If you’ve got your hopes set on a Palm Pre this Chrimbo then you might want to hold off on updating iTunes.

When the  Pre first launch in the US, Palm reasonably made a bit of a fuss that its shiny new phone could sync music with iTunes - making it a real pull to those considering switching to Palm but who had already invested in iTunes music. (The Pre didn’t work with copy protected music but was less of an issue seeing as iTunes has ditched DRM).

This pallying up with iTunes unsurprisingly didn’t go unnoticed by Apple, and so, even less surprisingly, the latest iTunes update breaks it. Ostensibly, it’s about bug fixes, but really it’s all about Palm. To Apple’s it’s the biggest bug of all.

The message? Apple are meanies.

The fact is though that Apple was never going to sit back and let its potentially most serious competitor  muscle in on its iTunes monopoly.

There are ways round it though - through third-party programs that sit between the device and iTunes, such as Salling Media Sync and The Missing Sync for Palm Pre, which has been doing the Mac, Palm Sync thing for years. The former has a free version available and apparantely the paid for version enables ‘faster sync’. The latter costs $40.

To be honest if your set on using iTunes and your non-Apple device you might as well pay-up and let some other company worry about having to deal with Apple’s ploys - it’s cash yes, but life’s too short.

And as others have also commented, this sort of shenanigans might focus some attention on Apple’s iPod/iTunes hegemony.

It is really an iPhone killer out there? After three years or so trying, it’s probably fair to say that there won’t be a single iPhone killer – the Apple wonder just has too much momentum going, especially with the wealth of Apps available for it.

So while I immediately spoilt my own thunder, having finally played with a Pre first hand, if only for a few minutes, there’s no doubt that it will gain a lot of fans when it does eventually make it over here.

It actually impressed as soon as I picked it up off its very cool charging base – ‘the Touchstone’ – onto which the devices snaps via a magnet and charges is through the case – just by contact.

The actually phone is a smaller, rounder affair than the iPhone, and has deliberately been designed in this pebble-like manner so that it’s easy to hold in the hand.

Round the edges it’s got an on/off button and a headphone socket a USB port at the top and not much else. Round the back there’s a speakerphone. The screen is bright and clear, even though it’s a conventional LED and not a OLED screen, as sported by some newer Samsungs. The resolution of 320 x 480 is fine for the size of the screen (3.1inches) though. I was a little surprised to hear though that it only has 8GB of built in memory and no expansion slot – perhaps Palm will take a leaf out of Apple’s book and offer larger capacity versions too.

The Web OS is definitely the most impressive part of the phone though. The Pre is the first phone to support full multi-touch in the same manner as the iPhone, and zooming in and around photos worked very nicely. Gesture support is great, and works from the bezel around the screen, not just on it – thus by swiping backwards underneath takes you to a previous menu. Swiping open apps off, or cards,  off the top of the screen closes them down, which is neat.

My favourite feature was swiping upwards from the bezel, which brings up a ribbon of icons, showing apps that you can switch to and it’s done with a really swish animation. When you move to your app, the one you’re in doesn’t shut down, aka’ the iPhone. Seeing the Pre’s multi-tasking in action actually made the iPhone nestling in my pocket suddenly seem rather old.

In fact, if multi-tasking doesn’t come to the iPhone next year, I’m off, and I suspect a great number of others will be too.

Moving round the phone, applications and images all seemed smooth, without any lagging issues.

The ‘Synergy’ feature was impressive, as it beings contact information from a number of different sources into one view – so for example, Facebook data is pulled into the contact, taking their profile image and other relevant data – so if they’ve got a Facebook picture, you’ll have their picture right there, which saves you having to do it. That’s neat.

The messaging page is also impressive, letting you select multiple methods of contacting people from one screen, such as GTalk, or SMS. I also like the calendar feature – which compresses down unfilled time sports so you can more easily see what’s happening on one screen.

All in all, it’s looks like a very, very nice phone indeed. The multi-tasking is its most impressive feature, and being able to easily switch been running apps in an elegant fashion is great. Though it’s also its Achilles heel, as it’s said to be responsible for the poor battery life.

All in all, I want to get my hands on one of these to see if it’s good enough to make me want to part with my iPhone. It might even leave me with a decision to make. Though no iPhones will be harmed in the making of it.