Turns out it's a simple matter of reading the iTunes music library XML catalog file on a customer's computer, and using that to create a sync capability for the Pre.
The author seems to mistakenly believe that this XML file is a documented and supported format for third-party interoperability with iTunes. It's not. The DTD he links to is that of plist files in general, and does not describe how iTunes stores its application-specific information in the file. The quote from the support article is not a message to third-party developers that they should use this file, simply a statement to users that it is used by other applications.
The only documented and supported methods of interacting with iTunes are with visualisation plug-ins, AppleScript, and the COM API.
"One reason that the iPod/iPhone and iTunes have been successful is that they work so well together."
So wouldn't it follow, therefore, that a competitor would be less successful if their product didn't work as well with iTunes? In this light, Palm's strategy makes perfect sense. All a user has to understand is "it works with iTunes." Forcing people to install a separate sync app makes for a more confusing experience for a good segment of customers, and regardless is an extra hassle that Palm has removed through their sync approach.
While Palm is definitely skating on some thin ice with their approach, I can't blame them for wanting to use iTunes as their synchronization engine... Probably the majority of the market they are going after already uses iTunes. Why force those customers to install yet another application to handle the synchronization of their music and photos to their phone when they already have one that they are familiar with? Unfortunately, their customers are getting stuck in the middle of this cat and mouse game, but it may help them to get a bunch more early adopters on the platform and allow them to eventually build an better and more reliable solution.
Palm will be able to do this exactly as long as Apple chooses to let them. The problem Palm is facing is nowhere near as simple as just spoofing the right ID's.
Apple cannot go back an update every previous iPod in existence. So at some point, the Palm pre will respond exactly like some existing iPod model and Apple won't be able to do anything more.
Depends. If iTunes can send a request like "please return the 16 bytes in your ROM starting at xxxx" , then you can't have full compatibility without a full copy of the ROM.
The author seems to mistakenly believe that this XML file is a documented and supported format for third-party interoperability with iTunes. It's not. The DTD he links to is that of plist files in general, and does not describe how iTunes stores its application-specific information in the file. The quote from the support article is not a message to third-party developers that they should use this file, simply a statement to users that it is used by other applications.
The only documented and supported methods of interacting with iTunes are with visualisation plug-ins, AppleScript, and the COM API.