Why does Apple have to offer a universal store when Amazon already does? You read the Eula and you agreed to Apple's terms when you made an account with them. Its not anti-competitive to make a store that only services your products. With your logic i should be able to use STEAM (An e-video game store on Window's based PC) on a Mac. How dare Valve make an online Video game store and force me to buy Window's based Computers because they will not support OS X or Linux based computers..

Whether you want to call the use of Samba "hacking" or not, the simple fact is that Macs using Samba (server or client) portray themselves as Windows services to other devices on the network -- effectively masquerading their true type. This is the same behavior others are decrying as immoral "hacking" when Palm does it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ServerMessageBlock

iTunes is considered a luxury not a necessity like a hammer. So your statement does not hold water. In the case of iTunes it is an online E-store setup for customers to use for their Apple products. Apple has every right to say there store will not support third party hardware. It doesn't matter that you can download it on your Mac or Windows machine it is still an e-store designed to be with their mp3 players and phones. I don't see anyone bitching about the Zune Pass thats available only to Zunes.... I can't use the Zune pass with my iPhone....

People have an alternative to iTunes and for those bitching about how Apple is abusing i have to say... They are morons..... Read your EULA when you get iTunes as they state no third party hardware can sync to their store. Meaning its a store meant to service their products.

"the pre already has its own syncing options and its own music store through amazon". Exactly, alternative or not, Palm should stick with the decision they made when choosing Amazon as it's main music supplier and stop trying to force themselves into the iTunes echo system. Honestly this just makes Palm come across as a desperate stalker won't take no for an answer.

this has been repeated many times in these comments: the pre already has its own syncing options and its own music store through amazon. iTunes syncing is available as a secondary option for people who already have large itunes based collections.

"The music is now DRM-free so chip in the extra money and stop complaining;"

even the DRM free music is synced through iTunes, and it still ends up organized in the iTunes library, so a device that interacts with iTunes directly is going to be the best option for the iTunes customer whether the music is DRMed or not.

"Like it or not Apple has every right to say who can and cannot use there software."

software is a tool. when you buy a hammer, does the hammer manufacturer have every right to determine what nails you are allowed to use with the hammer?

that's not "freedom" or "free market", that's a large company attempting to use a government regulated legal framework to determine how you we may or may not use our tools.

palm is helping people take greater control over the tools in their possession, and that's good for customers and good for the marketplace.

Carriers have their own private music and app stores. VzW has the VzAppZone.. I don't see AT&T phones downloading from Verizon's app store....

May I remind you of a famous peoples court ruling by the emminent judge wapner himself, "you can put up any sign you want to in your store, but that doesn't make what the sign says legal'"

indeed, fanboy!

Biggest problem with our country is accountability. 1) It is the consumer's fault for buying music from a store that locked down their music and it was always very clearly the case. 2) The music is now DRM-free so chip in the extra money and stop complaining; and don't say that apple is milking extra money from the consumer because they sold the customer a product that was clearly locked down with DRM and they have financial obligations to the record companies for DRM-free music. If you didn't take the time to educate yourself to what you were buying it's not apple's fault; act like adults and take responsibility for your poor decisions.

Isn't that what RIM is doing with the Blackberry sync? Some people want to be able to sync their songs they purchased to other devices easily. Palm solution was to cut out the middleware sync software and just let iTunes write to the Pre directly. Then, once the files were written, the software on the Pre would read in the files. One less step as far as the user can tell.

tribalism.

maybe consumers should be blaming apple for being so restrictive over where they may or may not listen to their legally purchased media.

"And why in gods name would apple “freely” help the competition?"

because they would be supporting their customers decision to use their legally purchased media on the device they prefer.

it isn't about helping the competition, it is about helping customers.

The point is that Palm is vilified here (by you, among others) for "hacking" iTunes and masquerading as an iPod so their users can access iTunes music, as if this manner of reverse engineering is somehow immoral. For years, Macs have used a "hacked" version of SMB and spoofed their identify to so their users can participate in Windows networks and access Windows resources.

