Apple Blocks Palm Pre Syncing With iTunes

One of the cool things about the Palm Pre was that it synced seamlessly with iTunes. Well, not anymore.

Reports first got out in late-May that when plugged into your computer, your brand new Palm Pre would play super-nice with your iTunes. Everyone said the same thing: Apple cannot be pleased. That said, it looked like the Cupertino-based company was going to let this one slide. After all, here we were two months later and everything was all good in the hood. Until yesterday.

Apple released iTunes 8.2.1 and lo and behold, it addressed "an issue with verification of Apple devices." Yeah, you got it, if it ain't Apple, it ain't right. Or something. Either way, Pre fans were up in arms, though it's not like they couldn't have seen it coming. Fair is fair, right?

Apple went one step further following the release of 8.2.1, which actually got the message across just fine. The company said, "It also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre. As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players," in a statement according to BusinessWeek.

A spokespalm told BW that users who really want the seamless synchronization with iTunes should just stick with an older version of iTunes. “Palm’s media sync works with iTunes 8.2. If Apple chooses to disable media sync in iTunes, it will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience. However, people will have options. They can stay with the iTunes version that works to sync their music on their Pre, they can transfer the music via USB, and there are other third-party applications we can consider.”