Palm Pre to Sync with iTunes on Macs?

[guzhogi]

On the one hand, I can see Palm Pres syncing w/ iTunes making Apple more money from more sales on the music store. Yet, on the other hand, I can see this as cannibalizing iPhone/iPod sales, meaning Apple makes less money. Would be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

[nagromme]

Yeah, a bunch of ancient MP3 players, some of them were out before the original iPod!

Allowing manual drag and drop to a USB mounted filesystem isn't really support in my opinion. Support is allowing all the clever playlist syncing stuff that iTunes can do to work with the other player, even to the point of having an icon for that player show up.

Apple can do the right thing - allow and encourage third party devices to plug into iTunes as a digital media library, or the wrong thing (lock down, anti-competitive, Microsoftian, etc).

And yet the article doesn't suggest anything beyond what those ancient MP3 players do. So it doesn't tell us much.

What new/better iTunes synching features does the Pre have that we're talking about? I don't think we have any news at all on that matter.

 

[wolfshades]

expect apple to disable this feature.

I doubt they'll do anything. They won't need to.

My prediction: Palm Pre will be a tiny blip on the public's consciousness for a little while. Then it will float away, quickly forgotten.

 

[zelet]

Looks like a pretty strong competitor to the iPhone except for the SDK they give developers, which lacks any kind of good gaming support. The max you can build with it is essentially a dashboard widget.

You are completely and utterly wrong entirely. Please do some research before you start spouting FUD.

 

[slapppy]

Before you make the decision to get that Pre, consider the following:

1. Can’t surf net or email while on phone.
2. No visual voicemail.
3. Can’t download from Amazon store over 3G. Sprint will only allow over wifi.
4. No onscreen typing ability. If you want to type a web address, for example, in landscape mode, you have to rotate the phone to type on the keyboard. I know- somebody will say a developer will develop an app- but it does not exist yet.
5. Smaller screen than iPhone.
6. Only 8 gig memory, which, after system software, leaves just over 7 gigs. Heck, a modest music collection will consume most of that. Pitiful in the current smartphone era when new iPhone rumored to go to 16 and 32.
7. Small, cramped keyboard.
8. Can’t use internationally.

There are some positives for the Pre:
1. Multitasking.
2. Hard keyboard (albeit with problems noted above).
3. Sprint 3G network larger than AT&T (but could change).

Probably the best description would be.
"Any data access stops during voice calls." or "Cannot use data and voice concurrently"

The hardware design is also clunky and breaks any type of one piece smooth slab look that Apple has pioneered. Giving us that futuristic look of scifi movies today with real devices. The sliding mechanism eventually gets clunky and loose after a few months. Thats why I love how there is no mechanical gimmicky pieces on the iPhone/Touch.

 

[zelet]

I'm sorry, but I just can't get excited about the Pre AT ALL until someone explains to me how you type on the damned thing without it wobbling all around and falling out of your hands!! The keyboard is at the very bottom, and unless it's dramatically lighter than other current smartphones, has to be really top-heavy when typing.

It's been weight balanced. It feels great when typing on it.

 

[longofest]

Do you have any information to support this claim?

I think there is a lot of empirical evidence to support, but I'll just go with a couple of main points:

There are a lot of mp3 players out there, but only a few are listed on that link. The players listed on that link were primarily developed pre-iPod era, when Apple had an interest in having iTunes operate with such devices.

Now that iTunes is the market leader, you would think that everyone and their mother would want their mp3 player to work with iTunes, but yet only a handful are. Blackberries have to rely on a helper program to sync with iTunes, for instance.

 

[Apple Ink]

Cheeky..

I say they are taking use of SJ's absence! LOL!

 

[michelle21]

I believe those are public api's and it would not be in apple's interest to disable that. Could break a lot of legitimate 3rd party applications.

The comm api is based on Bonjour and plain old http I believe.

Legal challenge is another and more likely route. But there too, if they are public api's apple could be accussed of making changes to protect its revenue stream, something that would fall under serveral anti trust laws.

In the end , it may be better to do just nothing. No one saying it can sync with the app store which would be an entirely different legal situation all together.

Just because pre publishes itself as an iphone it doesn't mean it can or ever can send the ssl codes needed for the app store. That would be circumventing copy protection and fall under the dmca.

 

[retroneo]

Apple has offered the iTunes Device Plug-In SDK to third parties since 2002.

This is nothing new.

 

[BaldiMac]

You are completely and utterly wrong entirely. Please do some research before you start spouting FUD.

In what way? It's common knowledge that the Pre does not the same level of 3D graphics support as the iPhone, so he's not completely wrong.

 

[wolfshades]

Much ado about...what?

Palm has been on the bleeding edge of pretty much nothing for quite a while now. The Palm Pre is their last gasp effort at technical relevance.

I say this, having purchased varying iterations of their products since the beginning. They were great at first, but let's face it - once the iPhone came along, Palm lost their game.

Apple has NOTHING to worry about. Let the Pre sync with iTunes. Who cares? The Palm market share will be laughable at first, and will soon advance to hilarious. In two years' time, the phrase "who wants to buy a Pre" will become an embarrassing cliché, muttered by trolls who have nothing better to add to any discussion (much like "but will it blend?" is today).

