June 6th sees the long awaited release of Palm’s Pre handset. This is the mobile phone Palm is hoping will not only save the company from extinction, but also be the first handset to really give the iPhone a run for its money. Will the Pre be able to do what the Storm and co. hasn’t and actually eat into the iPhone’s user base ? It does have one pretty important advantage over most though; the Pre can sync with iTunes !
At least, it can for now.
Reports started surfacing around the internet last week (here and here for example) that this was indeed the case. But how ? Ars Technica have an interview with the guy who famously defeated the DVD encryption back in the day, and he reckons he knows what magic Palm is using.
Johansen dug into the information that the Palm Pre reports to a computer when connected via USB. He determined that when a Pre is connected in the “MediaSync” mode, the Mass Storage interface is configured to appear as an iPod, even reporting “Apple” as the vendor. Johasen notes that the main IOUSBDevice still reports as a Palm Pre, meaning Apple could update iTunes to block the Pre without breaking compatibility with the iPod that the Pre is masquerading as.
Interesting stuff indeed.
Based on what Johansen has to say, it would appear fairly trivial for Apple to stop this from happening, and take away one of the Pre’s best features in the process. But that’s not all….
Anyone remember Apple COO Tim Cook telling everyone the company would sue anyone ‘ripping off‘ their IP (intellectual property) ? I’d love to know what Mr Cook has to say about this !
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