And by “Bug Fix,” We Mean the Palm Pre’s iTunes Integration…
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 2, 2009 at 6:13 AM PT
Apple (AAPL) rolled out updates to QuickTime and iTunes on Monday, presumably as preface to iPhone 3.0. Both iTunes 8.2 and QuickTime 7.6.2 include support for the next iteration of the iPhone’s firmware, which is expected to debut at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which kicks off next week in San Francisco, Calif. Also addressed in iTunes 8.2 are “many accessibility improvements and bug fixes.”
Just what Apple means by that is unclear, although one wonders if it might be a clever euphemism for the Palm (PALM) Pre’s recently disclosed Media Sync feature, which allows the device to synchronize seamlessly with iTunes, essentially by masquerading as an iPod. Certainly, it seems unlikely that Apple would allow this to persist.
As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber notes, “If you’re still holding out any sort of hope that Palm is using some sort of heretofore sanctioned, semi-sanctioned, or even maybe-sorta-kinda-sanctioned-if-you-squint-your-eyes means for a third-party smart phone to sync with iTunes via USB, note that the Pre, when connected to iTunes, is labelled as an “iPod.” If you think Apple would ever allow the use of “iPod” to describe anything other than an actual iPod, you’re nuts.”
Comments
For a company like Palm to pull a stunt like this is nothing short of amazing and desperate. I doubt Apple or even Microsoft would pull off something like this without a partnership or sanction.
If they are waiting for an Apple backlash from users, I doubt it will come. In fact the backlash will come back to Palm for promising a feature that will surely be broken!
Posted by Stephen Antonucci at June 2nd, 2009 at 8:16 amConsidering many devices can sync to iTunes while not pretending to be iPods, one has to wonder. Except this would not be the first head-scratcher from Palm by any means.
Their CEO claiming all the people who bought iPhones two years ago are going to drop them and by Pres demonstrates a significant lack of clue on the part of some of their leadership.
I can’t imagine how John Rubenstein, who knows Apple intimately, let this particular “feature” stand is amazing.
Posted by Eric Welch at June 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 am“Their CEO claiming all the people who bought iPhones two years ago are going to drop them and by Pres demonstrates a significant lack of clue on the part of some of their leadership.”
Eric, their CEO never said this, an investor did. Palm retracted the comment on the investor’s (McNamee’s) behalf the following day.
Posted by Si Fletch at June 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 amSi’s correct, Eric. See
Palm Investor: Your Next iPhone Will Be a Pre
and
Put a Sock in it McNamee
Posted by John Paczkowski at June 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 amHere is a thought. If you have been holding out to buy the Palm Pre…dont update iTunes. It is a bloated piece of software and its doubtful anything meaningful changed for those who do not have/plan to get an iPhone. It would be awesome if consumers can force Apple’s hand by simply choosing not to update iTunes so that “non sanctioned” devices can sync because if Palm figured out how to do it than probably Nokia, Blackberry, Samsung, etc can do it as well.
Posted by Dominic Pannone at June 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm