iTunes 8.2.1 brings Pre's music syncing capability to a halt (updated)

Palm itself had warned that the Pre's iTunes sync functionality could be broken at a moment's notice (and at Apple's whim), but we're pretty sure no one expected it'd happen this quickly. We've been able to confirm that version 8.2.1 of the software prevents the sync from working, meaning that you've got to add music the old-fashioned way -- the Pre functions as a USB drive, too -- until Palm gets around to patching the hack (if they decide to patch it, that is). This could end up being a protracted game of cat-and-mouse, which is entertaining to watch but nightmarish for the consumers down in the trenches actually trying to use this stuff. Funny thing is, Apple's straight up saying in its release notes that the update "addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices" -- in other words, they weren't being verified before, and now they are, thank goodness. Peaceful sleep is once again within our reach.

Update: Apple's now gone beyond the "verification of Apple devices" phrase, calling out the Pre by name in a statement issued to BusinessWeek: "It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we've said before, newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players." In other words, "we told you this was going to happen, and it did." For its part, Palm appears to have re-issued the same statement it made a while back, saying that Apple's move is a "direct blow" to its users. Words are one thing, but here's the real question: is there a quick counterstrike fix planned from Palm's side?

[John @ Jul 15th 2009 2:24PM]

Nazis!

[Teslanaut @ Jul 15th 2009 2:37PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Godwin%27s_Law

[StinkyPete @ Jul 15th 2009 2:40PM]

Apple FTW, cleanse the unworthy Sprint Pre masses from your domain.

[Taylor @ Jul 15th 2009 2:48PM]

I've been using SongBird with my Pre anyway. It's better than iTunes bloatware.

[Captain Justice @ Jul 15th 2009 2:52PM]

Hah, bloatware. As though iTunes would make a TI-82 break a sweat.

[Kamokazi @ Jul 15th 2009 2:51PM]

This is awesome, it will get people to stop using iTunes and realize how much it sucks (on Windows at least) when they try something else. Thanks, Apple.

(The button you are looking for is to the top right of my post, it is red and looks like this: [ - ] )

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jul 15th 2009 2:51PM]

Weak.

[Slappy Wag @ Jul 15th 2009 2:55PM]

After reading through all the comments, Media Monkey FTW! I haven't used iTunes in over a year. Own two iPods (wife's newer one and the kid inherited her old one). Media Monkey will sync with just about anything you want. No reason to use iTunes.

[John @ Jul 15th 2009 2:56PM]

My BB and Pre are blowing up. Being first kinda sucks.

[Anton @ Jul 15th 2009 2:59PM]

79.3MB just to fix one thing?

[Precurse @ Jul 15th 2009 3:00PM]

@Taylor

I have both iTunes and Songbird on my Macbook Pro.. Songbird is nice to have, but it by no means "not bloated". It constantly uses about 20% of my core2duo processor, while iTunes uses 5-10%.

I'm not sure about the Windows counterparts, but I'm assuming roughly the same...

[the4thheat @ Jul 15th 2009 3:17PM]

Yeah the windows counterpart is exactly the same except it uses 100% CPU and runs like garbage even if you have a Core2Quad system running at 3Ghz or better.
That's not to say that I don't run it, I run it even on my laptop but just watching it freeze the whole computer up at startup is painful.

[Puggs @ Jul 15th 2009 3:21PM]

iTunes sucks anyway... so why would you use it... oh, unless you own a mac!

[haX0r @ Jul 15th 2009 3:26PM]

Winamp rocks the iPod and Pre. Forget crApple. Go WinAmp!

[Joe @ Jul 15th 2009 3:38PM]

Funny, you must be doing something wrong, the4thheat...

I just opened iTunes from an idle system. It popped up in 3.5 seconds, and is now playing music using only 42 MB of memory, and 0-1% of my Core 2 Duo 3.16 GHz processor...

That's not to say that it's perfect by any means, or that there aren't faster solutions, just that if taking under 4 seconds to load and play music is a disqualifying feature, you don't use much software.

[Gibson @ Jul 15th 2009 3:47PM]

Another vote for "iTunes is terrible". doubleTwist or Songbird FTW

[Matt E. @ Jul 15th 2009 3:50PM]

The answer is simple: If iTunes won't sync or play with the portable device(s) of my choice, I don't use iTunes. Simple.
When will Apple get this? Not that they care.

[iphonerulez @ Jul 15th 2009 3:50PM]

This is so darn amusing. Like, were people really buying the Pre to hook it up to iTunes, anyway. First and foremost, Apple haters always say that iTunes is the worst piece of software ever conceived for music management and transfer and that Windows Media Player or WinAmp are absolutely ten times better, so what is the big deal about Apple giving Pre users a far better alternative. I'm sure whatever music software is on Windows 7 is much better for Pre users. Besides, isn't straight drag and drop superior to any type of music database. Managing 20,000 music files is so much easier by merely dragging and dropping hundreds of folders.

