Pre Syncs with iTunes Quite Nicely

Pre iTunesRumor: Another interesting, new Pre factoid is making its way round the 'sphere this morning. Fortune's Apple blog is reporting that the Palm Pre will sync with Apple's iTunes software quite effortlessly out of the box. The post claims the Pre will behave just like a standard iPod or iPhone. Of course, Palm OS devices have been able to do this for years with third party apps such as PocketTunes, however the Pre seems to have this nice bit of functionality baked in.

Plug a Pre into a Mac and it syncs, seamlessly, with Apple's (AAPL) iTunes. In fact, the iTunes Store treats the Pre just as it would an iPod or an iPhone with one exception: it can't handle old copy-protected songs.

This development does address a number of the multimedia synchronization concerns many users have had, but it also raises the possibility for legal trouble as Apple has not responded well to intrusions into its iTunes ecosystem by competitors.

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iTunes Sync Confirmation

Ryan @ 5/28/2009 12:58:04 PM # Q
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unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media

pmjoe @ 5/29/2009 6:31:09 AM # Q
With the iPhone, you get contacts and calendar sync in iTunes as well. I'm really hoping Palm can work out seamless syncing with the Mac, but I'm not optimistic.
RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
gmayhak @ 5/29/2009 8:36:23 AM # Q
"with one exception: it can't handle old copy-protected songs."

Stupid move by Palm, letting the world know that iTunes is the way to go and providing a product that pretty much fails to work properly with iTunes.
Probably about 95% of everyones iTunes library is copy protected, do they think by calling those tunes "old" copy-protected they won't have a lot of upset customers when they find out there music won't work on the Pre?
Tech Center Labs

RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
rmhurdman @ 5/29/2009 10:05:02 AM # Q
95%? Did you just make that up? (That's a rhetorical question... of course you did).

Many people, like me, imported their CD collection into iTunes because it was a better option than Windows Media Player. I've yet to buy a track from Apple. None of my music has DRM (and none of the CDs had rootkits, thank goodness).

At the same time, Palm is sure gunning for a fight with Apple, hiring away staff, then hijacking their software. It'll be interesting to watch.

RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
gmayhak @ 5/29/2009 10:40:00 AM # Q
Of course I did ;-) but I said probably, not definitely and based on over 6 billion tunes sold by Apple I think there will still be a lot of upset people. On the other hand, with only 8gb for apps and media :-/
Tech Center Labs
RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
hkklife @ 5/29/2009 10:57:47 AM # Q
Good point, Gary. Foolish indeed for Palm. While it's true that no one has any exact numers, most people have collection full of DRM tunes...and have zero inclination to pony up to "upgrade" their tunes to the Plus DRM-free version.

Typical for Palm, though--when they aren't being arrogant ("who needs wi-fi or more than 32MB RAM?"), they become lazy ("Let's just roll over and admit that iTunes is the de facto music store/ sync option / media manger on Windows machines nowadays even though our support of it is half-assed at best"

iTunes is one of the most sluggish, bloated, and unoptimized pieces of Windows software I have ever used. It's better than it was, but it still a long way to go to match and sleek simplicity of, say, DBPowerAmp or WinAmp. I can think of any number of superior media players & CD players (yes, including Microsoft's WMP 11) over iTunes. Much like Internet Explorer a few years ago, It's amazing how iTunes has climped to the top of the pile by being so sucky and being the default app of the unwashed, unknowing, uncaring masses.

Give me actual physical CDs + USB mass storage compliance and I'll do my own ripping, encoding, organizing & synchronization, thank you very much. I don't need a gazillion popups telling me who's hot this week on the teenybopper charts. Besides, I'm a stodgy completionist who likes having liner notes and having a physical product "just in case". That said, I buy 90% of my PC games via Steam and consider it the paradigm of ESD aside from a few hideous instances where Valve let EA, Take Two, and Ubi unleash some DRM nastiness to ruin the experience.

Back on-topic: as rmhurdman stated above, it's interesting to watch the legal posturing between Palm & Apple on one hand, while on the other hand, the "new" Palm so blatantly apples Apple hardware & UI design and "officially" supports iTunes. It also makes you wonder (and giggle) if there still isn't some top secret hanky panky going on between Ruby and his former employer.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?

RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
gmayhak @ 5/29/2009 12:21:36 PM # Q
Well said Kris!
My feeling is a lot different concerning iTunes, it was a slow pain in the ass on windows but great on the Mac. I've bought a few tunes but what I really like about it is the tons of free educational podcasts (and the fact that they are selling my apps ;) and how easy everything syncs, wired or wifi.

It looks more and more to me like the hanky panky could be orchestrated by Apple ;-)
Tech Center Labs

RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
jca666us @ 5/29/2009 3:59:52 PM # Q
Does anyone know if Palm paid Apple to allow syncing with itunes, or are they just going through a back door?

If the latter, apple could very well kill pre syncing with itunes.

RE: unfortunately, that sounds like just a/v media
freakout @ 5/29/2009 5:22:29 PM # Q
Palm couldn't support DRM'd iTunes tracks even if they wanted to, Gary. No one can use FairPlay but Apple.

I can see why they went with this strategy, although I hate it. I'd much rather have seen Palm come out with their own media syncing software than piggyback on such a pile of rubbish as iTunes.

Oh well. USB drag 'n drop will work just fine. Most other desktop players recognize USB drives as mp3 players anyway, so it's not like we're being forced to use iTunes.

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