Oh dear – it’s on now.

Either Palm’s making a stand — or they’ve stepped in it big time.

By Chris Scott Barr

The battle between Palm and Apple over the Pre’s ability to sync with iTunes has been an interesting one. When it made its debut, the Pre was able to sync natively with Apple’s popular music application. However, the lastest versions of iTunes have since blocked this function. At this point Palm could either roll over and admit defeat, or find some way to force Apple to play nice with their phone. Can you guess which choice they made?

Not wanting to say “die,” the company went to the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) which owns the intellectual property of the Universal Serial Bus. They complained that Apple’s decision to block the Pre from using iTunes was violating the spirit of inter-connectivity that was the basis for USB. They even went so far as to describe the underhanded tactics they were forced to use in order to initially get the two to work together.

Unfortunately for Palm, the very tactics they used were in violation of the USB-IF’s policies. Essentially what they did was spoof the hardware ID on the Pre to make it show up as an Apple device. Needless to say, the group denied their claim, as Apple has every right to decide what devices can and cannot connect to iTunes. The real kicker is that now Palm is in hot water for spoofing the hardware ID. Methinks it would have been better to just let this one go, rather than pointing the finger.

[ USB-IF ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

According to Palm’s little accessory guide here, non-Palm micro-USB charging solutions won’t work. What the hell? I can’t just plug it into my computer? That Touchstone dock is cool, but I don’t want to have to carry it everywhere I go. Besides, weren’t we supposed to all be moving towards a unified charging solution?

I guess like with all highly-anticipated products (like Android, or the President), we have to be ready for some letdowns along the way.