Anyway, I'm glad Apple decided to free Pre users from the headaches of iTunes. Palm should never have mentioned iTunes compatability in the first place. They should have touted Windows Media Player as the best solution. It's done with. All Pre users can now go out and buy low cost Windows PCs to manage their music collection. A big round of applause for Microsoft and Palm.

[Templarian @ Jul 15th 2009 3:56PM]

Should of circled the 79.3MB in red also. lol.

[iLove @ Jul 15th 2009 4:57PM]

That's what Palm gets.
They needed a backup plan... like their own software to sync their device with.

[redleader158 @ Jul 15th 2009 6:55PM]

Seriously, Apple has to go out its way (79.3MB) to be a douche? Well I bet the majority of the Pre users don't use iTunes anyway.

[logicbomb.de @ Jul 15th 2009 7:54PM]

iTunes install file has always been roughly 80MB.

what's the big deal anyway?

[Zune Claus @ Jul 15th 2009 7:55PM]

"devices falsely pretending to be iPods"

What about devices truthfully pretending to be iPods?

[sweet greggo @ Jul 15th 2009 8:02PM]

If only Apple cared this much about the people that actually own their products. When have they ever whipped out an update this fast on anything?

[Michael Scrip @ Jul 15th 2009 8:24PM]

@Kamokazi >> "This is awesome, it will get people to stop using iTunes and realize how much it sucks (on Windows at least) when they try something else. Thanks, Apple."

Right. 200,000 Palm Pre users won't use iTunes...

But what about 100,000,000 iPod users?

[richb93 @ Jul 15th 2009 9:01PM]

Ugh. iTunes. Despise it. I only interact with it when I have to help my sis with her iPod. I'm a happy fb2k user. Possibly the greatest audio playback software ever written. Small. Concise. Feature filled. I can happily play files with 0~1% CPU time and 15MB RAM usage. Heck, even she uses fb2k on her PC when not syncing to the iPod for the fact that foobar2000 is probably just about the most efficient audio player you'll come across. Shame it's not on Mac OS however I persevered and have it happily running in Crossover on my Hac OS X. Win 7 7264 is doing it for me however ;)

[Rod Rye @ Jul 16th 2009 11:50AM]

This move should be illegal, if Microsoft was to do something like this, they would be hauled before the courts and fined hundreds of millions of dollars in both the EU and US.

[iphonerulez @ Jul 15th 2009 9:09PM]

Mama-a-a....! For some strange reason I can't properly hook up my Pre to iTunes anymore. I keep getting an error message. I'm sure Palm said my Pre was a proper Apple-type device but the error message says my Pre is no longer recognized. Wahhhhh. I want my money back....

Oh, my poor baby. I'm so sorry for you. Now wipe your tears and clean the snot hanging from your nose, my sonny boy. You shoulda got an iPhone instead. Mwahahahaha.... ROTFL-L-L-L-L...

You got played sucka and it serves you right for prancing around with a faux iPhone. Some people just never learn. Sweeeeeet jeeeezus! Hallelujah!

[Ryan @ Jul 15th 2009 9:23PM]

Well why dont u just NOT update your itunes and use it with your pre? Sounds good to me. Or you can just find an older install for iTunes.

[SimbaDogg @ Jul 15th 2009 9:58PM]

i really realy realy hope that apple is hit w/ an antitrust suit for this. in the same way that MS was hit w/ their antitrust suit in europe for internet explorer coming preloaded on windows (or w/e the full story is).

they way i look at it is this, if i buy my music from itunes, amazon, walmart of any store...and that program that i used to buy it has a built in sync tool, they should allow me to sync it to any damn device that i have. the way i look at it, it'd be like going to best buy...buying a cd there, then finding that when u took it home...it only plays on the equipment that you actually bought from bby. maybe its just me and wishful thinking, but i def think someone needs to slap apple upside the head...cuz in all honesty they've grown just as, if not more douchey than MS was at their peak of douchiness.

[maveric101 @ Jul 16th 2009 12:15AM]

@ simbadogg:

agreed. Apple makes some great products that help move the industry, but they've been getting pretty uppity. they need a wake up call, a smack in the face, a nice piece of humble pie if you will.

[Kevin @ Jul 16th 2009 10:02AM]

@Michael Scrip

That is 100,000,000 sold, not currently in use. I don't see too many that are Generation 5 or earlier anymore. While it is definitely larger than the pre users, there aren't 100 million people using ipods today.

[the4thheat @ Jul 17th 2009 12:18AM]

@Joe
What was the CPU while you were booting it up? There's no way in hell it was 1%. And the problem isn't when it's just sitting and playing and mp3 without you touching it, the resource hogging is when you try to actually do stuff in iTunes like editing id3 tags or getting info about a track, etc.
Secondly, I don't know if you had already booted it before on that machine-it obviously starts faster if you had it running before and closed it since it's cached in memory. I never said it takes a long time to boot on fast systems, I said it takes forever to load on my laptop-takes about 15 seconds to boot up even though I had already loaded it before.
It still runs like crap on fast systems though compared to other mp3 players like Winamp or foobar2000 (which just took 2 seconds to load on the laptop, and loads on my desktop Core2Duo in about half a second). I don't even think 3.5 seconds on a 3.16Ghz Core2Duo is anything to be bragging about, that's pretty bad considering how fast stuff like Chrome boots up.

