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Apple updates iTunes, cripples Palm Pre syncing

By

On July 15, 2009, 4:12 PM

As many predicted it would happen, Apple has released an update to iTunes that effectively prevents devices “falsely pretending to be iPods” from syncing with the media software. This of course is seen as a direct response to Palm, which had previously touted the Pre’s ability to effortlessly sync DRM-free songs and even photos with Apple’s software.

A number of sites were able to confirm that the recently-released iTunes 8.2.1 prevents the sync from working, which was later corroborated by Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. If Palm decides develop and issue a workaround this could end up in a long cat-and-mouse game that’ll only hurt customers. The Palm the Pre still acts as a USB device, though, so users could just add music the old fashioned way: by manually dragging and dropping songs to the device’s memory.

Besides breaking compatibility with Palm’s smartphone, Apple says iTunes 8.2.1 “provides a number of important bug fixes” but falls short of offering details. In any case, if you’re a Pre user and rely on iTunes for transferring music, you should probably hold off on updating to the latest version for now.

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5 comments

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  1. July 15, 2009 6:10 PM
    Guest said:

    DoubleTwist works really well..

    Even looks somewhat like Itunes but isnt a hog. Ive been using it for my pre and can say I am very happy. Best of all it too is FREE.

    Anyone else use anything different?

    http://www.doubletwist.com

    Reply
  2. July 15, 2009 6:34 PM
    Staff
    Rick
    Rick, TechSpot Staff, said:

    iTunes sucks anyway. This is nothing but a plus, IMO.

    Reply
  3. July 15, 2009 9:50 PM
    LookinAround
    LookinAround, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

    I suspect it shouldn't be long before the anti-trust litigation starts over this issue with Apple and iTunes!

    Reply
  4. July 30, 2009 3:22 AM
    T77
    T77 said:

    not a smart move by apple in my opinion

    it would just deviate users towards other softwares.

    Reply
  5. September 12, 2009 11:08 PM
    Guest said:

    well said, Apple has made an idiotic market blunder. Those who normally turn to itunes will be forced onto other sites...which decreases itunes popularity. I for one use Zune...because it rocks, and because a pc is better than a mac, everyone says macs cant get viruses, untrue, they can not get lil viruses, its like being immune to everything but cancer...macs can get destroyed by a hardcore virus, no plusses there.

    Reply

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