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Palm Pre Emulating an iPod to Accomplish iTunes Sync?
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You could just as easily say why should Apple be allowed to use decades of development by hundreds, if not thousands, of people as the cornerstone of OS X: OS X is built upon great swathes of open source software...
I just finished reading a book called "Appetite for self-destruction" on the recent history of the music bussiness.
When Jobs negotiated with the companies, as they were desperate to get someone to sell music on the internet for them, he had a very good position and make an excellent deal: Apple gets between 60 and 70 cents per song sold on itunes (this is before DRM were removed). So, my ass they don't make money with the iTunes store. He gets twice what the record companies make and he does not pay the bands, the promotions, etc. He just puts the music online. It's true that he makes more money with hardware like iPhones, iPods, etc., but Apple definitely does not lose money with the store.
By the way, I highly recommend the book. The story of internet music linked to Steve Jobs and Apple is quite interesting.
When Jobs negotiated with the companies, as they were desperate to get someone to sell music on the internet for them, he had a very good position and make an excellent deal: Apple gets between 60 and 70 cents per song sold on itunes (this is before DRM were removed). So, my ass they don't make money with the iTunes store. He gets twice what the record companies make and he does not pay the bands, the promotions, etc. He just puts the music online. It's true that he makes more money with hardware like iPhones, iPods, etc., but Apple definitely does not lose money with the store.
By the way, I highly recommend the book. The story of internet music linked to Steve Jobs and Apple is quite interesting.
Fanboys must be really scared of the Pre for some reason? Competition is great, and will light a much needed fire under Apple's rear to make the iPhone better. As an iPhone user switching to the Pre I enjoyed my iPhone a lot but it's time for something new. I'm just not glued to Apple products.
Apple would be dumb to lock out the Pre, it'd open them up to an anti-trust lawsuit considering they hold a huge monopoly on the online music industry.
Besides, Palm has a group of lawyers like any other company. Considering Palm sent out an official press release, Apple knew this was happening months ago and is probably fine with it. Palm is a company that has been around for a very long time, much like Apple. They know what to do and what not to do to cause problems.
Palm and Apple share a lot in common, actually. Both companies were the pioneer of their respective industries, innovating and inventing some really neat products. Both companies went through a down period where each company almost disappeared into bankruptcy court. They both came out with a revolutionary product that has (or will) bring the company back to profitability.
Apple would be dumb to lock out the Pre, it'd open them up to an anti-trust lawsuit considering they hold a huge monopoly on the online music industry.
Besides, Palm has a group of lawyers like any other company. Considering Palm sent out an official press release, Apple knew this was happening months ago and is probably fine with it. Palm is a company that has been around for a very long time, much like Apple. They know what to do and what not to do to cause problems.
Palm and Apple share a lot in common, actually. Both companies were the pioneer of their respective industries, innovating and inventing some really neat products. Both companies went through a down period where each company almost disappeared into bankruptcy court. They both came out with a revolutionary product that has (or will) bring the company back to profitability.
I doubt Apple were asked.
However, you are right Palm will have lawyers. Possibly ones lining up a complaint to the EU on anti-competition grounds if Apple take steps to block interoperability. The EU considers iTunes to have sufficiently close to a monopoly to take action, it just wants a serious complaint to do so...
Phazer
I hope Apple don't allow this.
Why?
I think as controllers of the largest media infrastructure in use on personal computers, they should allow third party media players to connect to iTunes to sync media in a natural manner. This iTunes syncing specification should be available, with RAND licensing terms, to any media player manufacturer that desires to implement connectivity. In return Apple can include an icon for that device, and not require it to have to spoof as an Apple iPod.
Quite simply it's better for consumers if this happens.
There's nothing in the iTunes EULA about not being allowed to emulate an iPod to sync with it.
I have no nowledge of any laws that state that a device ID has to be unique to the product.
Actually, if you reverse engineered something, say... EFI, so that you could emulate the BIOS, and ergo install Windows on your preciousPC Mac, there's no difference.
If you want to hack the software so that the older Powerbook has 2-finger right click support, no one said anything about how bad and immoral it was.
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So why is this any different? 2 years after the iPhone came out, it's not like someone was going to say "Oh! I want an iPhone now, but I think I'll get a pre instead"
No, they will either have an iPhone, and Apple will already have their money, or they will have chosen not to get an iPhone, and Apple will be getting another iTunes customer.
I have no nowledge of any laws that state that a device ID has to be unique to the product.
Actually, if you reverse engineered something, say... EFI, so that you could emulate the BIOS, and ergo install Windows on your precious
If you want to hack the software so that the older Powerbook has 2-finger right click support, no one said anything about how bad and immoral it was.
