It should probably come as no surprise, but Apple has again cut off iTunes syncing privileges for Palm’s Pre, the latest dig in their tit-for-tat over Palm’s smartphone. Apple’s newest version of iTunes, launched yesterday, disables the sync.

In July, Palm updated its webOS software to allow Pre users to sync the handset with iTunes, Apple’s ubiquitous media management software, where millions of people store their music and videos–after Apple had disabled such functionality in an earlier iTunes update.

At the time, Palm also complained to the USB Implementers Forum — which helps support and promote the USB interface –  about the sync cutoff.

Apple’s unveiled iTunes 9 yesterday in a splashy media gathering that featured the return of Steve Jobs. It boasts plenty of new features but won’t sync for Pre users, at least for now.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said, “As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.”

In an emailed statement, a Palm spokesman said: “Apple’s decision to disable Palm media sync again is yet another direct blow to its own iTunes customers who will be deprived of a seamless and familiar synchronization experience.  That said, people have other options: They can always choose not to upgrade to iTunes 9 and continue to sync their music.  The Pre has a second option for transferring music and other media content to the device and there are third-party applications that provide syncing functionality.  Our view is that Palm media sync offers a great user experience and is an ideal way for customers who already use iTunes to manage music, photos and videos from their computer.”

- Will Findlater is deputy editor of Stuff magazine. The opinions expressed are his own. -

Apple’s "It’s Only Rock and Roll" launch held a few surprises. Most were expecting major updates to the whole line of iPods, but it was only really the iPod Nano that got a thorough going-over.

Still amazingly slim, it now sports a tiny lens towards the bottom of its rear, allowing it to record video footage. This can then be synced to your computer and sent to YouTube with a single button click. Nifty, and bad news for the likes of Flip who make pocket video cameras for a living.

The Nano also received a bigger (2.2 inch) screen, a pedometer, a microphone and speaker and an FM radio. It also comes in a variety of shiny (as opposed to matte) finishes, which are all rather fetching.

Elsewhere, Apple upped the maximum capacity of its iPod Touch (iPhone-minus-the-phone-bit) to 64GB and increased its processing power, allowing for a variety of impressive-looking new 3D games to be played. Audiophile favourite the Classic got a storage boost to 160GB. The tiny, screenless Shuffle received a few new colourways and a special edition polished stainless steel finish.

Apple’s content distribution platform, iTunes, also had an aesthetic refresh and a few features added. The biggest news is iTunes LP, which bundles artwork, liner notes and extra features with special edition albums purchased from the iTunes store. Other changes include the ability to share iTunes content across five home computers, while iPhone and iPod Touch users get better application management tools.

There was no mention of the availability of The Beatles’ catalogue on iTunes as was rumoured, but many remain convinced it’ll become available soon. Apple was also keen to highlight the iPod’s dominance. It owns 73.8 percent of the MP3 player market; Microsoft has just 1.1 percent.

Electronic Arts is launching its most venerable video game franchise, “Madden Football,” onto the hottest new gaming platform going, Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

The game, whose origins date back 20 years, has been a cash cow for EA over the years, and the company is now seeking to extend that popularity into the fast-growing smartphone market. EA showed a demo of the game at Apple’s media event on Wednesday.

“We’re really happy with the quality of the game, making it fun and easy to pick up and play and we think we’ve created the most authentic and realistic football experience in the market today,” said Adam Sussman, vice president of worldwide publishing for EA Mobile.

“We were even able to get Brett Favre on the Vikings,” he added, showing that the video game giant is still nimble enough to stay current on the future Hall of Fame quarterback’s latest address.

Sussman said winnowing “Madden’s” considerable complexity and richness into a compelling smartphone game was something of a challenge. The game features 32 teams, 2,000 players and 300 different plays and has been under development for around 10 months. It utilizes the iPhone’s touchscreeen controls as well as its accelerometer (for example, you shake the device to run the hurry-up offense).

Additional goodies such as roster updates will be made available via in-app purchasing in a later update.

The game is launching Wednesday in the App Store at a special price of $7.99, before bumping up to $9.99 Thursday evening. EA says it is market share leader on the iPhone, as measured by revenue, with an average price of more than $4 for its games. It expects to launch 40 iPhone games this fiscal year.

Apple’s stock has historically fluctuated widely in the days before and after three major annual events: the January Macworld showcase for fans, the mid-year Worldwide Developers’ Conference, and its September media/entertainment event.

Its share movements, however, have been relatively muted in the run-up to this year’s September extravaganza with many Apple-watchers initially expecting a no-show from CEO Steve Jobs, who had been out most of the year on medical leave for a liver transplant. Here’s a look at how Apple’s share price has fared in relation to major press events held by the company since 2007.

