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Apple Issues Advisory Regarding Third-Party Devices Syncing With iTunes
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That's exactly what we need... a million online music stores
While this may impact Apple's hardware sales, they still benefit.
- They're holding the backbone of something critical to a competitor. It's like when MacOS relied on Internet Explorer as the browser.. or how even now, we're forced to use a shoddy implementation of Office (08) that is quite deliberately terrible.. knowing that there's a native, streamlined, well-developed Windows counterpart (07). Constant advertising
- Apple can treat the Palm as an old, outdated iPod. If you want the Genius feature on your iPod Nano, you have to buy the new version. Using iTunes and saying "man, I wish I could do -x- on my device... if only I had an iPod/iPhone" is pretty effective advertising. I only started buying Apple hardware because I started using OSx86, really liked it and wanted the hardware to be more compatible
- iTunes is a store. At the moment, it's run at cost... but as everyone moves digital and the RIAA b-stards crack down on file sharing, the profit margin will begin to show.
*looks at article*
Oh look, it's Gruber senseationalising things again. This is a standard disclaimer nothing more.
As for you who hate the Pre or Palm - get a life, kids, it's just a consumer device, not an invading army.
Oh look, it's Gruber senseationalising things again. This is a standard disclaimer nothing more.
As for you who hate the Pre or Palm - get a life, kids, it's just a consumer device, not an invading army.
I'm surprised it hasn't been on there before this, I mean, this isn't the first time Apple's said "oh well we wont try to change iTunes to keep it from working with _________, we're just sayin', ya know.... accidents happen".
Also, classic reaction here. Everyone's all Yea Apple, Boo Palm. But none of them except Aiden Shaw see this for what it is, yet another form of DRM and product lockin.
Also, classic reaction here. Everyone's all Yea Apple, Boo Palm. But none of them except Aiden Shaw see this for what it is, yet another form of DRM and product lockin.
I don't like this.
This is too much on the same level of what MS did with Internet Explorer, and we all know how that ended up (in Europe, anyway).
It's one thing to include the music software on all Macs, but I hope they don't go out of their way to break compatibility with every non-iPod. If compatibility accidentally breaks, then it breaks, and there's an update by Palm. Fair enough. Otherwise, this is Apple locking down the music software bundled with Macs to be compatible only with Apple's own music player, and that's an abuse of their position, essentially eliminating competition using their position rather than by strictly by developing a superior product. It's anti-competitive, and anti-competitive behaviour is one of the reasons why Mac users jumped on the bandwagon of criticising Microsoft's unethical business practice.
In comparison, companies can make their mp3 players compatible with WMP on Windows if they want. That's called choice, folks. The other fair option would be to not bundle audio software on the Mac, and have people download the music player of their choice, which is what is done in Europe with regards to internet browsers.
Personally, I hope Apple gets called on this, perhaps penalised. It wouldn't happen in N. America, but perhaps in Europe.
This is too much on the same level of what MS did with Internet Explorer, and we all know how that ended up (in Europe, anyway).
It's one thing to include the music software on all Macs, but I hope they don't go out of their way to break compatibility with every non-iPod. If compatibility accidentally breaks, then it breaks, and there's an update by Palm. Fair enough. Otherwise, this is Apple locking down the music software bundled with Macs to be compatible only with Apple's own music player, and that's an abuse of their position, essentially eliminating competition using their position rather than by strictly by developing a superior product. It's anti-competitive, and anti-competitive behaviour is one of the reasons why Mac users jumped on the bandwagon of criticising Microsoft's unethical business practice.
In comparison, companies can make their mp3 players compatible with WMP on Windows if they want. That's called choice, folks. The other fair option would be to not bundle audio software on the Mac, and have people download the music player of their choice, which is what is done in Europe with regards to internet browsers.
Personally, I hope Apple gets called on this, perhaps penalised. It wouldn't happen in N. America, but perhaps in Europe.
This story actually reminds me of what happened with Audion. Of course that situation was in reverse (Panic trying to write an app that could sync with the iPod) but Apple soon pulled the plug on that one by releasing a firmware update, retiring Audion permanently. It seems to me Palm could have seen this coming given such a history.
But Palm DID make the Pre compatible with iTunes. It's just their responsibility to keep it compatible before Apple gets complaints from angry Pre owners discussing something they have nothing to do with.
