doubt
has much better recourse at the moment.The comments regarding bricking PRE devices upon syncing are asinine at best
Is that even legal to "emulate Apple-specific vendor and product IDs" ?????
I don't think Apple should specifically try to block out 3rd party MP3 players. I think they should just continue to make updates and do business as usual and whatever happens, happens. The victims will be the consumers of other devices (sometimes generic MP3 players that poor people buy for half the price of the iPod - these people should not be intentionally blocked out). However, upon second thought, maybe Apple should jump on this ASAP and block the Pre and others and make sure the public knows NOW before future customers run out and buy those devices. Maybe that is the better plan. Plus, I'll bet the Walmart $19 MP3 players don't even sync to iTunes. Is the Pre the only non-Apple MP3 player that syncs to iTunes?
"The brief document warns users that Apple does not test its software with such devices and thus their ability to sync with iTunes may be broken by future software updates."
Good ol' MacRumours forums overreacting again
- Vendor ID
- Product ID
- Firmware Version
Unless Apple has hidden authentication protocols in their hardware and suddenly decide to use them for no reason at all, the Pre will always be able to communicate with iTunes because it can emulate those details unless:
- Apple stops supporting one of their own devices. Won't happen. The only reason to exclude an old driver would be to stop the emulation specifically, which would get a pretty big backlash.
- Apple issues a firmware update for each and every iPod and makes the upgrade mandatory (i.e. can't sync until you update). Won't happen. Nearly 200 million iPods have been sold worldwide, and you would get an incredible backlash for an update that is apparently necessary for every single one of them including ye olde clickwheelpod.
tl;dr
The pre is safe with supporting basic functions. Genius and future changes may well be unsupported, but basic syncing will remain.
- Vendor ID
- Product ID
- Firmware Version
Unless Apple has hidden authentication protocols in their hardware and suddenly decide to use them for no reason at all, the Pre will always be able to communicate with iTunes because it can emulate those details unless:
- Apple stops supporting one of their own devices. Won't happen. The only reason to exclude an old driver would be to stop the emulation specifically, which would get a pretty big backlash.
- Apple issues a firmware update for each and every iPod and makes the upgrade mandatory (i.e. can't sync until you update). Won't happen. Nearly 200 million iPods have been sold worldwide, and you would get an incredible backlash for an update that is apparently necessary for every single one of them including ye olde clickwheelpod.
tl;dr
The pre is safe with supporting basic functions. Genius and future changes may well be unsupported, but basic syncing will remain.
Not 100% certain, but I'm quite sure it is, and has been used for a long time.
For example.. older sound cards could emulate a Sound Blaster if the driver wasn't available so that the user would at least have basic functionality... and video cards had certain reference alternatives for basic unaccelerated VGA etc.
Don't quote me on this, because I haven't researched it, but it seems the logical way to go when you're trying to get a device to map to a driver that doesn't exist (which means the computer has no idea what how to communicate with it.. if you emulate something common, the protocol is defined and your device isn't a paperweight).
The statement made by Apple says they don't support "Syncing" by third party devices and warns that future software updates may break this feature. That is very different than saying that the device won't support manual file transfers within iTunes (drag and drop) of which there have been dozens of devices over the years that have supported this feature in the past.
The distinction is key, I think. It implies, at least to me, that any playlists, photos, contacts, calendars or email accounts that "might" sync AUTOMATICALLY within iTunes now, might not later. What no one on this forum has said, is whether this is in fact what the PRE is doing...automatically syncing with the iTunes playlists and libraries. If someone with a Pre could definitively answer this question, I think a lot of misinformation could be cleared away. If, on the other hand, all the Pre supports is Manually dragging and dropping music and playlists to the Pre under the iTunes Devices list, that is a different thing entirely. Do changes in iTunes Playlists update automatically on the Pre? Do Photos from iPhoto sync automatically on the Pre? What about Contacts and Calendars and integration with AddressBook and iCal? There has got to be some user on this forum with a Pre that can answer this question for us all, isn't there?
Finally, DoubleTwist is an excellent application for moving and converting Media from your Mac or PC to your mobile device but while some mention is made for "syncing" no demo or further explanation on their website explains exactly what that means. All of their demos show simple "drag and drop" to and from the device to the computer (although definitely not music from the device back into the iTunes library).
