Annoyed that Apple had blocked the Palm Pre’s ability to sync seamlessly with iTunes, Palm looked to the USB Implementers Forum—the industry group that oversees the USB standard—for help. But instead of sympathy, Palm might actually end up getting a rebuke from the forum.
First, the background: Palm and Apple have been playing cat-and-mouse for months over the ability of the Pre—Palm’s sleek iPhone competitor, which hit the market in June—to sync with Apple’s iTunes software. Basically, Palm’s WebOS firmware fools iTunes into thinking the Pre is an iPod.
Or at least …

Competition in the smartphone market is heating up this summer as one new hot smartphone after another hits the street. The latest is T-Mobile’s next Google Android device, called the myTouch.