I continue to be amazed at how people are willing to give Apple a pass on cutting off the Pre. Paticularly this guy who says he can "understand" Apple cutting off the Pre but then balks at Apple cutting off his music software.<p>Monopolistic greed is understandable when it doesn't affect me seems to be the attitude (On that note I'm pretty sure Apple makes way more off iTunes than it does off the hardware at this point)<p>As a customer who is paying for this music I should be able to sync it with whatever I want. I don't expect Apple to support the Pre but I think it's reprehensible to actively try to cut it off.<p>(For the record I'm an iPhone 3GS owner who doesn't even like the Pre. I just don't want to be forced to use Apple products for the rest of my life just to keep my music)
Apple has evidently made a decision to prevent iPods from working without iTunes, and to prevent iTunes from working with non-iPod audio players. We must assume that Apple's executives have weighed the pros and cons of this decision, and have decided that the pros (maintaining a reputation for a seamless experience) outweigh the cons (losing some sales to Linux owners, Palm owners, etc.). That's an ordinary business decision.<p>"You'd think they would <i>want</i> to sell more iPods, not block a certain percentage of their market out," says mdeslaur in this post.<p>Maybe the Apple executives have made the wrong decision for their company's bottom line, and maybe mdeslaur, and many of the commenters here, would have made a better decision that would have increased Apple's profits. But given that (a) they have access to a lot of data that you don't have, and (b) they're executives at Apple and you're not, I wouldn't bet on it.
Synopsis: Apple has never supported or particularly wanted third-party software or hardware to be able to interface with their systems. In the running skirmish that is trying to get said devices to work with said systems, Apple has once again made a change that breaks the jiggered compatibility. This guy doesn't use an Apple system, so he's not gonna buy another iPod.<p>Well, that, plus a lot more drama and dramatic linebreaks.
I don't understand what the big deal is. If you don't like Apple's policies regarding their products there's a simple solution: buy something else. It's not like Apple has changed overnight. Just like Nintendo, Apple has been doing this for decades; this isn't some new shocker like the Kindle.<p>In this day and age I have no idea why someone who primarily uses Linux would even bother using an iPod when there are good alternatives to Apple's "circle of one" products.
I'm a big fan of Apple, but this is ridiculous. Going to such extreme lengths in the name of what boils down to decreasing their customer base seems rather silly. God forbid someone use Linux <i>and pay Apple for iPods</i>.
I got a Nokia N810 recently. With a hefty SD card it plays media very adequately for my needs -- and it does a whole lot more too! My iPod is starting to gather dust.
For a company that started off with the motive of making the cheapest and most usable computers, and that believed in sharing its design [from iWoz: the APPLE-1 architecture was made public], Apple has come a long way. They are successful, yes. Their products are good, yes. But now they make exhorbitantly expensive products [an iPhone 3gS with contract can cost you ~1000$ in the long run], which they force to not work with anything else [WHY?] and are closely guarded. Apple, you make great products, but I am never gonna buy them, cuz then you'll want me to buy music just from you, use only your software, and pay you for software upgrades [iPod touch] !
Wow, I don't get all of this. I use Ubuntu and have an iPod touch, it doesn't sync at all, total brick. But, obviously, I have a windows partition (or, sometimes, virtual machine) which I use to test in IE or play games, etc... So I just use iTunes there. Do people really add music to their libraries every day or something? I sync mine probably once a month, but I can see myself not being upset even if I had to do it once a week. Let's put things like this in perspective, shall we?