In the end, you will still need a second piece of software like Missing Sync to sync Contacts and Calendars.
The distinction is key, I think. It implies, at least to me, that any playlists, photos, contacts, calendars or email accounts that "might" sync AUTOMATICALLY within iTunes now, might not later. What no one on this forum has said, is whether this is in fact what the PRE is doing...automatically syncing with the iTunes playlists and libraries. If someone with a Pre could definitively answer this question, I think a lot of misinformation could be cleared away. If, on the other hand, all the Pre supports is Manually dragging and dropping music and playlists to the Pre under the iTunes Devices list, that is a different thing entirely. Do changes in iTunes Playlists update automatically on the Pre? Do Photos from iPhoto sync automatically on the Pre? What about Contacts and Calendars and integration with AddressBook and iCal? There has got to be some user on this forum with a Pre that can answer this question for us all, isn't there?
Finally, DoubleTwist is an excellent application for moving and converting Media from your Mac or PC to your mobile device but while some mention is made for "syncing" no demo or further explanation on their website explains exactly what that means. All of their demos show simple "drag and drop" to and from the device to the computer (although definitely not music from the device back into the iTunes library).
In the end, you will still need a second piece of software like Missing Sync to sync Contacts and Calendars.
It makes Apple more competitive, how is hacking Itunes making any one competitive, if Palm was developing an alternative to itunes you could talk about competition but this, come on.
Breaking the iTunes sync would have no significant affect to Pre owners. You can hook the Pre up as a USB drive and drag your music straight into the music folder on the Pre. I have a Mac, and use iTunes yet all the music I have on my Pre I've just transferred via the USB drive method. No big deal.
Emulating Apple's vendor id is a violation of the agreement that companies make to get a USB certified label.
So, in theory, the USB-IF could revoke Palm's ability to put one of those red white and blue USB labels on their equipment.
Apple has a great opportunity to screw with Palm.
Although the Pre identifies itself as an iPod there must be something that gives it away. Perhaps it's the available memory, the read/write speeds, the file system structure, etc.
Every time a Pre tries to sync with iTunes it would work, but Apple could screw up the software and system on the Pre pseudorandomly, completely transparent to the user. Maybe even lower the music quality, add some pops and crackles. Screw up the number of a contact here and there, disable the alarm for an appointment or change it from 2:30 p.m to a.m., etc. Just general screwing around that would annoy the user, but not too evidently to give Apple away.
This would slowly aggravate Pre users and they'd have no one but Palm to blame. Slowly but surely they'd start dumping the Pre and they would be left with a sour image of Palm.
Although the Pre identifies itself as an iPod there must be something that gives it away. Perhaps it's the available memory, the read/write speeds, the file system structure, etc.
Every time a Pre tries to sync with iTunes it would work, but Apple could screw up the software and system on the Pre pseudorandomly, completely transparent to the user. Maybe even lower the music quality, add some pops and crackles. Screw up the number of a contact here and there, disable the alarm for an appointment or change it from 2:30 p.m to a.m., etc. Just general screwing around that would annoy the user, but not too evidently to give Apple away.
This would slowly aggravate Pre users and they'd have no one but Palm to blame. Slowly but surely they'd start dumping the Pre and they would be left with a sour image of Palm.
Raising barriers to other devices is an anti-trust issue, is it not?
It's not just about music sellers, it's about MP3 players as well.
If Apple uses their dominant market share in music sales to protect their dominant share in MP3 players - that raises antitrust issues.
Because syncing to iTunes at least for the moment IS a feature that the device possesses. My point is that owning a Pre myself, I prefer just dragging and dropping my music to using iTunes. The larger point is that it's just as easy, if not easier, to drag and drop, as it is to use iTunes...
is god.
I can't believe...I take that back. I CAN believe some of the responses from the typical fanatics on here. But regardless, Apple should simply license iTunes sync support to companies like Palm. Now that DRM is no longer an issue for music, any excuses Apple makes for not supporting more hardware even if the companies are willing to pay for that support just doesn't hold water. Not wanting to compete with other companies goes down that same road of conflicting interests of running both hardware and software businesses by the same company. A software only company would support as much as possible. A hardware company would pay to get support and one that does both tries to use one business market (software) to prevent all competition for their other market (hardware).
