The new Palm Pre cellphone has a “media sync” feature which lets the device sync with iTunes in a fashion identical to an iPod. Last week [Jon Lech Johansen] speculated that this was not done in cooperation with Apple and that Palm was spoofing the iPod’s USB controller. This was confirmed today when a tipster sent him a screenshot of what the device reports in both standard and media sync modes. The Palm Pre reports its Product ID as iPod and Vendor ID as Apple with a few other changes. [Jon] notes that it doesn’t change the root USB node, so Apple should be able to block this behavior with an iTunes update. With Palm already pulling tricks like this presumably through software we wonder if this will become a full-on arms race.

Palm, Inc. – Palm Unveils More webOS Details: Palm Media Sync, Twitter Integration, App Catalog

After a couple days of rumors and speculation, Palm has come out and announced iTunes syncing support for the Pre.  DRM-free music, photos and videos (no apps, of course) will sync with your Mac or PC via iTunes just like it does for Apple’s iPhone. 

This is not the first non-Apple branded hardware to sync with iTunes, but considering how high profile the Pre is and how vocal Palm has been in wanting to take on the iPhone it will be interesting to see what Apple’s reaction will be.  Don’t be surprised if we see an iTunes “fix” be pushed out by Apple shortly after the Pre’s launch that breaks the Pre’s syncing.  Hopefully we are not in store for a long pissing match between the two companies as they try to stay ahead of each other.

iTunes is a virtual monopoly these days and i’m all for more devices being able to work with it directly.