July 16th, 2009
iTunes 8.2.1 stops Palm Pre from syncing
Precentral has confirmed that the recently released iTunes 8.2.1 update breaks Palm Pre syncing.
Back in May the Palm Pre was released with an innovative means of syncing with Apple’s iTunes software — it impersonated an iPod.
It took a little longer than expected by Apple yesterday closed that loophole with a minor update that “provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.”
Emphasis added.
Since then Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris confirmed what some Pre owners had already discovered the hard way:
iTunes 8.2.1 is a free software update that provides a number of important bug fixes, It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.
Let the games begin.
Do you think that Palm will reverse engineer 8.2.1 to re-enable Pre syncing? Or should they just stop playing cat and mouse with Cupertino and develop its own music software?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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