Palm Pre sync vs. Apple iTunes, round 2

Yesterday was a big day for both Palm and Apple, with Palm debuting its newest WebOS handset called the Pixi, and Apple refreshing its iPod line, iTunes, and iPhone OS.

All the while, though, the cat and mouse game between the two companies over connectivity was continuing. The Palm Pre was launched with the "unofficial" ability to sync with iTunes; and as most people expected, it was blocked by Apple in an incremental iTunes update. Just nine days later, Palm issued the WebOS 1.1 update which, among other things, brought the iTunes media sync functionality back.

With the iTunes 9 update yesterday, Apple's popular media management program again once broke the loose compatibility with the Palm Pre.

However, Palm was sitting at the ready with another WebOS update. The 1.2 update was actually expected to be released just one day before Apple updated iTunes, but both Palm and Sprint announced that the update has been put on hold until the end of the month.

While it is not a confirmed fact that Palm delayed the update because of the iTunes media sync breakage, the timing is conspicuous and Pre users forums are optimistically expecting the update to fix the issue.