Palm Thursday unveiled the "Pre" smartphone, more similar to an iPhone than a Treo in looks, and a new operating system called Palm WebOS, with hopes that both will keep the venerable but struggling company in the smartphone race. The Pre — rhymes with "tree" — has a 3.1-inch touchscreen but also comes with a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard. Palm executive chairman Jon Rubeinstein unveiled the device, which will be carried by Sprint, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It should be available the first half of this year, and no price has been set yet. Palm's Treo, still on the market, was in many ways the granddaddy of consumer smartphones, and once dominated the market for those who wanted more than a basic cell phone. The Treo offered not only comprehensive calendar and contacts programs, thanks... [read full story]
