“In May, Palm announced that its new phone, the Pre, would do something that only a single other smartphone in the world could do—”synchronize seamlessly with iTunes,'” Farhad Manjoo writes for Slate.
MacDailyNews Take: Wrong already, Farhad. RIM’s BlackBerry Media Sync is a prime example of the proper, ethical way to sync non-Apple devices with iTunes (and Windows Media Player) music files. Beleaguered Palm, likely because they’ve been running on fumes for years, along with being led by obviously ethically-challenged people, tried to take the cheap, unethical way out.
Manjoo continues, “Palm—whose CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is a former Apple executive who’d been instrumental in creating the iPod—understood that it couldn’t beat iTunes. So why not join it?”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, to be crystal clear: Then join it ethically, like RIM, not unethically, like the Apple castoffs at Palm. And Tony Fadell, working closely with Steve Jobs, created the iPod, not Jon “I wannabe Steve Jobs but I never will be” Rubinstein.
Manjoo continues, “There’s a simple reason why not—Apple doesn’t allow third-party devices to sync with its software. But Palm found the restriction easy to circumvent: Every device that connects to a computer’s USB port identifies itself with a specific vendor and product code. Palm simply copied Apple’s USB codes. It’s the digital equivalent of telling a bouncer that you’re McLovin.”
MacDailyNews Take: As shown by the RIM example, Apple most certainly does allow third-party devices to sync with iTunes, but it’s nice to see that Manjoo agrees that what Palm did is as illegal as creating and trying to pass off fake identification.
Manjoo continues, “Apple, of course, doesn’t approve of this. And so began a tedious cat-and-mouse game. Every time Apple releases a new version of iTunes, it disables the Palm Pre’s syncing capability; the syncing comes back every time Palm updates its software. (As of Apple’s release of iTunes 9, the Pre cannot sync with Apple’s software; Palm says it’s working on restoring access.)
MacDailyNews Take: It wasn’t at all tedious to us, in fact, it was rather fun; of course, we were backing the cat. News flash, Farhad: Game over: Beleaguered Palm updates Pre’s webOS, but iTunes sync remains ‘off’ – September 29, 2009
Manjoo continues, “In July, Palm complained about Apple’s iTunes block to the USB Implementers Forum, the trade group that manages the USB specification. But the move backfired. In a letter sent last week, the USB-IF exonerated Apple and told Palm that it was in the wrong for copying Apple’s USB codes. The USB-IF didn’t say whether it would try to enforce its ruling; Palm says that it’s reviewing the decision. I hope the company continues to search for ways to sync with iTunes, because the fight—silly as it seems—is important, and Palm is clearly in the right.”
MacDailyNews Take: Manjoo is clearly either being directed by the perpetually-struggling Slate to engage in a bit of hit-whoring or he’s an imbecile. Take your pick.
Manjoo continues, “Apple may have the USB-IF on its side, and it may also be protected by copyright law. But by blocking non-Apple devices from its music app, Apple is violating a more fundamental principle of computing—that unalike devices should be able to connect to one another freely. The principle underlies everything we take for granted in tech today: It’s why the Internet, your home network, and the PC function at all. And it’s why Palm should keep storming the iTunes fortress.”
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, RIM’s BlackBerry Media Sync is a prime example of the proper, ethical way to sync non-Apple devices with iTunes music files. Beleaguered Palm tried and failed to take the cheap, unethical way out.
Manjoo continues, “I’m calling on Apple to stand down. Even better: It should create a legal pathway for Palm and every other company to sync with iTunes.”
MacDailyNews Take: There already is a “legal pathway” – see multiple references to RIM’s method above.
Manjoo continues, “Palm had to resort to hacking only because Apple closed down any legal paths for entry—making illegal the very same sort of compatibility that Apple itself has long depended on. Hacking was Palm’s only option.”
MacDailyNews Take: Stephen Hawking, you’ve got more work to do, for Farhad Manjoo is clearly denser than a black hole.
Manjoo continues, “Apple often gets away with behavior we’d never sanction from other companies. If Microsoft began preventing rivals’ devices from connecting with Windows, the tech industry would go ape.”
Full article, from which we’ve already excerpted everything of interest, so please Think Before You Click™, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple prevents no company from developing their own software to properly, ethically, and legally connect to iTunes. Contact Farhad Manjoo at and Slate editors at .
