[huhtenberg]

Palm should've kept using their own USB ID and Manufacturer string, and allow users to override them to impersonate an arbitrary vendor. Including, of course, Apple. This way the Palm is in the clear, and it's the user that is responsible for the actual act of vendor/device impersonation.

But all things considered, all this will simply lead to Apple ditching USB or layering a custom encrypted protocol on top of it. So Palm's current hack is a temporary solution.

[lallysingh]

I'd guess the USB Vendor ID switch was to trap Apple into matching vendor IDs, so that they'd have a case with the forum. That's my assumption, as apple's response was obvious from the moment the Pre came out.