Now, finally, the Apple/Palm war seems to have ended. With the latest update to Palm Pre's webOS software, the company has come up with a new tactic altogether: forget about iTunes, use Amazon instead.

The back-and-forth between Apple and Palm was getting ugly. A cat and mouse game transpired involving hacks, crippling updates from Apple, and then re-hacks from Palm which did nothing for either company's image. Some felt that Apple had every right to protect their software from being used with other devices - after all, if something went wrong with Pre syncing, consumers could easily blame Apple's software for the troubles. They may even call in for support, not understanding that Apple wouldn't be able to handle issues arising from the use of a competitor's hardware.

Others, however, felt that Apple should open up. With their dominance over the entire digital media player industry, keeping their proprietary software a closed system was a way to make sure that no up-and-comers could ever have a shot at becoming a popular alternative to the iPod or iPhone. Palm, of course, felt this way, too. They complained to the USB-IF saying that consumers should have a right to decide how they use the media they purchase. That is, if they bought content from iTunes, they should be able to sync it to the Pre.

The USB-IF did not agree, though. They sent letters to both companies explaining that Palm's use of Apple's USB vendor code actually violated the group's rules and would need to end. Clearly, Palm lost this round, too - but don't count them out just yet.

Palm Releases webOS 1.2

Yesterday, Palm released an update of the Pre software, webOS. While most of the reporting surrounding the new OS involved the important update which brings paid applications to the Pre's App Catalog, another under-reported feature is actually just as (if not more) important. The Pre now lets you download over-the-air from Amazon's MP3 Store.

According to the Official Palm Blog, the Amazon integration now works over both WAN or Wi-Fi, meaning that you don't need to be hooked up to a PC via USB to purchase music on your Pre. You can do so directly from the device, just like Apple iPod Touch and iPhone users can do through Apple's mobile iTunes Store. Although the iTunes experience overall may have been the preferable option for many users, Amazon at least provides a viable alternative for Pre owners. Amazon's online catalog may still be a few million short of that of Apple's, but often their prices are much more affordable thanks to daily deals and albums that start at $4.99.

While Palm hasn't officially responded to the USB-IF's letter - despite being told they had to do so within a week - it seems that they have, without actually saying so, made their decision. The latest update's release notes do not mention iTunes syncing, and, as many expected, it has not been re-enabled.

It looks like Palm Pre has given up the fight for good, now betting entirely on Amazon. The company's original plan to sync with iTunes was a calculated risk and one which now leaves consumers holding the short end of the stick. How many Pre owners bought the Pre because it synced with iTunes? How many are angry or disappointed because it doesn't now? It may have been better if Palm never went this route to begin with and worked on making the Amazon integration the key selling point from day one. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. However, their decision may end up having a major impact on the company's future, considering they've essentially bet the farm on webOS, ending support for devices running both the original Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Will giving up on iTunes impact device sales for the struggling company? Or will extricating themselves from this nasty war with Apple end up being the best thing they could have done?

Augmented reality is a human interface for information that uses spherical coordinate systems to display information relative to the position of the viewer. Its most common application today is the overlay of information on the viewfinder of digital cameras. This is already a feature in many mid-point to high-end digital cameras that overlay the position of faces on the screen.

There are currently two distinct methods of augmented reality: marker-based and gravimetric.

Gravimetric Augmented Reality

Gravimetric AR uses data from a gravimeter to calculate the precise positioning and angle of a display device to determine the center, orientation, and range of a spherical coordinate system.

The first platform that was capable of delivering gravimetric AR applications on mobile phones was the Open Handset Alliance's Android operating system running on the HTC Dream (better known as the TMobile G1).

One of those applications is Mobilizy's Wikitude, which overlay's Wikipedia data over the mobile phone's camera view. Point the phone's camera lens at the Golden Gate Bridge, for example, and see information overlaid on it. Move the phone around to find things on the bridge that you may not have noticed before.

Marker-Based Augmented Reality

Marker-based AR uses a camera and a visual marker known as a fiducial to determine the center, orientation, and range of its spherical coordinate system.

Hosted by the University of Washington, ARToolkit is the first fully-featured toolkit for marker-based AR. It is freely available under the GPL open-source license for personal use. ARToolworks Inc. is the commercial licensor of the platform.

The most popular marker-based AR applications use the FLARToolKit, a descendant of ARToolkit, which uses Flash to overlay information on video from a computer's webcam when a fiducial marker is visible.

