The Palm Pre's litigious syncing with the Apple iTunes has become more than a bone of contention between the two companies! For apparently the third time, Apple has again blocked Pre's direct sync via its Media Sync feature!

In what can be termed as Apple's latest endeavor in a series of proceedings wherein Palm updates its webOS to work around Apple's restrictions and Apple counters the move updating iTunes, the newest updated iTunes 9.0.2 has been released by Apple on Thursday.

The Apple-Palm scuffle over the iTunes-sync capability of the Pre began with the launch of the Palm smartphone in June this year. In July, when Apple shut down the iTunes' sync for third-party devices, Palm had already worked around its software to ensure Pre's iTunes sync. However, Apple's 8.2.1 update disabled the sync for "devices falsely pretending to be iPod," thereby blocking the ability for the Pre.

Palm complained about Apple's iTunes' updates to the USB Implementers Forum (IF), arguing that Apple was breaching USB-IF rules by using iTunes to block content transfer. However, the USB-IF ripped Palm for allegedly using another company's vendor ID.

What now remains to be seen is whether the latest Apple update of the iTunes would dissuade Palm from circumventing a way around it, or will Palm go the RIM way to develop iTunes sync software for its Pre and Pixi smartphones!