Yesterday, Megan noted a Fortune story saying that iTunes syncs flawlessly with the new Palm Pre. This, of course, got the water-cooler talk bubbling: "How did Palm pull it off? Will Apple allow this to happen?"

Turns out they already have. A tech note on Apple's website notes the two dozen or so third-party players that iTunes (for Mac OS X, at least) is compatible with, including Rio and Creative Labs Nomad MP3 players. True, many of the models listed predate the iPod, and the tech note itself was last updated a little less than a year ago. But third-party device compatibility with iTunes isn't without precedent.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber pointed to a story by Jon Lech Johansen that says Apple may block iTunes access to the Pre in a future update; Gruber himself said he "wouldn't be surprised if they did." I'm not so sure.

First, let's look at how it works. According to Johansen, a unique USB device ID allows iTunes to recognize MP3 players (including iPods) that it's compatible with. Johansen speculates that Palm is using one of these IDs when communicating with iTunes. If it's an iPod's unique ID, then it will work with iTunes for Windows, too; this is an important litmus test and we don't know the results yet.

I can understand Apple might not cotton to a Palm Pre specifically masquerading as an iPod USB device. Given that, allowing the Pre to freely communicate with iTunes isn't necessarily bad business sense, presuming Palm implements the functionality in a forthright manner (like other third-party MP3 players that iTunes already supports).

Why limit access to the Pre, aside from pure spite? If someone already uses iTunes, chances are they have some quantity of DRM-free iTunes Plus music on their computer. There's no technical reason why the music shouldn't be easily playable on the Pre. One of the upshots of removing DRM in the iTunes store is to facilitate device interoperability. Allow non-Apple devices to play iTunes music, and suddenly Apple has customers it didn't have before.

If Apple chooses to cut off just the Pre, and Palm is following the rules, Apple is unnecessarily cutting a stream of revenue. That's something I don't see Apple doing lightly.

Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X, will include minor tweaks to the user interface, according to MacRumors' Arnold Kim.

"The new theme will likely involve tweaks to the existing design and perhaps a 'flattening' of Aqua in-line with Apple's iTunes and iPhoto interface elements," Kim writes.

AppleInsider's Kate Marsal posted a screenshot of some controls purported to be part of the new interface, dubbed "Marble." It's unclear where the screenshot came from, as Kim writes that development builds have so far used Leopard's version of the Aqua theme. They could easily be Photoshopped screenshots of iPhoto or iTunes, so take that with a grain of salt.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber wrote that Marble was the codename for the new interface scheme in his Macworld predictions roundup, but said later he was wrong when it was not announced during the keynote. He wagered that the look would feature "iTunes-style scrollbars everywhere, darker window chrome, and a light-text-on-dark-background menu bar."

Snow Leopard is rumored to be released before the end of March.

After news of Apple's decision to pull out of Macworld, many tech writers are wondering if Apple isn't considering participation in the Consumer Electronics Show, typically held around the same time as Macworld, in Las Vegas.

Most seem to be asking vague questions about what would happen if Apple decided to attend. Even so, most of the pundit crowd seems to be leaning toward it probably won't happen, but it might. Maybe. Someday. Kind of. If it does happen, they'll claim they called it; If it doesn't they're still right.

As Apple produces more consumer electronics devices (like the iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV), BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl sees a place for Apple at CES. "Could a new re-imagined Stevenote at CES in Las Vegas starting in 2010, become the de-facto headline event at CES and thus push Microsoft's presence out of the limelight? It certainly could."

"It probably won't happen, but it certainly could," he writes. The heat death of the universe probably won't happen tomorrow, too, but it certainly could.

Armin Heinrich, developer of the do-nothing I Am Rich application, told the Los Angeles Times yesterday he sold eight copies of the app, which is no longer available in the App Store.

If true, Heinrich pocketed $5,600 for his work, and Apple skimmed $2,400 off the top.

According to Heinrich, six people from the U.S., one from Germany, and one from France each bought a copy of the app. One App Store reviewer said that he bought the application by accident, but it's unclear if that individual is included in the final tally.

An update to the Times article noted that Heinrich said, "I've got e-mails from customers telling me that they really love the app," who had "no trouble spending the money." He also said that he had "no idea" why Apple removed his offering from the App Store.