In these cases, supporting more hardware means more software sales (i.e. songs, etc. from the iTunes Store). Now why in the world would a company NOT want more sales from their store? Well, only when there's a conflict of interest that generates more money. In other words, Apple makes larger profits from iPod sales than selling the music in their store so it's in their interest to not allow anyone else to use iTunes. And basically, I read between the lines this warning basically means they will actively try to thwart all such functionality in the future. That probably IS illegal since it's active anti-competition (similar to Microsoft trying to prevent others from using hooks in their operating system to achieve similar functionality to what Microsoft themselves have access to), but they'll claim it's just "coincidence" that it no longer works in the future. But doing things like encrypting certain key files in iTunes so that 3rd party programs in the Linux world can no longer function with iTunes databases, etc. have already been done by Apple. They always claimed it had to do with their DRM encryption, but now that it's gone, it'll be all too obvious that they simply want to prevent as much competition as possible.
I wonder what will be next. Maybe if you want to release software for Snow Leopard, you HAVE to distribute it via the Apple Store online and iTunes like with the iPhone and give Apple 30% of your profits??? Crazy? I don't think so. Apple has already done it with the iPhone and iPod Touch and they seem to believe because they're a smaller player than Microsoft that no rules apply to them and they're free to do any dirty underhanded tricks they feel like doing when it comes to the Mac market place. The fanatics wouldn't mind. They'd just remind us that it's Apple's operating system and they're allowed to do anything they want with it including telling you that you must give them your first child if you want to use OS X. After all, you can always go to Windows if you don't like it. You have no rights as a consumer as far as they're concerned.
In these cases, supporting more hardware means more software sales (i.e. songs, etc. from the iTunes Store). Now why in the world would a company NOT want more sales from their store? Well, only when there's a conflict of interest that generates more money. In other words, Apple makes larger profits from iPod sales than selling the music in their store so it's in their interest to not allow anyone else to use iTunes. And basically, I read between the lines this warning basically means they will actively try to thwart all such functionality in the future. That probably IS illegal since it's active anti-competition (similar to Microsoft trying to prevent others from using hooks in their operating system to achieve similar functionality to what Microsoft themselves have access to), but they'll claim it's just "coincidence" that it no longer works in the future. But doing things like encrypting certain key files in iTunes so that 3rd party programs in the Linux world can no longer function with iTunes databases, etc. have already been done by Apple. They always claimed it had to do with their DRM encryption, but now that it's gone, it'll be all too obvious that they simply want to prevent as much competition as possible.
I wonder what will be next. Maybe if you want to release software for Snow Leopard, you HAVE to distribute it via the Apple Store online and iTunes like with the iPhone and give Apple 30% of your profits??? Crazy? I don't think so. Apple has already done it with the iPhone and iPod Touch and they seem to believe because they're a smaller player than Microsoft that no rules apply to them and they're free to do any dirty underhanded tricks they feel like doing when it comes to the Mac market place. The fanatics wouldn't mind. They'd just remind us that it's Apple's operating system and they're allowed to do anything they want with it including telling you that you must give them your first child if you want to use OS X. After all, you can always go to Windows if you don't like it. You have no rights as a consumer as far as they're concerned.
I assume it's a warning of sorts. I could be wrong though, who knows really? For people who don't understand the drag and drop method I speak of for transferring music, Apple is just losing money off of music sales. More Pre owners will just use Amazon. The Pre syncing to iTunes makes more money for Apple.
No, because Apple makes money when Pre owners buy songs from iTunes.
Apple is simply saying they "can". An idle threat that will most likely not be realized.
This is sooooo non-news. It would cost Apple money to make sure iTunes had satisfactory support for third party devices. In many cases it is up to hardware manufacturers to create drivers for their own hardware to remain compatible with OS's. This is very similar to that.
If Palm wants bragging rights about being able to sync with iTunes then they are going to have to be the ones to keep their device compatible with it. This isn't Apple's responsibility. To think Apple would spend the time and money on someone else's hardware is foolish.
All this means to me is if the Pre works with iTunes then that's fine but don't expect any help and support from Apple, call Palm with your problems.
If Palm wants bragging rights about being able to sync with iTunes then they are going to have to be the ones to keep their device compatible with it. This isn't Apple's responsibility. To think Apple would spend the time and money on someone else's hardware is foolish.
All this means to me is if the Pre works with iTunes then that's fine but don't expect any help and support from Apple, call Palm with your problems.