 

[hbg]

Probably the best description would be.
"Any data access stops during voice calls." or "Cannot use data and voice concurrently"

The hardware design is also clunky and breaks any type of one piece smooth slab look that Apple has pioneered. Giving us that futuristic look of scifi movies today with real devices. The sliding mechanism eventually gets clunky and loose after a few months. Thats why I love how there is no mechanical gimmicky pieces on the iPhone/Touch.

Really good point- The mechanical Pre will wear out over time.

 

[Ted13]

if this is true, the pre will truly be awesome.

The one crucial thing the article fails to mention: it will not work with VIDEO, as all TV shows and movies are DRMed. So, Pre, not so awesome.

Indeed how the word awesome can be used to describe what is right now vaporware, I don't see. The BB Storm sounded awesome on paper. The it got released and turned out to be a pathetic bug factory. Unless they give a Pre to David Pogue for review pre release, I'd say they either have lots to hide, or are frantically working on show stopper bug fixes up to the bitter end. (I'm pretty sure he had a full two weeks to play with the iPhone before the release date, so at this point I fully expect the Pre to be a disaster on release).

 

[johnqh]

It's been weight balanced. It feels great when typing on it.

The keyboard portion is very thin. To be weight balanced, it would be twice as heavy as iPhone since the top portion looks pretty close to iPhone's dimensions.

 

[slapppy]

You are completely and utterly wrong entirely. Please do some research before you start spouting FUD.

It's not FUD. It's true that the Pre/WebOS is not capable of playing games like Need For Speed Undercover or similar games at that level.

 

[BaldiMac]

I think there is a lot of empirical evidence to support, but I'll just go with a couple of main points:

There are a lot of mp3 players out there, but only a few are listed on that link. The players listed on that link were primarily developed pre-iPod era, when Apple had an interest in having iTunes operate with such devices.

Now that iTunes is the market leader, you would think that everyone and their mother would want their mp3 player to work with iTunes, but yet only a handful are. Blackberries have to rely on a helper program to sync with iTunes, for instance.

So what would be the problem with the "helper program" running on the Pre?

 

[zelet]

The keyboard portion is very thin. To be weight balanced, it would be twice as heavy as iPhone since the top portion looks pretty close to iPhone's dimensions.

I've used the phone. It's balanced and not heavy. I don't know how they did it and I don't care to - all I know is that it sits very comfortably in your hand when you type.

 

[Blue Fox]

I consider the iPhone Apple's flagship product in the way that it's the device that keeps on making money for Apple consistently. I highly doubt that they'll allow the Pre (their most "worthy" competitior to the iPhone) access to sync to iTunes. That would cut into one of the biggest beneifits of owning the iPhone in the first place. (and personally, if I was Apple, I would block the Pre from Syncing too). Companies are out there to make money, not to offer competitors access to their software.

 

[johnqh]

In what way? It's common knowledge that the Pre does not the same level of 3D graphics support as the iPhone, so he's not completely wrong.

Actually, the webOS SDK apps are nothing but web apps running on a local server. Its ability is essentially the same as web apps on iPhone, except that they run on the phone instead of on the net.

There is no 3D, not even access to 2D graphics. So, we won't see any action games, or even photo apps.

We won't see any interesting realtime audio apps either (like Ocarina).

Basically, whatever people's complaints were about iPhone 1.0, you will have the same complaints about Pre.

 

[zelet]

It's not FUD. It's true that the Pre/WebOS is not capable of playing games like Need For Speed Undercover or similar games at that level.

It can't do games (right now) but it can do very powerful things... they already have a Palm Classic emulator ready for launch that has been demoed. Are you really trying to tell me it's a limited SDK if you can write an emulator?

 

[johnqh]

I've used the phone. It's balanced and not heavy. I don't know how they did it and I don't care to - all I know is that it sits very comfortably in your hand when you type.

Do you use both hands to type, or one hand holding the phone and use the single hand to type?

 

[zelet]

Actually, the webOS SDK apps are nothing but web apps running on a local server. Its ability is essentially the same as web apps on iPhone, except that they run on the phone instead of on the net.

There is no 3D, not even access to 2D graphics. So, we won't see any action games, or even photo apps.

We won't see any interesting realtime audio apps either (like Ocarina).

Basically, whatever people's complaints were about iPhone 1.0, you will have the same complaints about Pre.

True about the 3D but completely false with everything else. The SDK is more powerful than what you are giving it credit for. See the example of a Palm Classic emulator ready at launch.

 

[BaldiMac]

The one crucial thing the article fails to mention: it will not work with VIDEO, as all TV shows and movies are DRMed.

That is not true. Only video purchased from iTunes is DRMed. There are many other sources of video that you can load into iTunes.

 

[zelet]

Do you use both hands to type, or one hand holding the phone and use the single hand to type?

Both. It really does feel fine. When it gets into the stores give it a shot, you'll be incredibly impressed. I couldn't believe that the unfinished (hardware/software) model I was using was smooth, fast, and felt great in the hand.