Why is this same practice immoral for Palm, but ok when Apple does it?

Grow some Nuts or Apples...which ever is first.

As far as I'm concerned it should be illegal for any company that sells content to do what Apple is doing here. Either that or they should be required to pop up a disclaimer on every content item they sell that says "yes you're paying for this but you have absolutely no rights to the content - Apple decides where when and if you can use the content, at their whim. Continue with purchase?"

You might consider it shady, but its not a violation of the specifications of USB.

Of course any device spoofing its id bears the responsibility to make sure it actually works.

What I really want to know is who really cares what palmpre are up to and secondly for that matter

How does it affect you as an iPhone user!

So long as apple look after me that's all I care about good luck to the pre it's not my fight

actually it does require effort on apples part. When all of the sudden a firmware update breaks iTunes for palm users who would consumers blame? Apple. And why in gods name would apple "freely" help the competition? Think if u had a lemonade stand. The best freggin lemonade stand ever. No one can compete with you but one day a rival group wants to sell cups at ur stand. Now you already have ur own specialty cups. So technically ur still being paid for the lemonade but u aren't making a profit off the cups anymore. And the group is selling it to customers as if it's the same cup but it isn't. and if their cup runs a leak you'll get the blame. Same thing with iTunes. The phone is the cup and the music is the lemonade. It wouldn't smart business-wise to allow them to do it.

SMB is a much better example, though Palm might eventually have trouble proving a clean room scenario given their Apple iPod engineers on staff.

"leave palm alone!" best Chris Crocker voice

I love my iPhone but sorry apple is fos on this one.

Ummm. That is exactly what Palm is doing. It is just doing it inside the devices instead of having the user install additional software. It lets iTunes take care of copying the files. Are you really so obsessed on where Palm parses XML files? Seriously?

Writing a desktop component would not give any additional functionality that the user does not already have with the current solution. All it does is make it less integrated (see Blackberry's solution).

Macs (both Server and Client) masquerade as Windows resources on mixed networks, and have for years, using Open Source software Apple did not even develop, and which was reverse engineered without any consent, licensing, or repayment to Microsoft. So...

"SMB was never intended to be an open system. If Apple want to use it then they need to work out an agreement with Microsoft."

Pot. Kettle. Black.

it's actually nothing like that.

free oil changes require effort on the dealership's part. iTunes syncing with the Pre requires no effort on iTunes' part. indeed it is Palm that has to do all the work do keep their OS/firmware up to speed with the latest version of iTunes. Apple has to do absolutely nothing.

oh heaven forbid.

maybe Microsoft should block itunes or safari from running on windows, or external hard drives and memory cards should prevent computers from connecting with them based on vendor ID. this is music syncing - not the most difficult thing in the world. the only "headache" for apple would be not screwing its customers by locking down its platform.

nobody [that i've heard] is arguing that Apple has to adopt a Microsoft like "backwards compatibility forever" type attitude. Apple merely has to not block by vendor ID and let other companies be responsible for absolutely everything else including firmware updates to match the latest iTunes spec.

additionally, did Apple bother to license all of Palm's PDA patents before going ahead with the iPhone? of course not. Palm pioneered the PDA, and it is easy to say that the iPhone has "ripped them off" in any number of ways. this is merely the chickens coming home to roost for Apple. Palm has a lot going for it in any legal battle, and Apple should be scared of a lawsuit or counter suit.

iTunes was never intended to be an open system. If they want to use it then they need to work out an agreement with Apple. That is like buying a Honda and then sticking a BMW emblem on the hood (like spoofing the VIN ID) and then going to the dealership and demanding free oil changes.

palm is definetly bringing this too far. this is just going to escalate into a huge legal battle..

So Palm spoofs the Vendor ID. How is that not misuse of the Vendor ID?

Good luck with this one Palm.