If you want to use a different app to manage an iPod, Apple gets mad, and starts firing up lawsuits. Ok, you decide to stick with iTunes, but then you are forced to use Apple products, otherwise you´ll start experiencing some difficulties syncing your songs.

At the end, the only ones affected are the users, except those that are really into the Apple environment, having everything Apple…

It’s childish to block hardware from other companies to work with your own software (unless there´s a possibility that it will crash or break the system, which doesn’t happen with Palm Pre, does it?). Period.

You mean those that play AACs and at that – the songs that have been purchased under iTunes Plus or converted. Few MP3 players play AACs – even fewer play variable bitrate AACs which some iTunes sings are.

I think it will be argued that Rubenstein may have been plotting with Palm for a long time – and it is my speculation that this is payback.

I think he was somewhat “force resigned” from Apple over the AIM (Apple/IBM/Moto) partnership and PowerPC fiasco. I think somehow we’re going to find out that the infamous “PowerPC’s are better speech” that he delivered on stage in 2004 was a way to show all of us what a truly intelligent geek but doofus he is. It seems very contrived on both his part and Jobs. Jobs wanted to get rid of him for making the G5 happen and continue. Rubenstein wanted to get back at Jobs for abandoning it.

Rubenstein is still stuck on the PowerPC/RISC platform – it’s one of the main reasons he’s at Palm – to develop for the ARM and harness/salvage his knowledge of the RISC platform.

“Wrong. The Pre will definitely have I-Tunes syncing. Apple infringes on SO MANY of Palm’s patents that Apple cannot risk having Palm sue them for infringement. Take Palm patent #7,268,775, entitled “Dynamic brightness range for portable computer displays based on ambient conditions,” for example — it covers automatically adjusting display brightness using an ambient light sensor while leaving a user-selected brightness setting alone. Yep, that’s exactly how the iPhone does it: Or how about #7,007,239, “Method and apparatus for accessing a contacts database and telephone services”? Claim 10 is an almost exact description of the iPhone’s phone app — buttons for dialing, call history, contacts, and speed dial that stay on-screen as you toggle between them.

Apple has no choice but to let Palm do what they want or they might be forced to remove many features from their precious I-phone.”
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I did not even consider this could be a possibility, Apple may be sitting on their hands because they’re afraid to spit in the wind.

No it’s not. Music from the iTunes Store is DRM-free and works fine not only on the Pre, but any other player worth its salt. Movies from the iTunes Store are DRM’ed and can’t be used on the Pre anyway. This has nothing to do with the iTunes Store.

What this is about, and what the various articles are proclaiming, and what Walt Mossberg specifically asked Rubenstein about, is the Pre’s ability to act as an actual iPod within iTunes for data syncing. THAT is what this is about.

Put simply, for buying/playing music on the iTunes Store you don’t need an iPod. The Pre is just as well off as any other player in this regard. However, for data SYNCING you DO need an iPod, and the Pre is using inside knowledge to make itself appear as such. Good for them. Now Apple should close that door.