Apple warns Palm Pre about playing with iTunes
By Will Park on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 12:52 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Palm, Web OS, iPhone, iPhone OS
By now it’s no secret that Palm (NSDQ: PALM) programmed the Palm Pre to trick iTunes into thinking the Pre is an iPod-like device, allowing it to easily sync with your iTunes media library. But, that obviously isn’t sitting too well with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s higher-ups. To that end, Apple has posted a new support page that is presumably aimed directly at the Palm Pre.
In this new support page, Apple outlines their policy on “iTunes and unsupported third-party digital media players.” In a thinly-veiled reference to the Palm Pre, Apple says that it is aware that “some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software.” Apple not one to let the Palm Pre to tread on turf reserved for Apple iPods and the iPhone, makes it clear that “Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players.”
The new support page could just be legal maneuvering to cover Apple’s ass when they decide to update iTunes and kill the Palm Pre’s compatibility with iTunes. Should some sort of “horrible software bug” start bricking Palm Pre that try to sync with future versions of iTunes, Apple might just be able to say “I told you so.”
