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According to Palm’s Web site, the company just released an update to their WebOS software for Palm Pre phones that “resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (9.0.1).” The update also fixes Exchange 2007 compatibility.

Apparently, Palm is continuing to hook into Apple’s proprietary media software, even after being rebuked by the USB Implementers Forum for making the Pre masquerade as an iPhone. In this case, the workaround took about three weeks for Palm to code up and get into the update pipeline.

PCMag.com points out that “If you’re sick of the back and forth, you may want to consider the free syncing alternative iTunes Agent, which doesn’t violate any of Apple’s rules and works fine with the Palm Pre.”

Palm Pre

Palm’s website has announced that version 1.2 of the new operating system used on the Palm Pre and the upcoming Palm Pixi has been released. It will be pushed to your Pre automagically sometime during the next few days, if it hasn’t been already.

Important new features of version 1.2 include the integration of LinkedIn contacts, the capability to download songs from the Amazon MP3 Store over a 3G connection in addition to Wi-Fi, and cut and paste for Web pages and e-mails.

Other highlights include being able to search within e-mail folders, download files from the Web browser, and the capability to pause live podcasts. There are still no paid apps, but it looks like Palm is preparing for their arrival with a feature that lets you store your credit card information in your Palm profile for future use.

A full list of included updates with Palm WebOS 1.2 can be found at Palm’s support site.

Of course, this post would not be complete without mentioning a list of the most-wanted features still absent from this update:

• a new fix to the iTunes synchronization (which was broken by iTunes 9.0) or a replacement for it;
• a video-recording app;
• Flash support;
• message forwarding;
• 3D-capable games.

The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) was acting on a complaint by Palm that Apple had disabled automatic Pre-to-iTunes synchronization. At issue is their “USB Vendor ID” that is supposed to identify the manufacturer of a USB device.

Palm had developed a clever hack that allowed the Pre to adopt Apple’s vendor ID when connecting to iTunes. The USB-IF told Palm in the letter that using another vendor’s ID was a clear violation of its rules. Apple has, with iTunes 9, again locked Palm out, perhaps for good. Earlier, Palm had changed its software to resume automatic synching of non-protected content after Apple first locked it out.

It seems to us that Palm should just develop an alternate way of syncing the iTunes materials (perhaps non-automatic, or using a different method, especially now that all iTunes songs are DRM-free). It shouldn’t take long or be all that difficult, should it?

DoubleTwist screenshot

Now, though, there are a number of third-party workarounds. There’s DoubleTwist by DVD Jon, which also includes a number of social media functions for sharing music and other media. It will also sync DRM-free media that you purchased using the Pre (from Amazon MP3) back to iTunes. But Salling’s Media Sync is a simple app that just sends music, podcasts and photos to almost any USB connected device, including the Pre.

Media Sync sends photos from iPhone or Aperture and music and podcasts from iTunes. It also replicates the whole structure of playlists and the playcounts of individual songs. The only thing it won’t do is copy over DRM’d music.

Media Sync, like DoubleTwist, is free and available for both OS X and Windows. There is also an upgrade fee so you can enjoy “faster syncing”.

Looking for something? Find all your Palm Pre Accessories here.