Comments on: Palm Pre USB hack confirmed

By: Dominic Son

Dominic Son — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:59:45 +0000

If apple decides to block Pre, Pre users will just switch to something else, and could impact iTunes proliferation.

By: Seth Schoen

Seth Schoen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:37:27 +0000

I think it’s scandalous that users have sympathy for anyone who deliberately tries to break interoperability of products, let alone lining up to cheer on the use of the legal system to crush competitors. Things that can interoperate should interoperate. When someone makes them fail to interoperate, that’s breaking a product; restoring interoperability is fixing breakage.

One authority against at least some legal theories that would prohibit use of another manufacturer’s codes to achieve interoperability is Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992).

By: Zibri

Zibri — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:25:53 +0000

Are they crazy?!?!
I thought they had some agreement with apple and not faking an ID !
Let’s say someone makes a great application that works with a special hardware.
Faking that hardware to use that application is a FRAUD.
Apple will file a profitable lawsuit. I’m sure of that.

By: Jingo5

Jingo5 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:18:10 +0000

Regardless of this bit of side stepping to get functionality with Itunes even if Apple tried to prevent it the Linux community can use gtkpod without any issues.

Already tested it out on my Pre and gtkpod syncs without any issues.

By: Royce

Royce — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:31:37 +0000

NICE stick it to apple side ways with out a reach around is all i say… I use to be a mac user till apple and att totally screwed me over. the fact that the device can STINK (that’s what i call syncing with and apple program or device) with iTunes is kinda cool that it can do that I will never but a lot of people will want to…

By: abcyesn

abcyesn — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:02:52 +0000

got mine!!! my WONDERFUL hubby didnt want me there by myself & my 8 yr old did NOT want to get up at 5 am & go, so he went by himself. I was surprised cuz he told me Monday he was soooo sick of hearing me talk about that effin phone!! lol – he got there at 6am there were 2 cars in the lot but nobody in line.
at 7:30 i told him to go start the line – sure enough a few more people followed. Our BB had 10 & I (technically my husband) was first in line.
BB rep came out at 9 and gave “line tix” and started the paperwork.
The first one they tried to activate was defective so sorry to the person who was #10 and didnt get a pre!!
I got mine and will be playing with it for the rest of the day (at least)!!!! Talk more at http://www.PalmPreForum.org see ya there.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:50:24 +0000

Gil,

1) iTunes isn’t a monopoly.
2) Please describe in what universe it would be considered unfair if Apple stopped Palm from using their intellectual property that they spent billions of dollars developing over the past 8 years.

Those of you that like Palm and want the Pre to succeed should be pushing for Palm to come up with their own sync solution. It will only make the Pre stronger. I am currently an iPhone user but I want the Pre to succeed because I feel that any device that gives the iPhone competition will only push Apple to make the iPhone even better. Also, my previous phone was a Treo 700p, which I used for 2 years. While I liked using the Treo itself I can tell you that I definitely cursed Palm every time I had to sync the damn thing with my computer. And that is after I spent extra money buying The MIssing Sync because Palm’s own sync solution was horrible. I wished that they would have spent the time, money, and effort developing a good sync solution. The way they’ve gone about this sucks for their customers.

Another thing that sucks about this implementation is the lack of Contacts synchronization. In the iTunes screen shots you can see a Contacts tab and when the Pre is selected you can even navigate to that tab and check the boxes. However, it doesn’t actually sync your contacts via iTunes. How do you think this is going to make customers feel that just spent $200 and signed a two-year contract for their shiny new phone.

Partial, potentially breakable sync. Beta app store. This whole thing is half-assed on Palm’s part.

They have what looks to be a great device that they pushed out the door before all the supporting pieces were in place. I hope they can get their act together soon. If they don’t this may be the best device to ever put the final nail in a company’s coffin.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:03:38 +0000

@Dan “There may further copyright/trademark violations in using Apple’s Vendor ID.”

It does not take a first year law student to tell you that an ID, which is a fact, is neither copyrightable nor can it be trademarked.

@Dan and @Ian

“using Apple’s vendor ID is not allowed by USB.org” and “surely in contravention of USB standards”

[citation needed]

And seriously, like USB-IF is going to take on Palm?

By: Jim Shaver

Jim Shaver — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:19:39 +0000

I am so glad that there are people like Jon around to find these things out. Good work dude!!!1!

By: kirasaw

kirasaw — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:59:53 +0000

Look for a new version of iTunes. It will not block the Pre but when a Pre is detected it will send ads to them advising that Palm is using an unauthorized method to sync and then offer them a discount to switch to the iPhone )