Palm Pre: The Missing Manual

Chapter 8. The Pre as Media Center

The Pre excels at making and receiving phone calls. You can also use it to browse the Web with the best of ‘em. And you rely on it for your email, messaging, and event reminders. If you didn’t know better, you might think your Pre was all work and no play.

But you can use the Pre for all kinds of fun stuff. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to add songs and video to it, how to buy music online, and how to watch YouTube videos and even TV on your Pre.

Add Media to the Pre

The steps for adding media to the Pre are basically the same whether you fill it up with music, videos, or photos. (You’ll learn about adding photos in the chapter on the Pre’s camera, coming up next.) There are a couple of ways to do so. One is to automatically sync the media files on your computer with your Pre, and the other is to manually transfer files from your computer to the Pre. To add music, you have a third option: You can buy songs online. This section covers all your options.

Note

When the Pre first came out, you could use Apple’s iTunes software to sync media files between the Pre and your PC (via the Pre’s Media Sync feature). In July 2009, Apple changed iTunes, to block this capability. Just before this book went to press, Palm, through a software update, restored the Pre’s ability to work with iTunes. It’s quite likely that this cat-and-mouse game between Apple and Palm will continue. By the time you read this, you may or may not be able to use Media Sync and iTunes ...