In a surprising move by Palm after its many “cat-and-mouse” games with Apple, the company has not included iTunes syncing capabilities in the latest version of its smartphone operating system. Palm’s webOS has been syncing on and off with iTunes since the release of the Palm Pre earlier this year by presenting itself as an iPod in order to trick iTunes into recognizing it as a valid syncable device.

In a move that should surprise no one, iTunes 9, released yesterday, prevents the Palm Pre from syncing music. This is an ongoing battle between Palm and Apple: Palm released the Pre smartphone with the ability to be recognized by iTunes, allowing users to transfer their (non-DRMed) music. Apple countered by breaking this functionality, and not long after, Pre came out with their own “bug fix,” which restored it.