“Many other devices and smartphones such as Research In Motion’s BlackBerry can use Apple media software for transferring music with additional software. But the Pre essentially spoofs its USB vendor ID to make iTunes believe it is an iPod, which is a method that’s not explicitly approved by the USB governing board,” Perez reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Which renders Palm’s “complaint” laughably ironic. But, what can you really expect from a bunch of castoffs who couldn’t cut it at Apple?
Jenna Wortham reports for The New York Times, “The forum declined to comment on when it would respond to Palm’s filing… Palm says its strategy of masquerading as an iPod is acceptable because it is in response to Apple’s restriction. ‘We think we are consistent with our compliance,” said Douglas B. Luftman, an associate general counsel for Palm. “We’re not trying to appear to be anything we’re not — except for interoperability purposes with iTunes.’”
MacDailyNews Take: The operative word being “except,” Dougie. With such daunting “legal skills” we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out that Apple had cut you, too. How’re the minor leagues treating you, Dougie?
Wortham continues, ” Jonathan J. Rubinstein, Palm’s chief executive, once oversaw iPod development at Apple, and Mike Bell, senior vice president for product development, is another Apple alumnus… Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Apple, said, ‘As we’ve said before, newer versions of iTunes software may no longer provide synching functionality with unsupported digital media players.’”
“Of course, the Pre also has software restrictions on synching with the Zune, the portable media player that is Microsoft’s answer to the iPod, but since it has few users, Palm is not fighting for access there,” Wortham reports.
Full article here.
Dan Frommer writes for The Business Insider, “Apple has spent the better part of the last decade establishing its iTunes footprint, based on quality and ease-of-use that competitors weren’t able to comprehend. (Ever tried Sony’s jukebox software? Exactly.)”
“That’s Apple’s advantage to enjoy and to control — not an open system that its competitors have a natural right to participate in,” Frommer writes. “There was certainly nothing stopping Palm from making desktop sync/jukebox software that wasn’t crappy for its PDAs and Treos in the last decade. But for some reason, that wasn’t a priority for them. It shouldn’t be Apple’s problem that Palm wants in now.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Mac Man By Choice" for the heads up.]
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