Apple fixed a loophole today in iTunes that allowed non-Apple products to connect to the service, including the Palm Pre smartphone and other devices. This move was expected.
The Cupertino-based company was obviously annoyed that the Pre could be used with iTunes, and noted that iTunes wasn't designed to be synchronized with "non-Apple digital media players."
The ability to connect the Pre to iTunes was one of the most appealing features of Palm's latest smartphone. There are reports of a work around already in development by members of the Pre community, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
The iTunes update was designed to "'disable devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre," Apple said in a statement.
Considering how popular this feature appeared to be among Pre users, this news from Apple isn't surprising. Palm has shown disappointment that Apple pulled the plug. With Apple obviously backing its own iPhone smartphone, the company isn't keen on competing devices being able to use their digital media service.
Did any of you connect the Pre to iTunes? A friend of mine admitted the Media Sync option on the Pre worked perfecty with iTunes, but is now dead courtesy of iTunes 8.2.1. Anyone who doesn't want to kill Pre support should avoid upgrading to the latest version of iTunes and should keep paying attention to the Pre community for an official work around to keep iTunes support alive.
