Ding dong! Round five!
You’ve got to admires Palm’s chutzpah on this, as their latest v1.2.1 webOS update ‘unbreaks’ Apple’s blocking methods and lets Palm Pre users enjoy full iTunes syncing again.
With iTunes enjoying a truly vast market share we can see why Palm is persisting with this – after all why shouldn’t iTunes users be able to sync their paid for material with the device of their choice?
Apple are managing to restrict iTunes usage by means of the hardware’s Vendor ID (which the Pre has been spoofing), and Palm’s efforts to appeal to the USB Implementers Forum – the industry group overseeing the universal serial bus standard – fell on very deaf ears.
Despite taking the equivalent of a several cold fish being repeatedly slapped around their faces, Palm responded with a bullish press statement:
We engaged with the USB-IF because we believe consumers should have freedom and choice in how and where they use the non-rights managed media they already own. We are reviewing the letter from the USB-IF and will respond as appropriate.
So the latest webOS update sees iTunes syncing reintroduced which may be good news for Palm/iTunes users, but it’s turning into a bit of an ugly spectacle to witness.
Apple are coming over as an unpleasant, domineering bully and Palm’s customers are getting the rough end of the pineapple, suffering uncertain media syncing as the cat and mouse game continues.
We can understand the reasons why Palm is making a stand over this, but when we get our grubby hands on a Pre we won’t be installing iTunes, with the equally capable (some may say superior) Doubletwist or Media Monkey programs doing the job jus’ dandy for us.
