Archive for the ‘Device’ Category
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
We knew this was coming since Palm announced iTunes compatibility. Both Palm and Apple are companies that are loved by many, both bringing innovation to everyone. Palm released the Pre, Apple changed the protocol, only a few hours later, to something incompatible with the Pre. Palm was able to keep up and re-enable syncing a week later. Not bad, Palm.
Now it seems the fight is going to move from the technological to the legal arena. It’s getting nasty very fast. Who is the bully? that’s easy to answer. Who is right? that’s harder. The case for Palm is: software and devices should be interoperable and there should be competition between companies. But to make the Pre interoperable, Palm is using Apple’s iPhone USB id and make the Pre look like an iPhone.
What happens when someone subverts the USB id process for a malicious intent? What if Palm makes the Pre 2 look like an iPhone and sync the removal of every song on your iTunes because Palm wants you to use the PreTunes? We are not sure if that’s technically possible, but there’s a good reason why USB devices have id numbers.
It’s not clear who’s going to win this fight, but surely more and more people are mentioning Apple and anti-trust in the same sentence.
Tags: anti-trust, Apple, iPhone, itunes, palm, pre
Posted in Device
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
The third player in the modern smart phone has arrived: the Palm Pre. It has the potential to be a huge failure and be the last nail in Palm’s coffin but it also has the potential to turn into a major player.
By adopting JavaScript, HTML and CSS as its development environment they are inviting the most vibrant development community there is to generate millions of applications by cutting and pasting, the same way trillions of web pages were written.
A very interesting move for Palm is that the Pre can disguise itself as an iPhone when you plug it in your computer so that you can load it with entertainment straight from your iTunes. Apple will certainly not like that. Apple may try to go to court but that would probably put Apple closer to the anti-trust suit it’s evading miraculously. They could also start to change the protocol daily and a huge mouse and cat chase will start. Even with such difficulties, Palm’s move is probably the right thing to do, but will they have the muscle to fight Apple at their own game? on their own field?
Whatever happens, there’s a new player in the personal portable entertainment and they will surely bring new ideas to the field.
Tags: itunes, palm, pre, smart phone
Posted in Device
If you are into podcasts, you are also into gadgets. That is, the gadgets to listen to podcasts. There are a lot of alternatives. You have the usual i-devices, like iPod, iPhone. You have all the other phones, and even people using GPS devices (to listen to podcasts on the car).
