There's been no direct confirmation just yet, but
Fortune has it that Palm's hotly anticipated
Pre actually syncs with iTunes. Yeah,
iTunes. According to the report, the Pre works "seamlessly" with iTunes on a Mac, with the only notable limitation being that it can't handle older
DRM-laced files from the sad, sad days of our past. Even wilder, we're told that the iTunes Store "treats the Pre just as it would an iPod or an iPhone" save for the aforesaid exception, which leads us to wonder how Apple will react. There's little doubt that this factoid sweetens the Pre value proposition for diligent Mac users, but is this functionality kosher with the software's creator? We already saw Tim Cook glance sternly at Palm while uttering that if anyone else "
ripped off its intellectual property, it would go after them," and we highly doubt he plans on backing down if push comes to shove. If true, this could definitely trigger an interesting chain of events -- we'll know
soon enough, now won't we?
[Via
TUAW]
posted May 28th 2009 10:01AM
Exactly. As a recent PC to Mac switcher, I find it comical that when people argue with me on this site about Macs, they immediately start bashing the iPhone, even though I don't have an iPhone or an iPod touch. They just assume that if you like one Apple product, you have all their products. It's really, really strange.
Locking iTunes to the iPod/iPhone is asking for a trip to the EU Competition minister. However, actually getting your music onto your 3rd party device probably isn't that difficult since the iTunes Library itself is stored as a simple XML file and it points to the tracks locations on your hard drive (plus contains playlist details). Given this, preventing 3rd party devices like the Pre from syncing with iTunes will be difficult and pretty pointless, although I don't think that Apple needs to actually support the syncing within iTunes itself (they could just leave it up to the likes of Palm to figure out what to do). As has been noted already, iTunes supports 3rd party devices and has done so for years, plus there are already plenty of applications that sync with your iTunes library without actually using iTunes itself.
well at least Pre users won't have to install iTunes to transfer music, photos of videos between phone and computer :-p
...oh and yes, I forgot, iPhone users don't need to transfer videos from phone to computer, since it can't record any video :-p
I'm not surprised; iTunes on Mac has always worked with most MP3 players which are drag-and-drop compatible; it is a documented feature by Apple. On Windows, no such luck, unfortunately.
It's not surprising that tech geeks love the Pre. Sadly, my mother still doesn't know what it is, so it's not mainstream yet, and won't be before it's launch. But hey, maybe people shopping the Palm retail sto. . . Oh, that's right. No such thing. Enjoy the run up Geeks. . . by August this is another G1 (i.e. A solid device that is boring and unknown to people not reading gadget blogs).
Exactly, I made this point a while back. The Pre is loved by geeks, but that doesn't mean that the public at large is going to buy it.
I was on the phone with my niece the other day and she was humming "There's an App for that." EVERYBODY about the iPhone.
My aunt knew what it was when I was, and shes not the most tech savy person. It may not be main stream due to supplies, but people do find out about these devices very quickly when they are released.
I wouldn't even consider categorizing it like that most of my friends want it for the social networking potential.
s/when I was//
i dont use itunes but this is awesome news for some people. apple must be pooping their pants right now at the sight of this.
i want a pre but will have to wait for gsm version unlocked in the us.
Pooping their pants in excitement, maybe. You do realize that having the Pre able to sync to iTunes means Pre owners can buy songs from the iTunes store and sync directly to the Pre, right? Why would Apple not want that? I mean yeah, they'd probably rather you bought an iPhone, but they're not going to block additional revenue.
So, does this mean it will sync seamlessly with Outlook via USB cable?
Ooo.. Please give us ALAC support.
This would be nice if true. I love my iPhone, but in August when my contract is up...I am getting a Pre. The only reason is that I can't live with AT&T's reception in my area...time to move over to Sprint....oh well!
Just as an aside, that is a completely valid reason to get a Pre, or an iPhone if the situation was reversed. For Mac users, the fact that the Pre can sync to iTunes (apparently) opens up the choice to switch to a different carrier with what seems to be a decent phone. That is a good thing no matter how you look at it.