John Gruber, in a blog post at Daring Fireball, expressed skepticism at Heinrich's honesty, suggesting that his claim of receiving emails from satisfied customers "didn't ring true."

[Via Valleywag.]

Man, I head out for a few days (I've been away at BlizzCon, reporting for our online gaming cousin WoW Insider), and Fake Steve got burnt. Not by us, of course-- we made a promise to not care about the identity of Fake Steve, and we still don't. But we're not the only site on the Internet, and the real Fake Steve is out there. So the question then becomes: now what?

FSJ himself claims it's not over, though he is taking a short break. Forbes is going to sponsor the blog, although it's not clear what "sponsoring" means in that context. All we care about is that we still get Fake Steve-- the wacky ramblings and sparkling insights of Steve Jobs. Is that what we'll get? As Gruber points out, it's probably not. FSJ's last post is not in the voice of Steve Jobs; it's in the voice of someone pretending to be him. The curtain is falling already.

There's an interesting parallel to this, and it's newsworthy, too: Bree, as of last Friday, is dead. Lonelygirl15, the young woman who took over YouTube and then was discovered to be the product of an imagination, was killed in the final online episode of her story. When Lonelygirl15 was outed, I was just as intrigued as I was with the mystery of FSJ-- who is she and what is this really all about? But when the mystery was revealed, I grew bored with it, and a look at the last Lonelygirl video tells me that I didn't miss much-- the stuff that attracted me in the first place (an interesting form, a simple, mysterious conceit) has long since been abandoned for a huge, boring cast and a formulaic plot (a group called "The Order" features prominently). Once Lonelygirl admitted she was fake, she became so.

So the worry with Fake Steve is that the same thing will happen. Gruber thinks we're in denial, but we're not-- when a newspaper editor told Virginia there was a Santa Claus, was he denying the truth? We want Fake Steve-- a witty, insightful blog from a Steve Jobs who pretends that he's real, sounds like he's real, and therefore is real. We just worry that now that the bubble's broken, Fake Steve won't stick to his guns and stay real.

John Gruber's Daring Fireball is probably my favorite Mac blog out there (save for the ol' TUAW, of course)-- it was one of the first I started reading, and he consistently provides not only great insight on Apple products and policies (and journalists' treatment of them), but a strong, often funny voice in the community. We're big fans here at TUAW, and that's why we were so happy to hear that even more people will have a chance to read Gruber's work. Because as of today, he's releasing his full RSS feed, free to anyone.

Previously, he had a plan where you paid a membership fee (included when you bought a T-shirt from him) and then got access to the full RSS feed. A feed was available for free, but it was partial content only. Now, he says, confusion about which feed is which, and RSS readers without HTML authentication (most notably Google Reader, and the .Mac reader for iPhone that David loves so much-- what's up with these popular readers not providing a feature that supports the content producers that supply them?) have convinced him to try out a free full feed for a month. Additionally, the free feed will be supported from week to week by sponsors.

If you haven't signed on to DF's feed yet, now's your chance. And if, like us, you find it interesting and informative, might as well put a couple bucks in the bucket and pay for it anyway-- Gruber's definitely earning it.

Over at Daring Fireball John Gruber interviews Dino Dai Zovi, who won the CanSecWest security contest we mentioned last week by successfully exploiting a MacBook Pro through a flaw in QuickTime's implementation of Java. Dai Zovi explains the sort of thing he did (though obviously without giving details). He is a Mac user himself and confirms what we noted before that you can defend yourself by disabling Java in your browsers. Dai Zovi's main advice for the "typical" user is merely to run in a non-admin account. It's definitely worth a read for anybody curious about the exploit.

In our sneak peak at the new Google Desktop for Mac, Scott wondered at Google's use of a proprietary installer. Like many Mac users, I get annoyed at installers, though I understand that sometimes they are necessary. Similarly concerned, John Gruber at Daring Fireball performed a test install and then did a file level comparison of his system before and after. As Gruber notes: "This matters with Google Desktop, because there are a lot of files, and they're installed into some interesting - if not suspicious - locations." This includes an Input Manager and some possibly questionable kernel extensions (which are likely necessary to make the full system-wide search possible). I should be clear: nobody is accusing Google of doing anything underhanded, but if you like to know exactly what's going on with your system, John's article is worth a read before installing Google Desktop.

