Apple Bullies Palm Pre Users - Again

Pop Culture
Apple Bullies Palm Pre Users - Again
By Hervé St-Louis
September 10, 2009 - 08:18

By releasing the new version of its media player, iTunes 9, California-based Apple, again blocked users of the Palm Pre, a new smartphone competing with Apple's iPhone, from being able to sync their media files. When the Palm Pre was announced, one of its features was the ability to sync media files using iTunes, which is installed widely in personal computers of customers. On July 14, 2009 Apple released iTunes 8.2.1 which disabled the syncing abilities of iTunes with the Palm Pre. A week later, Palm reinstated the syncing in its operating system update WebOS 1.1.

By stopping Palm Pre users from using the syncing software of their choices and freely porting music files bought from Apple's music store or obtained from other places, Apple is dictating to users how they should use their devices, even those not made by Apple. It's a wonder that government industry regulators have not investigated Apple's dubious actions yet, as they are negative and harmful to consumers. Because of the extent of its usage in the public, iTunes, although it is not the best media player available, has become an industry standard, and trying to stop other mobile and music devices from connecting to it is a form of digital rights management, something the public usually dislike.

There is no words on whether Palm will reinstate the syncing with Apple's iTunes, but it is widely expected that such a reinstatement would occur in the new WebOS update 1.2 expected shortly. Palm already made a formal complaints about Apple's blocking Palm Pre's from using iTunes, to the USB Implementers Forum, the organization that manages USB vendor assignments. Apple used its USB vendor id to blocked the Palm Pre in July 2009.