Lord Jobs hath decreed that mine Pre (being in itself a most unholy device) shalt not defile mine USB port, it having already been consecrated by the Holy iTunes. His word is law.

Apple is in the right. If palm goes after apple they will have to go after creative as they do the same thing and the Zune Software same deal. Palm is just wanting a peice of the pie i hope apple counter sues and tkos palm so i dont have to hear how retarded palm is being.

Apple didn't invent USB, so I guess palm might have a case here? We'll see I guess.

I'll skip on any apple bashing, I'm sure there is plenty of that to come.

It's easy to see that the iPhone is very popular and this is great for Apple. Personally, I would buy the Pre regardless of its ability to sync with iTunes. In fact, I would avoid the iPhone and iTunes simply because they are becoming too big and too trendy. With that said, I think Apple is doing the industry an injustice with is protectionist approach. It's interesting that they have this stance and yet Steve Jobs was influential in DRM free music.

These practices are a perfect example of why I refuse to use Apple products. If iTunes, which I do not use, were a MAC/iPhone/iPod specific application I could understand that they might want to keep it to their own, but it isn't. iTunes is also available to Windows. Basically this is just another way for Apple to go all out anal and annoying on someone/some company.

I wonder though why everyone makes a big fuss if Microsoft doesn't share protocols and such, but you won't hear anyone about Apple keeping everything to itself.
IE is another nice example. Microsoft gets forced by the EU to give customers different browser options (including Safari), yet Apple still get away by only offering Safari. Doesn't that seem odd to you?

Anyways, I hope that when Apple continues these practice companies and consumers will get fed up with them....that would be a much needed humbling experience for Apple.

I think palm is right here...we can use itunes on our pc's and non apple devices and mp3's i don't see why a palm pre owner should not be able to use it, itunes is not designed solely for apple products and as such it should not be restricted.

Another person on Palm's side here...Lockouts are just uncool.

Not only Palm is impolite (couldn't they ask first?), and self-righeous (wish-fulfullingly assuming that they HAVE the right to use other people's product), but also a hypocrite, hiding behind the so called free trade banner, but actually taking advantage of other people's hard work, AND coming up with lame excuses such as it would actually help Apple blah blah blah...

Apple funded, developed and marketed iTunes. This has nothing whatsoever to do with USB policies. It's about Apple's software. If the Pre is so incredible I'm sure their own syncing software will be just as successful.

I think Apple has the right to do whatever they want with their own software. But I also think Apple is the devil, and I think they need to stop being stupid (yea right, like that's going to happen). They go out of their way to use every non-standard connection and interface that they can just to make people pay $50 for an adapter. It's not what's in the best interest of their customers, it's what's in the best interest of their supposed "prestige" or "exclusiveness" or whatever you want to call it. Any way, I don't think Palm has a case here, but I stand with them morally (so to speak).

Funny part is, Apple is shooting themselves in the foot. By allowing the Pre to sync with Itunes, that means that they have more money coming in through it.

iTunes is apples app, why does Palm think they have the right to compatibility with it?

Palm doesn't have a leg to stand on here- they're claiming Apple is abusing the USB Vendor ID to lock out non-iPod syncing, while Palm itself is abusing the Vendor ID. They got syncing with iTunes to work by, you guessed it, setting the Pre's Vendor ID to be the same as Apple's.

way to go apple, they not only manage to blocked everything they don't like on their product, but they are doing it on other peoples device, whats next? blocking itunes on windows, or are you just gonna make it run SLOWER on windows? how about make your own wireless standard that can only be used by apple products and can only be put out by apple products?

I love This any one that appears to be rooting for apple get hit with negative votes. but any one bashing apple gets voted up why is this???

because when you control 90% of legally purchased music and the only device that can sync with it is your own product you're monopolizing the service.

I think because people are just sick of how much apple fans talk about apple.

That and about a year ago Tom's got a massive influx of Apple fans and people tried to turn Tom's Guide into Apple's Guide. So what you are seeing is a backlash, witch you will eventually see reflected across the country.

This is always the end result of such aggressive advertising.

I'm just praying for that one day a court ruling will find Apple's stringent approach to the App Store, iTunes player compatibility, and the Mac OS X EULA unlawful.

Just hearing the constant news of them mistreating software developers and competing hardware vendors is painting a different picture than the user-friendly image they're trying to sport.

usb... universal serial bus. I'm not sure what the license is that apple has agreed to to be able to use the USB interface, but a kid is facing prison time for modifying xbox hardware, I would assume that hindering or all out blocking a device from working over a licensed product would fall under the same category. I sure know that I wouldn't want my patented product being hindered by some third party company. Not to mention the fact that the action represents a monopolistic move on apple's part, forcing competitive devices not to work on your proprietary platform is monopolistic behavior. Same as micro$haft paying game companies to develop for windows/directX is monopolistic and should be torn down as well.
Why can't we just all adhere to open standards and quit this corporate BS. I wish more game devs/device devs supported linux.
Yet another reason not to buy a crApple. :-p

If MS has to give users a choice of browsers then any phone should be able to sync with itunes. Plain and simple. keep it consistent

I'm no fan of itunes. In fact, I hate it.