OK, OK! We clearly have a wide range of opinions on this whole "How can I get my Mac to right-click-create new files, like Windows does?" thing. Some folks like the QuickSilver approach, some think QuickSilver is an anti-Mac-way abomination. Some like NuFile, and some like FinderPop (Update: and some, like Wired's writer, and me too now that I've tried it, like DocumentPalette.)

Some think the whole idea is plain goofy and there's nothing wrong with going into an application to create a file; others think the previous people are missing the point, because sometimes you need an starter file right here right now, and this is faster than opening the parent program and navigating to the folder you want, or using a stationery file or template.

As usual, if you want something stripped to the essentials that works really gracefully and cleanly, call John Gruber. In response to yesterday's NuFile post, John knocked off a quick AppleScript which, in combination with the Big Cat Scripts plugin and the text editor of your choice, creates a nice little text file wherever you right-click.

We're through talking about this now; does that work for everyone? Good. Enjoy your Wednesday!

I'm a Transmit fan myself, but we seem to have a house policy of noting updates of the old-school (if you will) Mac FTP client Interarchy. Well it has been bumped to version 8.5, and has a new owner: Nolobe. In addition, TUAW favorite John Gruber has an interview up with Interarchy's original author Peter N Lewis and the new one Matthew Drayton. Perhaps the most interesting revelation is that the app is still mostly written in that bane of my middle school years: Pascal!

Version 8.5 has some interesting new features like integration with the Terminal, AppleScript support, and a new Dock Menu. Check it out at Nolobe.

[Via Daring Fireball]

Like many on the Mac web, we at TUAW are fans of John Gruber's Daring Fireball. Now, thanks to Macworld Magazine, we can all hear Gruber at a session he ran at Macworld, together with his guest Cabel Sasser of Panic. As nearly always with Gruber, it's an interesting session with on the fly commentary about the iPhone (which is perforce a little underinformed), discussion about Panic and independent Mac development: definitely worth a listen (caution: the language is a little rough some times).

[Edit: Fixed Sasser's name]

John Gruber has penned an interesting observation of how Microsoft might very well have missed the mark from the get-go when they made the strange decision to take on the iPod and iTunes. Since the player's initial wiz-bang sales period is essentially over (as in: it more or less set a decent sales barometer, at least for now), John wrangles some interesting statistics from Amazon's charts on exactly where the Zune stands in comparison to Apple's players (including year-old models), as well as its ranking in the overall electronics category. To spoil the surprise: the Zune isn't doing so well. We've looked at Amazon's charts before, but as of this writing, a record player is beating out the best selling Zune on the electronics list, while iPods - specifically the small, flash-based nano and shuffle - dominate most of the top 10 spots.

John then uses this data and good ol' fashioned people watching to conclude that Microsoft shouldn't have taken what could be their only swing at the plate in producing a hard drive-based iPod; they should have cranked out a flash memory model to go head-on with the nano - inarguably the home run slugger in Apple's lineup. While I tend to agree with John, I also see a problem with going down this road: Microsoft would likely have had even less room to maneuver, and even fewer things to market ('Beam your tunes') and invent lame, dead-end lingo for - they actually refer to sharing your music wirelessly as 'squirting'. Who wants to bet how excited Steve Ballmer's kids are to 'squirt' at school?

Sure, when you look at what you're up against in the DAP market, Apple's iPod nano and SanDisk's respectable 2GB Sansa player (expandable via an SD slot, and at #11 on Amazon as of this writing) are the top dogs to beat - but what could they have offered? I highly doubt they could have fit their DRM-crippled and arguably worthless (though admittedly buzz-worthy) Wi-Fi sharing feature into a nano-sized player, even if they made it slightly larger and uglier like the Zune is to its 30GB iPod rival. A 'Zune nano' with nothing unique to offer would dry up on its own in a market already dominated by Apple, SanDisk and Creative, and Microsoft's exclusive, 3rd party bitch-slap of a music store would have even less of a leg to stand on.