“… The principle underlies everything we take for granted in tech today: It’s why the Internet, your home network, and the PC function at all. And it’s why Palm should keep storming the iTunes fortress.”
Well, I guess Farhood would be correct if he just added a few words, like this,
” …Various manufacturers all vying for supremacy by releasing proprietary coding, while pretending to work with others so that you’ll pay for their products, results in the principle that underlies everything we (Windows apologists) take for granted in tech today: It’s why the Internet, your home network, and the (Windows) PC hardly function at all. “
@Steev
Spare me the at hominem “Sounds like a Democrat” crap.
“Stephen Hawking, you’ve got more work to do, for Farhad Manjoo is clearly denser than a black hole. “
lol.. does he have an event horizon?
Erm, I’m sure I remember a piece of news not that long ago about Microsoft losing very badly in court for not providing open source (and possibly commercial software companies) access to specific files needed to properly interact with Windows
(Found it! http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-171471.html )
So this kinda makes Manjoo’s point about “IF Microsoft did such a thing there would be a s**tstorm” invalid, they already have, to a point where it was common practice for so long that it took them 2 years to restructure and comply with the court ruling. And as mentioned in the article repeatedly, Apple HAS allowed RIM legal access to iTunes. It always surprises me how short a memory people writing for alot of tech blogs have, either that or they just dont have a clue about the industry their writing about and go “Hey! I use a PC everyday to watch Pron, I must be good with computers! I should share my uber knowledge with the rest of the world!”
I pity the idiot who hired him.
It’s “Slate.”
You’re not supposed to expect intelligence.
We need to set the record straight here as well: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090929/0337136349.shtml
I read some of the comments & u guys were spot on!! If I put a program on my computer shouldn’t i be able to sync it to whatever I want? Isn’t Itunes made by Apple and most of us use PCs (mainly because I can’t afford an apple)? If microsoft could, I’m sure they would block itunes so people could use windows media & whatever media site they profit from? Whether or not people want this or not coincides perfectly with iphone users & pre users. I’ve owned both, and the iphone WAS not for me (i use it as a paper weight now). I love my PRE. Apple develop a palm pre app so people can purchase songs from you & get over it!!!
“But by blocking non-Apple devices from its music app, Apple is violating a more fundamental principle of computing—that unalike devices should be able to connect to one another freely.”
Microsoft is king of creating barriers to interoperability. One classic example are the Internet Explorer HTML extensions. I don’t think that MS Office has ever been 100% interoperable between Windows and Mac, and it has been getting worse in some respects with the elimination of VB and unsynced release schedules. M$ squashes innovation and open source whenever possible.
“Stephen Hawking, you’ve got more work to do, for Farhad Manjoo is clearly denser than a black hole. “
Best. Line. Ever!
Yo! Kanye, i’m really happy for you,
and imma let u finish,
but Manjoo is the biggest dumbass of all time!
OF ALL TIME!!
Funny how when I write stuff that jibes with MacDailyNews’ POV, they praise me:
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14518/
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/20666/
But suddenly I’m a hack if I put Apple on the hot seat.
To the substance: You argue that Apple isn’t really blocking anyone because it lets other firms read the iTunes XML file and sync that way.
That’s bogus. That legal path doesn’t allow anywhere near the functionality that I’m calling for Apple to add to iTunes, or that Palm could achieve by copying the USB ID.
The Blackberry way doesn’t let you manage the syncing from iTunes — you can’t see the player in iTunes, or choose which files/playlists sync, or drag and drop, or do anything else you can through the player. All of these things are obvious advantages. Being able to sync to other devices from inside iTunes would obviously improve the software for iTunes users.
And of course, you’ve got to run two apps instead of one. Running two apps to sync your music is obviously more of a hassle than running one app. If you don’t think so, you don’t care about good software, and I don’t know what you’re doing running Apple stuff to begin with.
Let’s say Apple decides tomorrow that in order to sync with iPhoto, all digital camera makers will have to use a Blackberry-type third-party app — but the iPhone and any other Apple-branded cameras can sync with iPhoto directly. (Or do the same scenario with iMovie.) Would you be able to say Apple still lets cameras “connect” to iPhoto? Sure — in a circuitous, unsatisfactory way Steve Jobs would never sanction for his own products.
Bah bah baba, baba bah baba
I wanna be beleaguered.
