PhoneTalk

Today, Palm announced the Palm Pre for Sprint at an event that seemed to be all about not letting technology get in the way of your lifestyle, but rather how technology can help you streamline it and in short create synergy of your very own. This is not far off from the intention of the Palm Pilot announced oh sooo many years ago. The new smartphone is slim in a sleek black casing and it's also relatively thin. It's got a hidden full QWERTY keyboard that slides down. As for specs, it's got everything it should or rather has been sure to include features that may have been lacking in other devices. Here's the rundown:

• WiFi

• GPS

• Bluetooth (stereo)

• 3-megapixel camera with flash

• EVDO (3G data speeds)

• 8GB onboard memory

• Latest TI processor

• 3.1-inch touchscreen that responds to "gestures"

• Replaceable battery

• 3.5mm headset jack

• USB 2.0

Specs aside; It's clearly got the key ones covered, it's the UI that is the real star here. Palm calls the different screens that you can have access to "Cards" and you can scroll through them, move them, send them to the trash when you don't want to see it anymore - but don't worry it automatically saves everything you do. There is no Save key on any application. Additionally all the services you use are all integrated where it makes sense that they should be. Got Outlook and Google calendars? See them combined on one screen -- color coded like you would expect from Palm. Same is true for a contact. Store all their information in one spot - whether it's their Facebook account, multiple phone numbers, multiple IMs. Though, they didn't demonstrate how that info is actually entered, we got the sense that it would all be seamless.

We all want to know about an app store, that is the big news these days with new platforms. Though there was no mention of a store or how it would work for developers there was multiple mention of how easy it would be for developers to start creating apps.

In short, the Palm Pre has a lot of potential, but it needs to come to market sooner rather than later. The company said first half of 2009. I gotta admit I was hoping to hear first quarter. We'll have more updates and pictures on the device, when we get a closer look later this afternoon.

Topics: New at CES Sprint Palm Camera Smart phones WiFi Video Bluetooth