iTunes 8.2.1 Kills 'Bugs' Such As Palm Pre Sync

@Cub: The printer analogy is completely redundant. I may have potentially spent £100s on music in iTunes why on earth *shouldn't* I be able to access it from whatever device I choose - don't forget people may have built up a large iTunes library without ever owning an iPod. What Apple are basically trying to do is force you to buy an iPod since you already have iTunes - this is practically the dictionary definition of anti-competitive practice.

@Cub - I agree with most of your comments, but my point about the jerky scrolling it true. I've had a long running thread on Apple forums about this (I originally thought it was my machine that was getting unstable) which is why I know the artwork is only rendered once it is first on screen.
The reason you don't experience this problem is because yours is always on and so the artwork is still in current RAM. Try closing down; re-launch Mac-Mini then iTunes and scroll by album grid view. Until you've scrolled through the whole lot they will only render as they come on screen.

Anyway, that said I absolutely support the fact that Apple products and apps tend to be the best on the market - I just sometimes get frustrated if I compare them to how good they could be with some sensible and easy tweaking.

@Xiphias - Those poor people were lied to by Palm. If I had just purchased a new Nokia phone I wouldn't be able to do it either, Nokia owners aren't up in arms here though! Being a user of iTunes, I know that the only devices I can sync to are iPods/iPhones.

@Joe - Hold on, I've purchased a number of tracks from the iTunes Store in the past, this is pre-iPhone days, and I managed to get them on my old Sony Ericsson with very little trouble. You can't not do anything that Apple said you could do (I hope that makes sense), in effect - Apple haven't lied about anything or hidden anything from you.
Yes, they have a closed ecosystem where everything works marvellously together - that's half the appeal of the product and why so many people become part of it. You can call me a fanboy (I won't deny it!) but millions, and millions of people can't be wrong...

@Dan - Fair point, we can all only speak from personal experience. It gets restarted every couple of weeks, I did this over the weekend as a test, and while there was a delay as I scrolled through, it certainly didn't interfere of irritate in the slightest.

Everything could always be better, everyone has things they don't agree with or things they would do differently. If you don't like iTunes, or the iPod, or even Apple as a company, then don't buy their products!

I really can't see what the problem is here.

Apple has a piece of software that they have used to reignite their entire business model and are rightly protective of it.

Apple have always controlled the entire ecosystem very carefully when it comes to their machines and software and this sits within that model.

1. People shouldn't be surprised that apple likes to keeps things running their way - it's been like that since day one.
2. Pre were actually steeling and as such Apple are well within their rights to stop them in any legal way they see fit.
3. Pre were idiots to think this wouldn't happen. As such all they have done is pissed off some of their users (early adopters who always pay more) by now having a phone which they pushed as having iTunes capability not having one. Not very good marketing or customer expectation management.

This is the 'make or break' moment for Palm and every single eff-up, no matter how small is just one more reason why people will look elsewhere for their hardware. I'm not too sure what can save Palm, the Pre looked pretty good apart from the woeful build quality (which won't bother business users but WILL put off consumers) and little niggles like this are thorns in the side of building a successful brand that can grow again.

As for iTunes having it's issues, yup it does and so does every other piece of software but when you consider the pros compared to the cons it is a good bit of kit that delivers the kind of experience tha majority of users want and that's the key. Keep most people happy and you grow, keep just the fanbois happy and you go nowhere.

@Joe - you are a free minded consumer - don't bitch about using a system that is closed when you actually have to choose to join it. Nobody forced you to buy into iTunes, you could have used other systems but you CHOSE to use iTunes. It's tightly controlled for numerous reasons and because of all of these it has become popular enough to be the market leader, offers a LOT of content and is safe and reliable (in nearly all cases). MOst importantly it managed to appease the lables and the consumers with a compromise that both found acceptable.
It's not anti-competitive because there are many other systems you can CHOOSE from. It doesn't force people to use it. You can import and export various file formats and you can use it to manage non-iTunes bought music. What you can't do is use it to control non-iPod players. Your argument is like saying that Games console A (market leader) is anticompetitive because you can't play their games on console B (a smaller concern).