For me, the lack of syncing to iTunes is a total dealbreaker for the Pre, so if this is true that changes things a lot.
The only question is, will it play nice with iTunes video rentals, purchases? books?
"For me, the lack of syncing to iTunes is a total dealbreaker for the Pre"
Seriously? That's a dealbreaker? What a comicly stupid reason to not get a phone. "Well, the phone has all the functionality I want: it's easy to use, has a great OS, UI, and is really innovative. But, it doesn't sync with one particular music organization program, so I'm not getting it, and I'm too lazy/stupid to figure out how to use a new program." Weak, Zak... even for you.
Really, Mikey? Can you name this magical program I would use to sync to the Pre? No, seriously, name it. Give me a link. Prove that you're not as ignorant as you sound. I use iTunes because it syncs all my stuff on the iPhone in addition to backing it up. Show me the app that will do all that for me on the Pre.
Mikey,
iTunes support might be a dumb dealbreaker, but I don't see Mac support as being a dumb dealbreaker. I am a lot more interested in choosing a phone based on whether their software supports my OS, than I am interested in switching to a whole different OS just to use a specific phone.
I haven't been able to (quickly) find if the Pre is going to have OS X software, so iTunes support could be a dealbreaker.
If they've announced OS X software for the Pre and I missed it, then feel free to ignore my comment.
More importantly, Palm better hope the four patents that were granted this week to Apple, on the topic of touch screens, doesn't apply to the Pre.
Insane !
good stuff
Seriously , jobs should sue.
But he's too unselfish
Nokia has software that allows iTunes sync too and it's been around for a while. Apple didn't mind it then so I doubt they might do anything now.
http://europe.nokia.com/A4423139
"...older DRM-laced files..."
Why exactly does Apple want so much more money from me to make my library iTunes-DRM free?
Wow, this is big news for me. By far the biggest stumbling block I had against buying a Pre vs iPhone was the iTunes factor. If iTunes works with both, then the only thing left to overcome is the fewer apps on the Pre, and time (and my own programming) will likely overcome this enough for me reasonably soon.
I'm not surprised at all, since Palm now admits that iTunes is the best music management software on the planet, better than Windows Media Player of course.
iTunes for Mac used to support many non-Apple players... I don't know if it survived the Intel switch, but it did a few years ago.
i thought the pre was meant to get palm out of finacial trouble, not get it 101 law suits to its name from apple.
Did Palm pay for Apple to do that?
I'm not sure anyone has mentioned this yet, but this will only work for music, not video. All iTunes video is still DRM'd. And of course, no apps.
How frustrating will it be to browse the iTunes App Store with your Pre, looking at the 50,000+ applications, and knowing that you can't run any of them...
I am very happy with iTunes and I got a Iphone to consolidate devices. If this thing can do it and I can get a Verizon version (slated for six months from now) I would definitely get this thing next year when my ATT contract is up. I dispise ATT and can't wait to get back with Verizon.
I never used the sync function on any device! It`s incredibly sluggish and stupid. I always used to drag and drop everything on my players and now I do the same on my WM 6.5 device (Xperia).
I think this is bogus. Seems as if Palm did some reverse engineering. If they really did, Apple would simply disable it on the next release of iTunes. A lot of devices said they can "sync" with iTunes, but in the end they are simply UMS devices where you can drag-n-drop content from iTunes to Finder. Now, if the Pre can sync with iSync, that's a different story. Most cellphones sync beautifully with iSync.
Of course, maybe Palm and Apple made a deal or something.
I call BS on this. Most likely it's marketing speak for "non-drm files will play on the pre" (like on every other mp3 player supporting mp4/aac.
I'm pretty sure that itunes sees the pre as an USB Mass Storage device. Doesn't really have much to do with it being palm or not...
Whoopdee#*ckingdoo! Who would use iTunes if they didn't have to?
thepalmpreblog.com domain for sale ! thepalmpre@yahoo.com
SOLD!
I'll buy ten.