Palm Pins Comeback Hopes On 'Pre' Smartphone

Palm Pins Comeback Hopes On 'Pre' Smartphone

Palm needed to swing for the fences with the unveiling of its news martphone at the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday, and the early impressions of its Palm Pre indicate the company has hit a home run.



The Palm Pre is a touch-screen smartphone that has a vertically sliding QWERTY keyboard. 

It weighs about 4.8 ounces, has an oval-like shape, and is smaller than Apple's iPhone 3G and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold. 



Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the smartphone is the new mobile operating system, dubbed WebOS. Palm said the operating system ties all of a user's Web content into a smooth, finger-friendly user interface. 



Palm said the platform is built on familiar Web standards like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax. 

This should make it easy for third-party developers to create applications, and Palm said Internet radio provider Pandora was able to make an app in three days.