Has Palm finally given up on the great cat/mouse/iTunes chase of ‘09?
The number of times Apple and Palm went back and forth trading clever coding tactics was beginning to wear thin. At first I found myself saying “yay for the little guy”. But after Apple made it very clear from the get go that they weren’t feeling the cross platform love, Palm decided to kick it up a notch. And so began the cat and mouse game that went on for weeks.
The latest Palm OS update, 1.3.1, that was released recently failed to add back in that coveted and high talking point — iTunes sync. With that said, the obvious question arises: Has Palm finally given up?
With heat from the USB-IF causing Palm to initially back down, many thought Palm would turn away. But once again they defied common logic. As already stated, the latest 1.3.1 update killed the Pre and Pixie’s chances for any iTunes love. On the surface it seems as if easy music syncing for Palm devices is dead. But there’s an extremely obvious solution. A solution that’s been available and wide open since the beginning — Palm can just create their own media sync app.
*Gasp* Create their own? Why not? RIM created their own app that handled iTunes playlists. If RIM can do it then Palm should certainly be able to. You see, Apple doesn’t like other devices syncing with iTunes. Ok, fair enough. What they don’t care about however is other devices syncing with iTunes playlists — a simple yet huge difference that Palm has failed to grasp thus far.
In situations like these we’ll always have the one group fighting for Palm’s right to mask their devices and trick software into thinking it’s a different device. On the other side, we’ll have groups opposed to any “cross talk” between competing platforms, software, and hardware for any reasons. Thankfully the current state of affairs has Apple at least allowing those coveted iTunes playlists we so painstakingly created up for grabs. It isn’t as seamless as full on iTunes support but it’s better than nothing. Palm, take note: get over this funk you’re in and build your own software already.
Besides, Palm has much bigger fish to worry about then constantly fighting what is a lost cause with Apple. Don’t you think?
