“Palm today quietly circumvented Apple’s protective measures again with webOS 1.2.1. Its second update in a week is the first to restore iTunes syncing for the Pre since iTunes 8.2 and will let the Pre take media from iTunes 9.0.1 as though it were a native device in the jukebox software,” Electronista reports.
“Apple has never brought up the possibility of legal action regarding iTunes sync but has repeatedly made clear that it will break compatibility with non-Apple devices when possible,” Electronista reports.
Full article here.
John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD, “How has Palm done this? By once again making the Pre masquerade as an Apple device.”
Plug your Pre into your computer and set it to Media Sync and it identifies itself like this:”
USB Product ID: 0×1209
USB Vendor ID: 0×05ac (Apple, Inc)
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Paczkowski reports, “A brazen move, considering the USB-IF specifically warned Palm against doing exactly this in its Sept. 22 letter to the company.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What a great feature beleaguered Palm offers their Pre sufferers: Intermittent and unreliable iTunes syncing. This, along with near total App-Lack™, an antique mechanical keyboard perpetually stuck in vertical mode, no soft keyboard at all, a cheap plastic screen that’s reportedly quite the nasty scratch magnet, and flimsy, junky-feeling overall build-quality – all backed by a company that’s so running on fumes that they can’t even manage to come up with their own software to legally sync with iTunes. No wonder they’re having trouble selling their crappy, app-less fake iPhones.