Winamp all the way. Milkdrop is the best visualization program ever!

I'm not an apple fanboy and don't even own any of their products but I agree about getting voted down if you take their side in any story that appears on any tech site. I'm not even sure I like apple as a company but I make it a point to voice my opinion on all these threads and could really care less about getting bad votes.

If Palm had come out with something popular and original that everyone flocked to in the pre and apple were the one tapping into their stuff people would be waving the torches and pitchforks about it. Thats what I have seen so many times and discussed it with my group of friends at work when we talk shop. Hell its pushing a couple of us in the group to really think about switching and buying our first apple products even though we really don't want to just because were tried of it all.

Like an earlier post pointed out MS does the same thing with Zune, creative does it, I'm sure other PMP manufacturers do it also but no one will say a word about anyone else, only Apple. I don't actually believe half the people that talk them down even care about who is right or wrong, or what the issue really is, they are just looking for an opportunity to bash on Apple.

Personally I wouldn't care if the government came down on them as long as they spread it around to MS and the other PMP companies that do the same thing. I do not believe in the way that people on want one set of rules for Apple and on for everyone else. And don't say any MS bullshit because the whole IE thing has got to be the lamest argument in the history of lame arguments because they want to gloss over all the illegal business practices and outright extortion tactics that were really at the heart of that issue and just repeat the parts they want.

Hey I can do that with this story, lets edit out all the Apple stuff and make the whole story "palm spoofs apple USB ID". Holy shit they better go after palm big time. If MS did something like that the EU would be all over them, blah blah blah. See how easy it is.

Apple hardware with apple software makeing sure they are secure to them selves and that other brands cannot use or steal there is no problem with protecting your own rights
Gazz

How can palm be right here? Im not a fan of apple but quite honestly its THEIR software which was designed to work with THEIR music players. They can do whatever the hell they want with it and Palm shouldn't have a say. Is it bad business for Apple to block Palm users? Yes, in a way. But regardless Apple has a history of being the Soup Nazi of the electronics business so why is anybody surprised.

Gazz.... i beg of you.... use spell check please.... SPELL CHECK SPELL CHECK SPELL CHECK!!!!!

But then again its their software, theyre not monopolizing anything. Letting people without iphods or iphones sync with itunes makes people buy less ippods and iphones

Hence why there are a ton of pmp devices that deal with money makeing services but also provide ability to run any of your standard off the line media. the Nokia n8xx and archos' series of pmp's come to mind right off the bat, but i know there are more than that. Not to mention they usually have more functionality and at a comparable/competitive price. Last time i bought a device like this I did waited about 2 months and did about a months worth of research on all the new devices before I went ahead and bought something.
and hence comes the problem with the way most people shop, they DON'T. they don't dig to find good deals on products that do what they want them to do. They just use what everyone else uses and then complain about it.
Honestly if you want good functionality and non proprietary stuff, go for open source platforms. You probably won't regret it because the hardware mfg WANTS the device to work with EVERYTHING. same on the software side. use non DRM'd software.

Thank you nachowarrior for making a genuinely intelligent post. You offered some good advice, didn't resort to saying X product is @#$%, and were very civil.

The closet thing to a PMP I have ever used is my Samsung Omnia, and I'm not really in the market for one myself, but i do have a 14 year old son that wants one. I have been looking at the new Zune HD, the newest Creative X-Fi one or a Touch. I had been leaning towards the Zune HD because i think it looks kinda industrial but smooth at the same time, and think the tegra platform will be better for video. But I also feel like giving Apple a sympathy purchase because of what i read on all these websites day in and day out.

You all have no idea what is going on here. If you read any other credible technology site, than you would understand what Apple has done. Apple locked out the initial Pre software because it hadn't locked out all non-apple devices from syncing with iTunes. In fact the Pre had been using A HACK to sync with iTunes.
They took care of that with an update to iTunes (Their software with their products, what isn't fair with that?). So Palm updated their firmware on the Pre that MAKES THE USB PORT THINK THAT IT IS AN APPLE DEVICE. This is all funny because Palm has filed a complaint with the USB consortium about Apple and their nefarious ways, when in fact it is Palm that is essentially hacking the USB code to make their device appear as an Apple iPod so it can sync with iTunes.
While I'm all for interoperability, everyone who is blindly supporting Palm needs to understand that they have very little ground to stand on. Apple software working with Apple products seems pretty fair to me.

If the U.S. forces microsoft to share code because it the largest os maker and make it work with 3rd party vendors. Shouldn't apple be forced to the same since they are the number one digital music store?

You can still use your music with your Pre, you just can't use iTunes with it. If Palm wants to get off their lazy butt and make their own interface software, all the more power to them.