A case of sibling rivalry? or does Apple now predict tough competition??

A new update available from Apple for its popular iTunes application has now done away with the hole which allowed non Apple devices to pretend to be iPods. Thus these devices can no longer use the program to sync music and other content. Apple suggested in June that it did not support non Apple media devices and that changes could be made in the the future to its software which would prevent such devices from syncing with iTunes.

The newly updated version of iTunes (8.2.1) does just that. Apple will obviously stress the fact that this is done with the best customer experience in mind, but skeptics such as myself see it as a direct response to the popularity of Palms new helping the Pre, currently selling in the USA on Sprint and due out in the UK exclusively on 02 in time for the holiday season the Pre is turning heads on both sides of the Atlantic. The Pre offers users the ability to seamlessly jump from application to application with the convenience of not having to close each application. The Pre allows for multiple application to be open at the same time, and apart from looking dashing the Pre is also equipped with a full slide out qwerty keyboard, as well as a multi-touch screen.

The Palm Pre does sound like a dashing offering, and Apple seem to know it, what other reason would there be for Apple to block of such a large selection of potential iTunes users.

From the looks of it, the battle stations are manned, and the war paint has been applied, will Apple continue to dominate? only time will tell.