Among the most recent implementations of this method is GE's Smart Grid information website, where readers can print out a fiducial marker and hold it within range of their webcam. The screen then displays an interactive 3-D model.

The iPhone's World

At the iPhone's launch in 2007, John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, joined Steve Jobs on stage. Speaking of this technology's potential, he said, "Think about it: in your pocket you have something that is broadband and connected all the time. It's personal; it knows who you are and where you are. That's a big deal, a really big deal. It's bigger than the personal computer."

Over the past two years, we have seen the iPhone seed an entirely new field of mobile-connected experiences, with many mobile applications and competing platforms.

Because AR uses a spherical coordinate system to display data, it needs to know not just the orientation of the device but the direction in which the camera is pointing. To do this, it needs an accelerometer capable of gravimetry -- or, simply put, it needs a compass.

The iPhone 3GS is the only iPhone that can run gravimetric AR applications. ARKit, an open-source toolkit for creating AR applications on the iPhone 3GS, was just created and released at iPhoneDevCamp last weekend. Apple alerted its developers last week that AR applications will not be available in its App Store until September. The Palm Pre does not have a compass, and the BlackBerry Storm has no AR apps. So, for now, Android phones are the only mobile gravimetric AR devices in the wild.

Augmented Reality and Ambient Intelligence

Ambient intelligence is a human interface metaphor. It implies that the connected devices around us are all connected to some form of intelligence. We see this when we drive through an automated toll system like FasTrak on the Golden Gate Bridge. Using the RFID tag issued by the bridge authority, the bridge knows who we are and what to do. We don't have to actively submit intelligence of our own: the ambient intelligence takes care of the job.

Globally positioned data is so voluminous that not all of it can be displayed. That fact combined with the bandwidth limitations of mobile carriers creates quite a challenge for the industry: deliver the data that is relevant to the user and location, and before the user gets there.

The holy grail of the mobile AR industry is to find a way to deliver the right information to a user before the user needs it, and without the user having to search for it. This holy grail is likely in a ditch somewhere beside a well-traveled road in the district of the semantic Web, ambient intelligence and the Internet of things. Be wary of any hyped-up invitation to invest in a company that claims to have gotten the opportunity right. What we've seen in the commercial industry to date is a rather complex version of a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Guest author: Sid Gabriel Hubbard is a blogger, Internet entrepreneur and three-time CTO. He leads the Android Maker's group in San Francisco and the Bay Area Augmented Reality Meetup Group and is a contributing member of the iPhone ARKit open-source project.

According to a post on Apple's website, the company is now claiming - for the record - that they will not guarantee other devices will sync with the iTunes software nor will they support those devices.

Here's how the post reads:

Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.

That sounds like a definite slap in the face to the Pre who may soon see one of their main selling points disappear with a simple update to the iTunes software.

Still, Apple has to be careful not to implement the update in a such way that makes it appear that they've done so just to break the Pre's syncing ability...that would reek of anti-competitiveness and could get them in trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice. However, we know Apple is filled with enough smart people that they could surely think of a way to break it without making it look like they broke it on purpose . The question is, will they really do something that under-handed and sneaky? Or do they just want to create a climate of fear by implying that you can't trust the Pre to always work?

Either way, it doesn't look like good news for Palm.

Friday, before it was officially released, I did get a chance to play with the Pre a little bit and tested one again on Saturday at a local Sprint retail store. My initial impression is that it is pretty cool indeed. First of all, it looks sleek and feels really good in my hand. The touch screen display is large and the Qwerty keyboard is adequate, if not a little small. The user interface is instinctive and both the browser (full HTML browser based on the WebKit application framework) and the webOS are lightning fast. It comes with most everything you would expect from a $299 smartphone ($199 after rebate), including a camera with flash. And of course, it is perfectly capable as a telephone also. The only obvious reason the Palm Pre is not an iPhone killer just yet is its lack of available apps.

Fortunately, our own Sarah Perez has really done her homework on the new Palm Pre and its new webOS and you can find that post here. Be sure to also read posts from Bloomberg.com and Gizmodo and watch a video review on YouTube for even more information. We knew it wouldn't take long for someone to want to tear this thing apart to see what makes it tick (it's the nature of the geek, right?), so for all of you morbid tear-apart-the-toaster types, there's this.