Apple And Palm: The iTunes Syncing Fight Is Officially Dumb

OK, Palm, it was cute the first time you cracked iTunes to sync with the Pre. And Apple, I guess I can understand why you’d want to keep control over your software. But really guys? Still? You look silly.

Even Palm, who used this feature as a symbol of their underdog status, repeatedly defied a notoriously litigious behemoth and just wanted to give their users an easy way to sync music? Yes. It’s a clear stunt to garner sympathy as a scruffy up-and-comer, it’s in defiance of published USB standards, and Apple is clearly never, ever going to stop patching this “bug”. You’ve got bigger things to worry about.

And even Apple, who’s just trying to maintain control over a proprietary media player, and who has every right to do so? Yes. To users, the updates look weirdly protective, and make the company seem dickish, which here, they kind of are.

It’s like watching children locked in a yes/no argument over whether or not liquorice tastes good, and both parties should just leave it. I don’t say this because I prefer Palm users to be locked out of iTunes or something — it’s just that that’s where things stand right now, it’s the status quo and devoting any more energy to this protracted fight would be a waste. Apple can ignore this, because it shouldn’t matter to them, and Palm should tell Prefolk to sync with doubleTwist, because that works—now even with the Pixi—just fine. Thanks in advance! [PreCentral]