In summary: I think John's right - Microsoft made a bad move in copying the 30GB hard drive-based iPod, but it was the only move they had. In this light, it kinda makes you wonder why they bothered in the first place.

It isn't newsworthy when a Windows users, formerly biased against Macs in the enterprise, changes his mind. Unless, of course, that Windows users happens to be John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and CareGroup. This man isn't your typical user.

As part of an article for CIO Halamka tried out 3 different machines for a month each to evaluate whether they would be viable replacements for his Windows machine. The first was a MacBook (couldn't they have sprung for a MacBook Pro?), the second a ThinkPad running RedHat, and the third a Dell subnotebook running Windows XP. The twist being that after Halamka shares his thoughts with CIO magazine an expert in each machine type comments on his experiences. The Mac expert is the always dashing Jason Snell from Macworld.

The conclusion? The Dell subnotebook running OS X would be Halamka's ideal machine (he likes the fact that the Dell is smaller and puts out less heat), sadly that doesn't exist. Read the whole article for all the gory details.

[via Daring Fireball]

Since many of us at TUAW are celebrating Thanksgiving in America, I though this might be a good time to join many others in posting a few things I'm thankful for in the Mac web. Naturally, I'm thankful for the wonderful family I'm getting to spend time with, as well as an incredible wife and having a roof over my head. But in the context of TUAW, I figured I would spotlight some of the more Apple-related things for which I'm thankful. You know, the people, apps and other goodness that make my Mac experience that much more appreciable:

• The blogging team here at TUAW - No I'm not just sucking up; we have a great crew of people here that has recently expanded with the return of Laurie A. Duncan, and our newest blogger Erica Sadun. We're rocking some great content that makes me even more proud to be a TUAW blogger.
• MagSafe power adapters - kinda silly I know, but living in a house with a wife as busy as I am and a hyper-active Blue Heeler dog, this innovation has already saved my MacBook on a good number of occasions. I thank Apple's engineers for this surprise innovation on the new Intel portables.
• Daring Fireball - Yes, we pimp John Gruber's stellar musings on all things Apple, software and design quite a bit here on TUAW, but that's only because we all think he does some pretty nifty work, and his writing is a personal inspiration to me. I can't wait for Spring when I'm done with this internship and down to my final semester, with not much more than a senior thesis on my hands, which means more time to dedicate towards creating better posts and podcasts.
• Xtorrent - Aside from the mixed sentiments towards Mr. Watanabe in my last post about this rockin' BitTorrent client, I'm really digging it, and this is the first holiday trip away from home that I elected to leave the iMac running (on a battery backup, finally) with a long list of goodies to torrent for when I return.
• Keyword Manager for iPhoto - Sure, I found it just recently, but this app has quickly become a must-have for my iPhoto library. After recently acquiring a killer Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR camera, I'm getting my photography eye back and this app is proving vital for bringing some organization to my now-rapidly expanding library of 3700+ images.
• Backlit keyboards - I gave up my 1st gen MacBook Pro over the summer for a MacBook + iMac setup so I can leave the desktop machine running to render out big video and motion graphics projects. However, since my wife wants a notebook of her own soon, she promised to chip in to purchase a MacBook Pro for me in June of '07 as a graduation present, at which point she'll inherit the MacBook, and I will be reunited with one of the guiltiest of notebook luxuries that I miss so dearly: a backlit keyboard. Nevermind the recent bump to Core 2 Duo or the (finally!) re-introduction of FW800 and a DL DVD burner - I can't wait to fire up that sexy backlit keyboard.
• The Intel patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 - I spend way too much time online in this game, and I'm so thankful an Intel patch was released; so much so that it would have been at least a momentary deal-breaker if I couldn't find one when I was considering my original upgrade to Intel machines.

I could obviously go on for pages, but I gotta wrap this up sooner or later. These are just a few of the unique things I'm thankful for (besides the obvious: "Macs") during this time of thanking. What Apple-related stuff are you thankful for right now? Whether or not you're celebrating, sound off in the comments.

Brian Ford at Newsvine has served Mr. Gruber with 7 questions, all inspired by various DF posts. Spanning topics such as John's guess on the Macalope's identity, weekly Jackasses and just how useful the rumor business is, it's a short but interesting read on one of the Mac web's most intriguing pundits.