Key to events is below:

1 - January 9, 2007 (Macworld) - Announces (but does not launch) first iPhone

2 - June 11, 2007 (WWDC) - Latest version of Mac OS; Safari for Windows

3 - September 5, 2007 - Introduces iPod touch, cuts iPhone price, updated iPod nano, iPod classic

4 - January 15, 2008 (Macworld) - MacBook Air, iTunes movie rentals

5 - June 9, 2008 (WWDC) - iPhone 3G announced

6 - Sept 9, 2008 - Updated Nano, Touch, iTunes

7 - Jan 6, 2009 (Macworld; Jobs did not speak) - DRM-free iTunes, MacBook Pro update

8 - June 8, 2009 (WWDC) - iPhone 3Gs, new Macbook models, new Mac OS

New colors, video camera, price cuts. Whatever. The Apple show belonged to Steve Jobs.

So how did he look? Rail thin, as you can see from this picture (see below or click here for a bunch more shots of the 54-year old chief executive). That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given he’s recovering from a liver transplant.

Even looking frail, however, his presence pumped up the crowd. “Steve Jobs making an appearance was definitely a pleasant surprise,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers. Another analyst, Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech added, “I was surprised to see Steve. It’s great to see that he’s doing well.”

Here is a chronology of Jobs’ health issues:

2004:

August: Jobs announces he underwent successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. He says it was a rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.

2005:

June: Jobs mentions the cancer in a commencement address at Stanford University. “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades,” he says.
Read the whole speech and see the video here.

2008:

June 9: Jobs appears dramatically thinner at an Apple iPhone event, touching off speculation that the cancer has returned. The company said later he was fighting a “common bug” and taking antibiotics. Apple called Jobs’ health a “private matter”.

July 26: The New York Times journalist Joe Nocera wrote in a column that he had spoken to Jobs about his health but that because the conversation was off record, he could not disclose what was said. “While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than ‘a common bug,’ they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer,” Nocera wrote.

Sept. 9: At an iPod product launch, Jobs jokes about his health by walking on stage in front of a giant screen that flashed “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” — a quotation borrowed from Mark Twain.

Oct. 3: A false Internet report that Jobs had suffered a heart attack briefly pushes Apple shares down 2 percent to a 17-month low. Apple quickly denied the report on iReport.com, a citizen journalist site owned by CNN.

Oct. 14: At a Mac product launch event, Jobs jokes again about his health. His blood pressure was 110 over 70 and he said, “And that’s all we’re going to be talking about Steve’s health today.”

Dec. 16: Apple said Jobs won’t deliver the keynote address at the Macworld trade show in January, reviving concerns about his health. Asked to explain the decision, spokesman Steve Dowling said it would be the last time Apple takes part in Macworld so “it doesn’t make sense for us to make a major investment in a trade show we’ll no longer be attending.”

Dec. 30: Apple shares fall as much as 2 percent after Gizmodo reported that Jobs health was “rapidly declining” and that was the reason why he canceled the Macworld keynote.

2009:

Jan. 5: Jobs says he has been losing weight throughout 2008 and his doctors think a hormone imbalance was “robbing” him of proteins. He says he has begun a “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment for his nutritional problem and that he will continue as CEO during recovery. “I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO,” he says. Apple shares rise 5 percent.

Jan. 14: Jobs announces medical leave until the end of June, saying his health issues are “more complex” than originally thought. He hands day-to-day operations to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and says he plans to remain involved in major strategic decisions. Apple shares fall 10 percent in after-hours trading. Read his email to employees here.

Jan. 21: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining Apple’s disclosures about Jobs to ensure investors were not mislead, Bloomberg reports.

June 8: Apple unveils new iPhone 3GS at its annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference but Jobs does not make an appearance.

June 20: The Wall Street Journal reports that Jobs had a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee about two months ago and he is expected to return to work later in June. Apple declines comment except to say it expects Jobs back at the end of the month.

June 22: Jobs is spotted at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, underscoring expectations that he is either back at work or will return soon.

June 23: The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute confirms it performed a liver transplant on Jobs and says he is “recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.” The hospital does not give more details, saying the confirmation had come with Jobs’ permission.

June 29: Jobs returns from medical leave. An Apple spokesman says Jobs will be in the office a few days a week, and work from home the rest of the time.

Reuters will have live updates and photos from Apple's live event at 1 pm ET on Wednesday.

Apple Inc's Phil Schiller, Senior Vice-President of worldwide marketing, speaks about the iPod touch's game playing capabilities.  REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

All photos by Robert Galbraith.

Britain’s Sky News caused a bit of a stir on the blogosphere on Tuesday after it cited John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, as saying the Beatles back catalog was finally going for sale on iTunes: seemingly confirming a longstanding rumor that had gained momentum ahead of a widely watched Sept 9 Apple music-entertainment event.

