Palm not allowing customers to download HotSync for new Palm T|X

Time to burn some bridges again, the victim this time, Palm, Inc. So here's the story:

On Saturday I went out and bought Palm's new Palm T|X Palm Pilot. Now I know Palm is hurting pretty bad, Windows-enabled devices have displaced Palm as the undisputed king of the hand-held market. And given my experience with my Palm m125 I really shouldn't have considered Palm at all... But I did, and I walked out with a Palm T|X. The T|X is a wonderful machine, WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, nice high resolution colour screen, the latest Palm OS... the problem, I cannot download the HotSync software like I could for my Palm m125, which means I can't hotsync with my computer at work until I remember to bring my original CD.

It might not seem like a big deal, Palm should be allowed to protect their software interest. But it's enough to make me want to pirate the software. I wanted to have all my contacts today, not tomorrow. And what if the software disc was scratched? If you've checked out Palm's web site, e-mail support isn't clearly evident. And phoning, I'm sure the experience would be like every other company, you get on the phone, get the run around to 2 or 3 different departments before they say "we're sorry, we can't help you." Even if they could ship another CD, it would be weeks, if not months, and it would likely cost the consumer more money... at nearly $400CDN, I would expect much better service from Palm.

There are ways Palm could provide the software to customers, i.e. requiring a serial number, but they refuse to do so... so you know what I say, pirate away!