Pre Can No Longer Masquerade as an iPhone

Palm has just learned the risks involved in trying to pull one over on Apple. One of the interesting features of their recently released Pre smartphone was that it could fake iTunes on your desktop into thinking is was a real iPhone and synch with it just like the real item. In the most recent iTunes update (8.2.1), Apple has incorporated a device authentication mechanism that can distinguish genuine iPhones from imposters. Pre users now have to resort to less elegant ways to get their music onto their Pre.I'm no fan of vendors selling products with self-serving hooks in them, and the mobility space is rife with them, but in this case the blame may fall on Palm. You've got to know what you're dealing with in Apple. Remember back in 2007, they had an iPhone update that "bricked" (i.e. turned into a doorstop) any unlocked or "jail broken" iPhone; "jail break" is a great choice of words there. They actually killed their own customer's device for messing around with it. You think they're going to be any friendlier to Palm?

Apple has done a great job at integrating all of the elements of the music experience from buying, to organizing and listening, in the combined iPod/iPhone/iTunes agglomeration. However, as iPhone only works on AT&T's network (at least for now), how far do they want to go in controlling their customers' lives?

Palm made a major boo-boo in developing what is essentially an iTunes hack and then advertising it as a feature, but can't we work this out like adults? Charge them! Obviously this isn't a technology issue, and any allusions to a potential security compromise is a fig leaf if ever there was one. Okay Jobs, you've got a good trick- license it. When are these guys going to figure out that you're not making any friends target-bombing people's electronics?