@ Farhad Manjoo,
“But suddenly I’m a hack if I put Apple on the hot seat.”
You put Apple on the hot seat? You flatter yourself.
And the term is ‘in the hot seat’.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+the+hot+seat
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/bottled-water-makers-in-the-hot-seat/
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-in-the-hot-seat/
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=in+the+hot+seat&tag;
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US303&q;=“on+the+hot+seat.”
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/letters-to-the-editor/2009/09/01/healthcare-reform-on-the-hot-seat.html
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/article/2009-09-09/nfl-coaches-on-hot-seat-afc-edition
Mr. Manjoo,
you appear to be harboring some animosity toward the reading public (granted, they are mostly of the mac loving type, like myself) to the point of appearing to act like my 4 year old daughter trying to defend herself against her siblings. Can’t take the criticism? Get out of the industry you Pansy. BTW, your iPhoto argument doesn’t hold much water. iPhoto is designed to primarily receive photos from cameras. iTunes is designed to mainly manage iTunes libraries on both a computer and an iPod/ iPhone. In other words, data transfer is biderectional, weighted toward transfer to a device as opposed to receiving from a device. As such, there is another level of complexity and standards that need to be factored into the equation.
Finally, the fact that you are defending a company that tried to twist an impartial set of standards that it knowingly violated runs the risk of compromising the standards that exist for the benefit of all. This will only lead to more incompatibilities in the marketplace. Of course, this may be what you are ultimately after- so you can have something else to whine about.
Pansy…
I’m responding to the criticism. That doesn’t qualify as an inability to take it, and it’s wholly more mature than your unnecessarily capitalized name calling.
You don’t explain why that bi-directional complexity makes it OK to excluded third-party devices. Why not publish an API that lets players into iTunes? (And not the XML-parsing that’s allowed now.)
Farhad Manjoo
Apple developed the IP. Apple can do with it what it wants. Very simple. Let Palm develop something for themselves, otherwise it’s IP theft.
In your business you might refer to theft of your writings as plagiarism. Would you mind if someone reprinted your writings with their name on it? I don’t think so! Anyway, it was a poorly written piece, you can do better. Just work for it.
You people are all poo-poo heads!
@ Farhad Manjoo
RIM has developed their own BlackBerry Sync desktop software for their devices. iTunes is Apple’s desktop software for their devices. Let Palm write their own desktop software too.
Why should Apple be expected to support the hardware of a direct competitor – with all of the incompatibilities and support problems that creates?
And why would Palm be idiotic enough to leave a significant part of their customers’ user experience in the hands of a direct competitor? Would Burger King entrust their drive-thru experience to McDonald’s employees? Would you entrust a directly competing publication to provide your readers with a significant part of their reading experience?
Farhad,
the second Apple opens up iTunes to third party devices, the flood of complaints that Apple will get from the third party device manufacturers would be overwhelming, to say the least. The next thing you know, we’ll have the windows dilema all over again, namely the lack of ease of use that had to go the way of the Dodo to accommadate the multiple lack of adherence to standards that the third party manufacturers refused to conform to in order to save a buck for the shareholders.
You still don’t get it, do you- Apple makes a great product because the manufacture the whole widget. The second it is compromised it can no longer bear the moniker of Apple. It gets sent to Microsoft for them to regurgitate(sp?) into a halfassed and bastardized version of what could have been.
Apple has never hid the fact that iTunes was developed for them to sell iPods. Who in their right mind would allow another company to use thier software so they could profit and be more competitive with Apple in an industry that is already cutthroat. You’re a frigging idiot and still a thin-skinned Pansy.
Keep defending yourself- it’s making for great entertainment, which is, afterall, why many of us read the stuff on this site.
Thanks for the fun! And know that you have lost a possible reader of your work on any other site. You have clearly demonstrated your inability to thrive in the journalistic industry for much longer than the life of said flower that I likened you to.
Fathead… Good name!
Farhad Manjoo? Only cruel parents would name their kid Farhad Manjoo. They must have known he would grow up to be a retard.
Farhood is a democrat.
@zek & @Proud Puppy,
Only the persuasively challenged resort to name calling and base ridicule.
Farhad is usually spot on and has been posted here on MDN many times for his normally positive articles about Apple.
Looks like he just had a bad day. For the Stephen Hawking fans out there, this article was merely a cosmic anomaly.