But the report by the 24-hour news service, spotted by 9to5Mac and TechCrunch, among others, was stricken off the Sky News Web site hours later and discredited by a numner of other media outlets including Cnet. In response to Reuters’ queries, EMI, which owns the master recordings, sent us this from Ernesto Schmitt, EMI’s global catalog president:

“Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it’s not tomorrow,” Schmitt said in comments first made to the Financial Times. Apple declined to comment.

Mind you, the arrival of the Fab Four on the world’s most popular online music sales portal will be no less than a seminal event. Hence the unrelenting speculation from Apple’s legions of rabid fans who stand rapt at the consumer electronics giant’s every move, and the intense interest from the band’s own not-unimpressive cohort of faithful followers.

On Sept 9, the same day Apple is expected to unveil a new line-up of iPods with digital cameras (with potentially master showman and CEO Steve Jobs set to make his first public appearance since taking leave in January to undergo a liver transplant), “The Beatles:Rock Band” video game will debut for sale from North America to Australia.

The game’s debut will mark the Fab Four’s first leap into the world of digiral music. And their launch on iTunes — currently held up by fears of digital piracy, among other issues — may indeed soon follow.

Just perhaps not on Wednesday.

Apple confirmed what the technology world has been expecting for weeks: a September 9 media extravaganza. The company has been holding September events for years to refresh its iPod line and unveil new models ahead of the holiday season.

And while new iPods are also expected to be on tap this year, Apple threw in a little curveball to get the company’s fans and followers talking.

Sept. 9 is also the launch day for “The Beatles: Rock Band” video games, as well as the date that EMI will release the digitally remastered versions of their original song catalog. Given that supposed coincidence, some were speculating that a deal to finally bring the Beatles’ songs to iTunes was brewing. The Beatles may be the most famous rock band ever, but they have not yet made their songs available on Apple’s hugely popular online store.

So what’s the problem? The invitation sent to the media featured the tagline, “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” referencing the Rolling Stones hit from the 1970s. The Stones’ catalog is already available on iTunes.

A Beatles deal would seem a bit more likely if the invite tagline had read: “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

Apple, Google and AT&T all filed their responsesFriday to the FCC’s requestfor more information in the Google Voice app saga. The story line thus far has been trying to determine the reasons behind Apple’s decision to reject the iPhone app.  Some blamed AT&T for the thumbs down, believing that the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier feared the app would provide competition for voice services on the smartphone.

But Apple said AT&T played no role in the rejection. In fact, the iPhone maker said the Google Voice app hasn’t even been rejected.

“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it,” Apple said in its response. “The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail.”

Google, in its filing with the FCC, chose to keep confidential Apple’s explanation for rejecting — or rather, failing to approve — the app.

Apple also provided some interesting tidbits on the App Store, which is now stuffed with more than 65,000 applications just over a year after its launch. Apple said it has more than 40 full-time trained reviewers, and at least two different reviewers study each app. It said 95% of applications are approved within 14 days of being submitted.

It added: “We receive about 8,500 new applications and updates every week, and roughly 20% of them are not approved as originally submitted. In little more than a year, we have reviewed more than 200,000 applications and updates.”

The US telecom regulator FCC has been looking into why Apple rejected an Internet telephony application from Google for inclusion in its iPhone application store. Responses from Google, Apple and AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, are due today.

Along with Google Voice’s consumer fans, the outcome of the inquiry will be closely watched by other Internet telephone services such as eBay’s Skype. Apple approved a Skype app for iPhone but consumers can only make Skype calls when they are connected to a short-range wi-fi network and not via the AT&T cellular network.
The head of another U.S. Internet telephony provider Vonage weighed in on the topic in an interview this week. Vonage plans to offer its own mobile communications application later this year.

Marc Lefar previously served as chief marketing officer of Cingular, now AT&T Mobility, where he helped put together the mobile operator’s iPhone deal with Apple, before becoming Vonage Chief Executive last year. Taking his previous experience in the wireless industry into acccount, Lefar said it was unclear to him why the Google Voice application was rejected for iPhone.

“These apps we’re talking about, to me … seem to be reasonable to allow, relative to the range of things that have already been put into the app store,” he said.

“I think its very hard to defend a unique service and to distinguish some services in the communications space (from) others if all they do is use software to be able to provide that service,” he said.

“We’re very interested to see what the FCC comes back with. We think the inquiry is completely appropriate,” he said.
So is Lefar worried Vonage’s app will also face a tough time getting approval?
“It’s not a concern,” he said “We understand what the competitive environment is and we think there’s ample opportunity to deliver software applications that deliver some of our services across a range of devices.”
“We go into this with our eyes wide open.” said Lefar but declined comment on specific devices.

(Reuters Photo of Vonage booth at a trade show)