If Apple pulls the d**k move of intentionally stopping third party hardware from working with iTunes I'll be right there with you with my dissatisfaction. At this point though I think its just standard fare for Apple to release some info that they aren't going to be spending the time and money it would take to make sure each update to their software is going to be compatible with someone else's hardware.
simply laughable
Why in the world are you blaming Palm for Best Buy posting the $849 price?
You're right, but they don't make it clearly compatible either. See any "Compatible with iTunes" stickers on other mp3 players? Nope. You'd see that on the Windows side though. WMP is bundled with the OS, but in consequence, there are non-Zune players that officially work with WMP. It's organised to be like this. In the case of the Pre and iTunes compatibility, it isn't the case.
No, Apple doesn't get in your way. However, they bundle a software with Mac OS, and Macs, and make sure that other manufacturers have to trick the software they bundled into thinking it's an iPod, when in fact, it's not. There's no way to ensure that the same set of data is passed from iTunes to non-iPods, which breaks lots of compatibility with features.
If Microsoft did that, they'd be in trouble in Europe. I think Apple should be as well. It keeps both companies on their toes.
Fair enough.
The really funny thing with the Zune is that it isn't compatible with Windows Media player and requires it's own software to sync and manage it. Talk about an own goal from Microsoft!
As others have said this is just a CYA statement from Apple. As far as all those people saying Palm should develop their own syncing, they have: it's called drag and drop!
iTunes syncing is just provided as a convenience and an option for the user. If Apple were stupid enough (which they aren't IMO) to go out of their way to break iTunes specifically for Pre's, the winner would be Palm who would very quickly put out a press release proclaiming Apple were so scared of the Pre that they had to go out of their way to inconvenience their users.
Apple (unlike some people on the internet - I can't believe there are people who think bricking a Pre would be a good idea: This isn't grade school!) are very smart and this statement simply states their position in a clear way that puts the cost of supporting the Pre squarely in Palms hands.
Exactly how much money did it cost Apple to make sure the Pre was compatible?
It emulates an ipod. from what Ihave read so far is Apple is chaning the way things communicate with the ipxx devices. All apple has to do in not change the communication protocol to block other devices.
Finally a sensible statement. This isn't a 'we are going to deliberately break compatibility with your product', this is a 'we are not responsible if our updates break compatibility with your product'.
I personally am disappointed that Apple hasn't opened up iTunes to other manufacturers. iTunes is much more important to me than ipods/iphones etc. I would gladly pay for this feature.
Some people need to stop freaking out about this, and stop bringing up the same tired arguments that have been going around for years about the Mac and Mac OS. A closed system isn't a monopoly, and Apple has every legal right to have their software only be compatible with their hardware. Apple is doing nothing to prevent people from buying a pre or anything else, just as long as they're not using apple's software. It would only be monopolistic if they bought all competing software and locked it to the iPhone too.
The iPhone, iPod, and iTunes are all products I very much like and support, and I am glad to see Apple taking steps (or merely threatening such) to protect them.
That's all I have to say about that.
The iPhone, iPod, and iTunes are all products I very much like and support, and I am glad to see Apple taking steps (or merely threatening such) to protect them.
That's all I have to say about that.
What's wrong with the natural form of competition? Apple are right to clarify the relationship with 3rd party hardware but, if it is happening, wrong to be deliberately destructive over the use of iTunes. Apple needs to project confidence not cowardice. Making iTunes the defacto centre of media for many devices is not a bad idea.
No it isn't. Microsoft had a monopoly with the Windows and IE combo AND there were few alternatives. Apple isn't anywhere near a monopoly with iTunes AND there are lots of alternatives. People can download MP3's now anywhere. You won't have a crippled Pre if Apple disables the iTunes sync.
As the Pre is directly targeting the iPhone, it is common sense that Apple would block the synching. It would eat into the amount of sold iPhones. Remember that there are many people that love the iPhone, but would favor the Pre because it has a hardware keyboard. For these people the iTunes-Palm Pre combo could be a winner. The few iTunes songs that will be sold for the Pre may not compensate for the loss of iPhone sales.
In addition: most customers (except the ones here obviously) will not read those support statements from Apple. If Apple keeps the sync open and Pre's for whatever reason start experiencing problems (how about music goes missing that you purchased over iTunes?), the pre owners will not blame themselves or Palm but Apple. It's better to block it now and stay in control.
