(Image courtesy of Cult of Mac)

This week, a number of App Store developers released updates to remove USB syncing from their apps -- at Apple’s request.

As noted by Cult of Mac, there is no official support included in the iPhone OS SDK for apps to sync using USB -- which hasn’t stopped enterprising developers from doing it anyway, and for quite awhile. Using private APIs, it was a simple matter of dropping files into the iPhone’s DCIM folder (intended for photos) in order to have the app access them via the desktop.

What’s surprising is how long Apple allowed the hack to be used in the first place -- but those footloose and fancy-free days appear to now be over. This week, several developers -- including the creators of the popular free e-reader app Stanza -- have reported that Apple has asked them to remove USB syncing capabilities from their apps. And it appears the developers are complying, judging from an increase in the number of simple updates with that one item being the only one listed in the release notes.

Of course, presumably thanks to the iPad’s forthcoming new file sharing powers, this is not a permanent situation. The iPhone OS 3.2 SDK beta includes official APIs for accessing the shared storage folder for a device, which means that soon -- at long last -- an iPhone will be able to be mounted as a readable, writeable disk when plugged into a computer through USB.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the iPod has had such capability for years, and developers have been wishing, hoping and dreaming for the iPhone to do the same.

Wish granted.