The 8.2.1 release blocks the smartphone's sync; workarounds are available
Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer caught this story late yesterday: Palm Pre owners can no longer use Apple’s iTunes to sync their smartphone with Macs or PCs.
A Palm spokesman confirmed yesterday that the new release had broken the Pre’s sync capability with iTunes, according to Keizer’s story.
A Bloomberg story quotes a Palm spokeswoman as saying the update simply harms Apple’s own iTunes users, who now “will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience,” according to Palm’s Lynn Fox, in an e-mail.
The new version of iTunes, release 8.2.1, was released yesterday, including a brief mention that the new code dealt with some bug fixes and “an issue with verification of Apple devices.” That means the new version can now distinguish a Palm Pre from an iPod or iPod Touch. The Pre falls into the class of of what Apple calls “unsupported media players.”
The news has generated a tidal wave of comment, complaint, and debate on Palm-related Web sites. At PreCentral.com, the initial post triggered nearly 250 comments.
“Totally expected. Was dumb for Palm then and still is. Get with Amazon and develop your own desktop manager Palm,” wrote cardfan.
Some labeled Apple a monopolist and bully. Others suggested in various ways, the action could have a silver-lining if Palm addressed current shortcomings. One anonymous poster wrote, “Palm need[s] to write their own music store/sync utility if they want the complete customer experience – not pilfer Apple tech.”
“Everyone who is complaining or siding one way or another is missing the biggest point here. Palm still doesn’t support .m3u playlists. Now that the iTunes sync is gone, hopefully they’ll get around to doing that so that the people who don’t like/use iTunes (me me me!!) don’t have to use it to get a darn playlist on our Pres,” wrone an anonymous poster.
Last May, Palm announced Palm Media Sync, a feature of its webOS that “synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre. Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select “media sync” on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.”
The bloggers have suggested a number of workarounds, Keizer noted: don’t update to the new iTunes release or use a third-party sync solution like doubleTwist. Opinions from Pre users vary on a discussion thread at Palm’s support forum, with some complaining about Apple’s action, others complaining that Palm should never have promoted a hack as a product feature, and another, “Hellweek” saying the workarounds are just that: workarounds. “solving it would be Palm working with Apple to allow syncing….,” he wrote.