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So why is this any different? 2 years after the iPhone came out, it's not like someone was going to say "Oh! I want an iPhone now, but I think I'll get a pre instead"
No, they will either have an iPhone, and Apple will already have their money, or they will have chosen not to get an iPhone, and Apple will be getting another iTunes customer.
iTunes isn't open-source software.
It wasn't written by Apple and released with the intention of others freely doing whatever they want with it. The open-source software OS X uses was.
there gonna stop it because its patent infringement most likely.. and because the pre is a huge competition to the iphone.. You dont let competition use your stuff to make there product better..
thats like buying a verizon phone and at&t letting verizon use there towers in the spots where verizon doesnt have towers and at&t does.. so why would you buy a at&t phone then?? yea think a little there
Verizon and AT&T use completely different cellular technology (CDMA vs. GSM) so it wouldn't matter who let who use their towers. However, Verizon and Sprint both use CDMA and they share towers ALL THE TIME. Also, AT&T and T-Mobile both use GSM and guess what? They share towers ALL THE TIME too.
You should do a little research before you make invalid comparisons.
This is EXACTLY what I was thinking and this is what has the potential to get Palm in a HUGE amount of legal trouble. Jon Rubenstein can't take his Apple-specific product knowledge and give it to Palm when he leaves Apple.
Wow, talk about someone that is behind the times. Are you not aware that Apple announced months ago that they were no longer going to be using DRM? And the DRM was required by the record companies, not Apple.
Don't you look silly...
When you have one foot and four toes in the grave, every move is a move of desperation. Including this one.
And now I think I know what Tim Cook meant when he said: We think competition is good, it makes us better. But we will not stand to have our IP ripped off. We will go after them with every weapon at our disposal. I dont think I can be more clear than that.
Why buy from a company that makes it difficult for the media you buy to be used on devices made by other companies?
I can't see why anybody would be on Apple's side in this
It's called basic fairness. If I spend thousands of hours developing a piece of software that allows my hardware devices to sync with computers you shouldn't be allowed to come in and sync your hardware using my software without my permission. Especially if you're doing it by making your device pretend to be one of my devices.
Probably true, but it just doesn't seem like the proper thing for a respectable company to be doing.
I'd expect as much from a fly-by-night company making a cheap knock-off, but not a large corporate entity like Palm.
I am generally in favor of devices 'just working,' so it is nice what Palm has done and all, but since they took such a shady approach I think retaliation might be in order.
What if Apple reverse engineers Palm's approach, detects when Pre's are syncing, and acts as if the songs have been transferred normally. It will appear to the Pre as though the files have arrived just fine, but they have actually been secretly corrupted during the transfer (only the outbound files, not the library version) rendering them unplayable.
Or more hilariously, they could work out licensing with Rick Astley to rickroll Pre users on every track
That would go down in history as one of the funniest computer pranks EVER.
I disagree. This is great news for the end user, why should any of us worry about it? It's Apple's problem.
OK, guys...time to calm down
I don't get what all the Pre hatred is about. People in this thread are freaking out and acting as though it'll be the end of the world if the Pre is allowed to sync with iTunes. Big deal. At least look at it this way: The Pre actually appears as though some thought was put into the design and UI. Some say Palm copied the iPhone, but my point is, it looks as though they really, truly tried to make a decent phone. And it's even Mac compatible! Try getting anything like this from Redmond...their version of the Pre would be square and brown, have huge visible screws and run some horrific, clunky flavor of WinMo, and it would not be Mac compatible. I like the way the Pre looks. Granted, it doesn't have "teh sexiness", but again...there are other phones besides the iPhone. Deal with it.
I don't get what all the Pre hatred is about. People in this thread are freaking out and acting as though it'll be the end of the world if the Pre is allowed to sync with iTunes. Big deal. At least look at it this way: The Pre actually appears as though some thought was put into the design and UI. Some say Palm copied the iPhone, but my point is, it looks as though they really, truly tried to make a decent phone. And it's even Mac compatible! Try getting anything like this from Redmond...their version of the Pre would be square and brown, have huge visible screws and run some horrific, clunky flavor of WinMo, and it would not be Mac compatible. I like the way the Pre looks. Granted, it doesn't have "teh
sexiness", but again...there are other phones besides the iPhone. Deal with it. I don't know about him, but it should be stopped if it's not officially supported. Then if there's a bug it's going to become a blame game. Apple may do something (whether inadvertent or not) someday that Palm can't get around. Where will the customer be then? Who will they be mad at? Palm or Apple?