The Fight is On! Palm vs. Apple

[BaldiMac]

Wrong, hacking iTunes and not using supported methods breaks the license agreement for using iTunes.

Palm is not hacking iTunes. They did not enter into a license agreement.

Also I am pretty sure Palm is able to do this using proprietary knowledge of iTunes taken from former Apple engineers, too which is illegal.

If they did, that would be illegal. However, it has been suggested that they likely reverse engineered the protocols in a clean room without use of proprietary information from former Apple employees.

...Except that tricking iTunes into thinking it's a iPod is still the only way to play DRM'd iTunes music.

Palm's trick to allow iPod syncing does not allow them to play DRM''d music.

VERY good call. Thanks for pointing that out.

Except that it was wrong.

As far as I know (not a lawyer) "License Agreements" have no real legal authority, and unless they signed a "Non-complete clause" (which obviously they didn't), there's nothing Apple can really do preventing former Apple engineers from performing their job at a new company., unless they actually want to take it to court and risk having their EULA ruled invalid. I really don't think this iPod+iTunes thing really wants to go to court.

Former Apple employees cannot share proprietary knowledge with their new employer regardless of any non-compete clause.

 

[dvanwinkle]

Apple has some sort of permission to sync with outlook i guarantee it

Microsoft is a software company, they could care less which hardware syncs to it, as long as that hardware developer pays a licensing fee. Apple does have an agreement for Exchange Syncing, just as Palm now does with the new 1.1 software update.

 

[bruinsrme]

it is not allowed I can see this getting really ugly really quick.......I like how companies i.e Palm, Microsoft etc uses other companies IP (intellectual property) i.e Apple...

Who says its not allow? Macrumors?

Just like everything that is out there for jailbreaking is not allowed?

This will be another cat and mouse game just like with the unlock and jailbreaking.

even if pre say fine we will stop, someone out there will take what Palm has done keep it alive.

Do you honestly think Palm will try to lock down their device, like apple would, so users can't sync to itunes?

 

[Maclver]

Microsoft is a software company, they could care less which hardware syncs to it, as long as that hardware developer pays a licensing fee. Apple does have an agreement for Exchange Syncing, just as Palm now does with the new 1.1 software update.

just cause palm found a work around for the latest iTunes does mean they have an agreement?

 

[parapup]

Apple has some sort of permission to sync with outlook i guarantee it

Apple is the new Microsoft. Microsoft has opened up Exchange protocols, a license for syncing is no longer required - they are exposing all Exchange functionality via EWS (Exchange Web Services) in a completely non-proprietary, standard fashion. Any one is free to download the Web Service Description and write a SOAP compliant client in any language on any platform.

 

[MBHockey]

Microsoft is a software company, they could care less which hardware syncs to it, as long as that hardware developer pays a licensing fee. Apple does have an agreement for Exchange Syncing, just as Palm now does with the new 1.1 software update.

Someone needs to be introduced to the caring continuum. . .

 

[paj]

In addition to locking other devices out of iTunes, Apple is also locking the iPod and iPhone out of other software.

For example, JRiver's Media Center.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50369.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52644.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=52599.0

It's the Apple way or the highway. How far can they go before people start choosing the highway?

 

[Michael CM1]

Apple's way has made the stuff just work for the past 6 or so years. It's Apple's IP, so I don't see anything really wrong with wanting to keep it all meshed together. Most of the people who want everything so open are probably PC users who love having the choice of 200 video cards, 80 DVD drives, and one crappy OS. (Oh I don't want to hear about Linux)

 

[Maclver]

Apple's way has made the stuff just work for the past 6 or so years. It's Apple's IP, so I don't see anything really wrong with wanting to keep it all meshed together. Most of the people who want everything so open are probably PC users who love having the choice of 200 video cards, 80 DVD drives, and one crappy OS. (Oh I don't want to hear about Linux)

LOL... I like your post!

 

[SephirothXR]

Who's going to download these pointless iTunes updates if all they do is disable some other device. If Apple wants people to download these updates, they need some revolutionary new feature, otherwise people can just downgrade, it's so pointless. It's like with 3.1: People lose tethering if they upgrade to 3.1, but if it has better battery life, people might do the upgrade.

 

[Maclver]

We Should probably post here for now on!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/752251/

 

[-aggie-]

Apple's way has made the stuff just work for the past 6 or so years. It's Apple's IP, so I don't see anything really wrong with wanting to keep it all meshed together. Most of the people who want everything so open are probably PC users who love having the choice of 200 video cards, 80 DVD drives, and one crappy OS. (Oh I don't want to hear about Linux)

 

[Michael CM1]

LOL... I like your post!

I took way too many tech classes to not think that if Apple opened up their software to a host of other devices, it would just cause more problems and take away from Apple's profits because of third-party crap. I'm not a shareholder (I do own MSFT), but Apple is looking out for itself, just like everybody else. Microsoft got in trouble for trying to completely crush competition everywhere. Apple's only close dabble with a monopoly is the digital music player market, which is a subset of the overall music player market. I mean Sony didn't have a monopoly with MiniDisc, did they?

Whatever Wonka, er Apple, does, it does right most of the time. I have dealt with so many fewer headaches with my MacBook Pro and iPhone versus similar products that it just blows my mind that people would want to pay less for total crap.

As far as the Pre nonsense, that seems to be mostly what it is. The ads pretty much tell you nothing. And the whole "revolutionary" OS that constantly updates? Yah, bet that's awesome on your battery.

 

[freediverdude]

Let's see.......take the 1.23 billion profit from last quarter, PURCHASE palm, shut down palm, and buh bye palm pre and the disgruntled former apple engineers. Sounds like a plan, hehe.

But seriously, this is something that apple should not make a big thing of. Palm is doing this mostly to get free publicity and be compared to the iphone. Apple should just quietly keep breaking it until the pre goes quietly into the night.

 

[Michael CM1]

Let's see.......take the 1.23 billion profit from last quarter, PURCHASE palm, shut down palm, and buh bye palm pre and the disgruntled former apple engineers. Sounds like a plan, hehe.

But seriously, this is something that apple should not make a big thing of. Palm is doing this mostly to get free publicity and be compared to the iphone. Apple should just quietly keep breaking it until the pre goes quietly into the night.

I think Apple has been relatively quiet on it. They're not Microsofting with Jerry Seinfeld. I think we peons are most of the noise on it, and when peons on another blog/forum make a huge deal out of it, sometimes peons on another blog will say Apple is making a big deal out of it, then other peons run with it ...

Speaking of "quiet," I could do without any more news releases on any of these blogs that mention Apple "quietly" updating something. It's as if Apple has to go all King Kong when they bump processor specs and make the hard drive larger.