I say, let Palm build an app that interfaces with Amazon, and it's good to go. No need to build an own music store or to rely on Apple.
How is there anything anti-competitive about it? Is there not other software alternatives out there? Shouldn't said software makers be trying to compete with iTunes? Palm did a reasonable job in creating a competitive piece of hardware, can't they do the same with software?
Your post is a perfect example of the kind of pathetic nastiness that has become prevalent on Apple forums in recent years whenever any kind of competition is mentioned.
I hope someone breaks into your home and drives a nail through all your Apple hardware. See how childish and irrational that sounds?
And the people claiming that Palm's actions are illegal should provide a link to back that up, because I doubt very much that it's true. I don't support their actions, but it's hardly encroaching on Apples IP or breaking the law to give a fake USB device ID.
What Apple should do is work (lead!) other companies to develop an open mobile synchronization API (and it is not as if there isn't anything to go on).
This really just shows them up as hypocrites, touting open standards when it suits them and clamming up whenever someone else wants inter-operability.
Apple should be supporting people like Palm on this - if people know their devices "just work" with OS X, I am more likely to get a Mac. Unfortunately, the "just works" maxim is another feature Apple conveniently leave to one side when it suits them.
This really just shows them up as hypocrites, touting open standards when it suits them and clamming up whenever someone else wants inter-operability.
Apple should be supporting people like Palm on this - if people know their devices "just work" with OS X, I am more likely to get a Mac. Unfortunately, the "just works" maxim is another feature Apple conveniently leave to one side when it suits them.
Yeah, but you won't buy an iPhone if you already have a perfectly syncing Pre.
Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)
I've read some strange statements on here in the past but that has to be up there with the best (or worst) of them!
Are you seriously suggesting for a single second that the only reason people buy iPhones is because they sync with iTunes and they'll stop using them as soon as a competitor can use their beloved iTunes?
peterdevries said:
I've read some strange statements on here in the past but that has to be up there with the best (or worst) of them!
Are you seriously suggesting for a single second that the only reason people buy iPhones is because they sync with iTunes and they'll stop using them as soon as a competitor can use their beloved iTunes?
Read my post a little bit more thoroughly. There's no need for that arrogant tone.
No... That's not what I'm suggesting. Again, read my post more thoroughly
I also refer you to my previous post above.
Why all the fuss?
I've seen advisories of this nature for around 20 years or so, issued by many software and hardware companies. Their purpose is always the same - to prevent the issuing company from having to spend time and resources supporting their products from being used in situations which are not fully under their control. After all Palm's attempt to get their device to work with iTunes is nothing more than a cruel hack which just so happens to appear to work at the moment.
I've been in similar situations in the past. I worked for the UK supplier of one networking system some years ago. We had terrible problems with some third party ISDN routers which had attempted to emulate the networking protocol of the host operating system, but as they'd gone about it via unofficial means their implementation had several subtle and unpredictable bugs. This lead to unstable behaviour, particularly regarding corruption of routing tables. leading to many long-winded support calls. We had to issue a similar advisory stating that we simply wouldn't handle support calls for this hardware.
So this advisory is probably something very similar
I've seen advisories of this nature for around 20 years or so, issued by many software and hardware companies. Their purpose is always the same - to prevent the issuing company from having to spend time and resources supporting their products from being used in situations which are not fully under their control. After all Palm's attempt to get their device to work with iTunes is nothing more than a cruel hack which just so happens to appear to work at the moment.
I've been in similar situations in the past. I worked for the UK supplier of one networking system some years ago. We had terrible problems with some third party ISDN routers which had attempted to emulate the networking protocol of the host operating system, but as they'd gone about it via unofficial means their implementation had several subtle and unpredictable bugs. This lead to unstable behaviour, particularly regarding corruption of routing tables. leading to many long-winded support calls. We had to issue a similar advisory stating that we simply wouldn't handle support calls for this hardware.
So this advisory is probably something very similar
Guess you did not buy the first gen iphone then. Actually you must have just bought your iphone, cause some of us who bought the 1st get Iphone have had to go through a heap of updates cause apples said we did, but hey in the 3rd year we get copy and paste...so yeah take that Pre owners, sucks to be you!!!!!