And iTunes eats a LOT more RAM if you run coverflow, even right after booting I'm seeing 70MB of RAM used, and it definitely grows. If you don't have any album artwork then I suppose it would use less memory but then you might as well just run winamp.

[cg0def @ Jul 22nd 2009 7:05AM]

@Rod Rye illegal? Are you NUTS? iTunes is in no shape or form a platform and you also agree to an EULA every time you update it. Read it carefully next time. And FYI this is the same as using your neighbor's unprotected wif-fi and then complaining that they put a password. It wasn't yours to use in the first place and you should be happy that it did work while it lasted. Plus if using itunes was such a great solution I guarantee you that the likes of RIM and Nokia would have been all over it long before Palm decided that retire and die is not such a great principle to live by.

[reuthermonkey1 @ Jul 15th 2009 2:25PM]

SECOND

[reuthermonkey1 @ Jul 15th 2009 2:26PM]

Oh. Hi Kyle!

[random @ Jul 15th 2009 3:27PM]

Second to be an asshole

*on topic* - I'm surprised it took them this long

[gbobman @ Jul 15th 2009 9:11PM]

Who autoupdates anyway? Apple puts so much crap on your system I turned it off ages ago.

[Keith @ Jul 15th 2009 2:25PM]

I don't understand why the syncing of a Pre is a bad thing for Apple. Doesn't that mean that even MORE people are using their product and accessing their online store? I'm confused.

[Jon @ Jul 15th 2009 2:27PM]

No, because you can't buy songs from the iTunes store and listen to them on your Pre.

Apple wants people to buy things from the iTunes store, which you can only listen to on your iPod or iPhone.

[agrabren @ Jul 15th 2009 2:28PM]

Because Apple can't get it out of their head that software can be profitable. They believe themselves as a hardware company first. And to use their software, you must use their hardware. It's the same question as to why they refuse to just sell Mac OSX for standard PCs?

[Sneakz @ Jul 15th 2009 2:28PM]

You can buy songs from iTunes and use them on a Pre since the iTunes Store is now DRM free.

[rhcpsfan @ Jul 15th 2009 2:30PM]

Its bad for apple because one of the main reasons people buy their ipods is because itunes makes it easy to put music and stuff on it. If other devices(better devices) had itunes support, why would anyone buy an ipod?

[David @ Jul 15th 2009 2:33PM]

Apparently you are mistaken Apple with Microsoft. Apple is a hardware company and it still is. iTunes store does not even generate the revenue to support its online store operation. The only reason for Apple to keep the iTunes store is only because Apple wants you to buy the iPod or iPhone. Once the chain is broken, the revenue will suffer.

[Greg @ Jul 15th 2009 2:32PM]

Because syncing with iTunes is a feature of the iPhone. It's one of the reasons I want one. To have all your contacts, calendar, music, movies, websites, etc, synced from one piece of software is a really handy trait. Even Palm touted it as a feature of their pre, even though the pre could only do music.

Now, the iTunes store is DRM free, meaning you can still buy music from it for the Pre, you just can't sync it automatically. Dragging and dropping the artist folders in your itunes folder should do the trick though. Of course, it's not as easy. One of the advantages of the iPod and iPhone is it's ability to sync with iTunes.

Get it?

[Anthony @ Jul 15th 2009 2:33PM]

Thank you for thinking logically! But this is Apple we're talking about. Leave logical thinking to Logitech.

But really I don't see Apple's purpose either. It only helps iTunes and if they were smart, they would all numerous products to sync to iTunes and stop trying to monopolize everything they make. They force you to buy hardware to use their half-assed software(though somewhat good at times). When they instead could push THE SOFTWARE side to numerous hardware, making them then dependent on Apple's store.

I hope that Palm repatches it, but I honestly am still surprised that they even acknowledged that it had the iTunes syncing capability. If they were to patch it, that would be more of a spit in Apple's face than originally allowing the Pre to sync with it in the first place.

[Greg @ Jul 15th 2009 2:35PM]

Oh, and the pre certainly isn't better hardware.
Small keyboard, cheap construction, small screen, slower, and now, can't sync with itunes.

I've held both in my hands, used both. Pre was a catchup game from Palm. Catches up more to the other feature phones than the iPhone though.

[Tsing Tao @ Jul 15th 2009 2:44PM]

Think about it this way. You buy a Pre being a normal customer, you sync with itunes but you have a problem, who do you think they will call first for support Apple or Palm? If i was apple i wouldn’t want a bunch of palm customers calling me with their problems that has nothing to do with my systems.

[Shenanigans @ Jul 15th 2009 2:47PM]

@ John

AAC is a widely used format, almost used as much as MP3 these days. The Pre will play iTunes downloads just fine as long as they aren't protected.

[Jonathan @ Jul 15th 2009 2:55PM]

Apple wants iTunes to be a desired, easy to use program that is only available to Apple device users.

It's very simple