Apple blocks the Pre from iTunes Options

[NeverFade]

So far, the only phone I've seen that I think has the potential is the Pre.

lol - Do you know how ironic that sounds?? Palm is piggy backing on iTunes! ( well, until Apple put a stop to that yesterday! ) But a lot of owners of the Pre aren't going to upgrade, they are going to continue using the previous version of iTunes until they can't anymore... Which is unbelievable, in my mind that a phone is delivered to the public, and they're not even releasing native software to support it. You have to rely on 3rd party programs... talk about releasing an unfinished product.

[ModusOperandi]

The Pre syncs just by dragging and dropping files, and any media player which can sync in that way is compatible. Which in my mind is a better solution than Palm writing an entire media player just to sync.

[NeverFade]

Which in my mind is a better solution than Palm writing an entire media player just to sync.

I strongly disagree with you.

Apparently Palm shareholders do too: http://www.reuters.com/article/CMPSRV/idUSN1627453720090716

[ModusOperandi]

You believe they should write a media player when WMP (among other applications) will handle media management for the Pre now?

[NeverFade]

You believe they should write a media player

Yes! I believe they should have something to offer their consumers out of the box. That's fine if the consumers want to use something else that'll work, but Palm should've scraped something together to begin with, and expand from there.

[ModusOperandi]

They do have something to offer their consumers out of the box: direct disk access. If consumers want to use something else that'll work, they can use any media player which supports direct syncronization, which I believe includes doubleTwist, WMP, Songbird, and others. There really isn't all that much of a reason for them to create yet another media management app when several already exist and already have a userbase.

[NeverFade]

But Palm used this as a selling point! They clearly state that the Palm Pre will sync with iTunes. With a competitor's software suite.

Palm's own web site proclaims users can use the Palm media sync feature to transfer your DRM-free iTunes music, videos and photos to your Pre.

source: http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/index.html



This is like if Apple first came out with the iPod, and stated it would work with the Zune Marketplace - without permission ( obviously the Zune was not even a glimmer in the eye of MS then, but bear with me ). There's no way MS would let Apple ride it's coat tails, and why would they? They both compete in the same space. This is why they should create their own software, so the page I linked the earlier wouldn't have to ever have been written...

[daGUY]

Personally, I think it's crazy that Palm even attempted to get the Pre to sync directly with iTunes, let alone actually advertise it.

What surprises me most is how people are now saying Apple is "screwing over" Pre users. Apple is?! The Pre's iTunes syncing was a total hack - it "tricked" iTunes into thinking it was an iPod in order to appear like a supported device. Tell me, in what universe should Apple offer free support for a device that they don't make that's using a hack to gain access to its software?

It's Palm that's screwing over Pre users by advertising a major feature that's based on such a shady workaround. They had to have known that Apple would be able to block the Pre if they wanted, so why did they even do it in the first place? Now Pre users are stuck in a "cat and mouse" game of Palm enabling iTunes syncing followed by Apple promptly disabling it.

That's just irresponsibility on Palm's part. There are other legitimate ways that the Pre can sync its media. I can't fathom why they thought trying to piggyback on iTunes' success was a good idea.

[ModusOperandi]

I'm not even talking about iTunes here. I agree that advertising a hack as a feature was a bad move. I just don't think that now that it's gone they need to write their own to replace it.

[MPMoriarty]

Well the safest path Palm should have taken is to build an app that hooks into a user's iTunes library. Forget about syncing INSIDE iTunes. The iTunes XML database is pretty open and can be parsed easily...look how many apps on the Mac there are for doing this.

[LordDaMan]

The iTunes XML database is pretty open and can be parsed easily

Well, XML in name only. It's a good exmaple of how not to do xml

[MPMoriarty]

The iTunes XML database is pretty open and can be parsed easily

Well, XML in name only. It's a good exmaple of how not to do xml

Well, I am not very familiar with the general DOs and DON'Ts of XML, so I can't really debate with you on this. Can you elaborate more on what they do wrong? I look inside the file and I see the paths to all my media, the meta data stored on it, and the playlists I have created.

Regardless, I think parsing this file using an application they created themselves would be a better end solution than relying on iTunes to recognize their device.

[LordDaMan]

Well, I am not very familiar with the general DOs and DON'Ts of XML, so I can't really debate with you on this. Can you elaborate more on what they do wrong? I look inside the file and I see the paths to all my media, the meta data stored on it, and the playlists I have created.

Ok, the point of xml is to create your own markup language. You create tags for each subject, then yiu parse the XML file for that subjectSo say if you are doing Id3 tags. you would have soemthing like
<meta>
<albulm>blah</album>
</meta>

So to get the song album, one would&nbsp;parse the XML file for the <meta> tag, and then in turn under that you parse for the &lt;album&gt; and display whatever is in that tag for the album

iTunes uses soemthing like this:
<dict>
<key>1368</key>
<dict>
<key>Album</key><string>blah</string>
<dict>
</dict>

Notice key is two completly differnt things in that example? the 1368 is the begining of the section for meta information for a song and it's also used for album. So in this case to get the album, you have to parse what's contained in every single <key> tag untill the contents are equal to the number 1368. Then you have to parse the <dict>; key to find the begining of the metadata (mind you, dict can also mean other differnt things)<key> tag again untill you find it's contents are equal to the word author. Then you have to parse for the <string< tag immediately follwing the <key> tag contents that equal album in order to find out the album name.

So even if it is a valid XMl file, it's written in such a way that there a lot of extra machine logic needed to get the same info. I understand why (it's simply the plist format changed sightly in order to fit into a XML document) but the end result is a lot more work then should be needed.

Regardless, I think parsing this file using an application they created themselves would be a better end solution than relying on iTunes to recognize their device.

That would require yet another program to make it work. So you would have to use itunes and make this playlist, then run yet another program to take this playlist and sync it to your pre. It's not&nbsp; good idea forma&nbsp; user's standpoint when you need to run two programs just to get sync working. It would be easier to just use explorer and drag and drop

Edit: Yikes, the forum really magled my post. I fixed it and changed the itunes exmaple slighly to refelct a real world exmaple (copy pasted it form someone actaul XML file and chnaged a few things)

[daGUY]

Is there a reason why the Pre can't just register itself with iSync and then use the iTunes XML file to know what music to sync over? I had a Motorola RAZR that "just worked" with iSync, no extra software required.