Like many a true gadget geek, I started my gadget obsession with a Palm, the venerable IIIe. I’ve also had the pleasure to own an m505, a TT and a TT3 on the way, but when Palm refused to move on from Palm OS Garnet (5.x) I couldn’t stomach the much maligned OS and moved first to Windows Mobile then to Symbian and finally on to Mobile OSX. The problem is that I, like many others, hold a soft spot in my heart for Palm and was upset to see their decline and the failure of their innovative thinking over the past couple of years. Sure the Centro is pretty popular and the original Treo was revolutionary but recently they’ve just slipped by the wayside. The good news however is that at CES 2009 Palm announced that they’ve still got that core innovation and are back in a big way. Hit the read link for the full run down.

The Palm Keynote at CES was for all intents and purposes a make or break moment for the once king of the mobile sector. If the product/OS they announced was more of the same drab, boring, limited experience that they’ve had recently then I’m pretty sure that would have been the end of Palm at least as a wholly owned company. Thankfully for all true gadget hounds out there, Palm pulled a 180. They announced not only a very slick looking and fully connected platform the Palm Web OS but also an absolutely fantastic looking device to run it, the Palm Pre.

Here’s what we currently know about Palm WebOS. It’s a linux based OS that is a derivative of what they’ve been working on for some time and it uses standard web languages JS, CSS, HTML and XML meaning that app developers won’t need to learn any specific new languages reducing the learning curve. It has a new system of cloud information management called Synergy, a sync system that provides automatic syncing and consolidation your contacts, calendars and other PIM information into one place without the creation or display of duplicates. There is also consolidated messaging that brings IM, SMS and MMS together in one conversation. Exchange support is there also as well as the usual IMAP and POP email integration. A search feature along the lines of Spotlight is built into the OS making finding applications, documents and web stuff a doddle. The UI itself has a smooth flick/multi-touch based system very similar to the iPhone, with the best bits from the current implementations from Android and Mobile OSX including a dockable control area and a pop-up notification system. The system also supports gestures with a new ‘gesture area’ that is not screen but still touchable. The application navigation and switching is based on a ‘deck of cards’ analogy similar in form to that used by Mobile Safari when switching tabs. The OS also allows true multitasking and borrows quite a lot of ideas and mechanics from the desktop world. All in all the Web OS looks pretty impressive and could be exceeding competitive with the current crop of mobile OS options.

Palm didn’t only release details of a new platform; thankfully they also showed a pre-production Palm Pre the new device to feature this new operating system. The device itself looks really really nice, something that looks like it might have had HTCs hand in it. It features a 3.1inch screen with the good old Palm resolution of 320×480 and a portrait sliding keyboard with a curve similar to that of the SE Xperia X1 just portrait (the keyboard looks a lot like their Treo keyboards which should be good). Onboard the Pre also features a ‘gesture area’ (read touch sensitive non-screen area) and a trackball for good measure. A GPS chipset is in there along with a 3MP Camera with LED flash plus the usual connectivity options including EVDO rev.A (Sprint; HSPDA to come soon to non-US markets), WiFi (802.11b/g), bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with AD2P and microUSB2 including mass storage for the 8Gb flash onboard. Both proximity sensor and light sensors are there similar to the iPhone along with a riger mute switch and a removable battery (that Palm were very keen to emphasise). Thankfully the Pre also features a 3.5mm jack for your favourite ‘phones and integrates an optional but very cool, wireless (induction) charging system using what they’re calling the Touchstone. Closed the phone is a pocket friendly 59.57 x 100.53 x 16.95mm and only 135g.

The combination of the new slick looking WebOS powered through by the new TI CPU (read powerful) on the Pre make a pretty convincing solution. Of course all this needs to be thoroughly played with before passing final judgement but from what people have said so far on pre-production units and software things are looking up for Palm (at least the stock market seems to think so, up 35%). Those of you who know me, know that I love my iPhone 3G even with the faults it has but this could be the phone to bring me back to my childhood days and back into the fold of Palm. I don’t know about you (apart from some well known tech journalists, here’s looking at you Ryan, Peter and Josh!) but I’m very excited by the prospect of a rejuvenated Palm that is competitive and brings quality, innovative products to the table. At the very least it provides some real competition from Apple and Google.

Keep an eye here on PG, hopefully our CES correspondents Kirby and Jay can get some hands on time with the gorgeous looking Pre.

Tags: Palm