Apple blocks the Palm Pre from iTunes again
Apple has fired another salvo in its battle with Palm, by preventing the Pre phone from synchronising with iTunes 9.
This is the second time recently that Apple has deliberately prevented the Pre from connecting to its music and video organisation and sales application. In July, iTunes 8.2.1 prevented non Apple devices from connecting to iTunes by checking the USB Vendor ID and blocking any device that didn't use the Apple ID.
Palm followed this up with an update of its own that fixed the issue and made its phones compatible with iTunes again by altering the USB Vendor ID to match Apple's.
The company than made an official complaint to the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF) arguing that Apple was improperly using the USB Vendor ID. The New York Times managed to get hold of Palm's complaint letter.
There's no word yet as to how Apple is blocking devices with iTunes 9, but any changes must be deliberately designed so as ensure that iPods and iPhones continue to synchronise without problem.
It's not just Palm that Apple seems to object to. Updates to iTunes, often break compatibility with other iTunes-compatible devices, such as the free NAS operating system FreeNAS, which has a built-in music server.
It's hard to see how Apple's continued and deliberate attack on any device that isn't made by Apple can be seen as anything other than anti-competitive. In our opinion it's about time that the European Commission turned its attention to Apple and forced it to make iTunes compatible with third-party products.
source
This is the second time recently that Apple has deliberately prevented the Pre from connecting to its music and video organisation and sales application. In July, iTunes 8.2.1 prevented non Apple devices from connecting to iTunes by checking the USB Vendor ID and blocking any device that didn't use the Apple ID.
Palm followed this up with an update of its own that fixed the issue and made its phones compatible with iTunes again by altering the USB Vendor ID to match Apple's.
The company than made an official complaint to the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF) arguing that Apple was improperly using the USB Vendor ID. The New York Times managed to get hold of Palm's complaint letter.
There's no word yet as to how Apple is blocking devices with iTunes 9, but any changes must be deliberately designed so as ensure that iPods and iPhones continue to synchronise without problem.
It's not just Palm that Apple seems to object to. Updates to iTunes, often break compatibility with other iTunes-compatible devices, such as the free NAS operating system FreeNAS, which has a built-in music server.
It's hard to see how Apple's continued and deliberate attack on any device that isn't made by Apple can be seen as anything other than anti-competitive. In our opinion it's about time that the European Commission turned its attention to Apple and forced it to make iTunes compatible with third-party products.
source
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