With iTunes 9.0, Apple once again broke the Palm Pre-iTunes syncing, but Palm is believed to keep enabling syncing on the Pre. Electronista reports on a supposed leak about the new webOS 1.2 software. According to unnamed sources, the software will re-enable the syncing between iTunes and the Pre.
The source goes on to explain that Palm is "committed" to re-enabling the syncing functionality as long as it doesn't take too much time. With the 1.1 webOS update, it only took 5 minutes; but the latest fix is believed to have taken as long as 2.5 hours. With the first re-enabling update Palm changed the USB vendor ID to match Apple's, but the most recent strategy has yet to be revealed.
The rumored 1.2 software update is reported being delayed because of a change to the App Catalog that forced Sprint to test the update.
It's great to see Palm sticking up for what they think is right, but perhaps instead of using another company's software to accomplish something they could have built themselves, they should take the extra "hacking" time and just build a good syncing app for the Pre.
w2ed
September 28, 2009 at 11:58pm
Apple could just stop being so butt-headed about who can access its products.
Yes, Apple has every right to control who and what accesses its products and services, and Palm has to be one of the world's dumbest countries to keep forcing its customers to put up with this nonsense. However, there's a really good reason to change it's policies, and it all boils down to what it does best: Keep it simple. Palm probably wouldn't have taken the route it did if iTunes wasn't popular, and while it's easy to say that iTunes wouldn't be popular without the iPod, I seriously doubt people would have wasted much time with either one had iTunes not been so simple.
Rather than waste all of this time blocking third-party vendors from syncing with iTunes, Apple should create a way for third parties to create easy plug-ins that utilize iTunes as their main syncing app. It should, appropriately, be licensed-based - third parties can tout authorized capability without hacking, and Apple makes a profit on sales of products outside of their company. This would be a good win-win scenario: Customers would retain their ease of use with authorized third-parties, Third parties would have an easy and stable platform to develop to work with, and Apple could easily expand their profits and market share, as well as Mac-compatibility, by doing so.
Of course, the big problem is that Apple is probably too afraid of seeing another "clone" situation which almost helped to bring the company down years ago - understandable, since Apple probably doesn't want to lose the spots it has gained in the markets they're big in. A pity, nonetheless.
