The Palm Pre takes Best of CES.
(Credit: Palm)Though cell phones are just a small part of CES, the category made a big splash at this year's show with the first cell phone to win CNET's Best of CES award. But the Palm Pre was not the only device in Las Vegas; new devices also debuted from Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG, to name a few.
In the smartphone category, the obvious star was the Palm Pre, which scored a hat trick by winning not only the aforementioned Best of CES award, but also the Best of CES award in the cell phone category and the People's Voice Award. The Pre restored a bit of faith in Palm and more importantly, pushed the capabilities of a smartphone. The Pre promises to offer true multi-tasking on a phone and dazzles with its unique user interface, design, and features.
In addition, the Palm Web OS and App Store will only expand the Pre's (as well as future Palm Web OS devices) uses and capabilities. By raising the bar, Palm has certainly sent a message to its competitors and we suspect they'll step up and respond, which is always good for us since it will bring more innovation.
While the Pre might have grabbed much of the CES spotlight, it wasn't the only smartphone to debut at the show. T-Mobile announced the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 and T-Mobile Shadow, while HTC introduced its HTC S743 smartphone. Nokia also announced that it will bring a U.S. version of the Nokia E63 to market in the coming weeks, and we finally got some hands-on time with the Nokia N97. Looks like 2009 is shaping up to be another action-packed year for the smartphone space.
Motorola earned a Best of CES nomination with its Surf A3100 smartphone. The touch-screen device offers multimedia features in an eye catching design. And better yet, it puts a nifty and user-friendly spin on the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating.
Moto also introduced the Renew W233, a phone made from recycled water bottles, and the rugged and tough Tundra A76r for AT&T. We got a close look at both models. And though it wasn't introduced in Las Vegas, CES gave us our first opportunity to handle the style-centric and posh Motorola Aura.... Read more
Cell phones and smartphones are just a small part of CES, but that doesn't stop the various manufacturers from making their presence felt. The largest companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung build impressive, glitzy booths that are larger than most homes. Inside you'll find their latest models on display, from the basic and functional to the hot and high end. For a peek at all the cell phone action on the CES show floor, check out our slide show.
Best in Show: Palm Pre
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)On Saturday, CNET, in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association, handed out its Best of CES 2009 Awards, including Best in Show and the People's Voice Award. And this year's big winner? The Palm Pre.
The Palm Pre smartphone took home both honors and became the first cell phone/smartphone to win the Best in Show since CNET started presenting the Best of CES awards in 2006. The Palm Pre went up against some stiff competition, including the Sony DSC-G3 and the Sony P-series Lifestyle PC. So why the Pre?
Well, it was a combination of things. First, and most important in our opinion, the Palm Pre along with the new Palm Web OS, brings an innovative way to how you interact with your device and how it organizes information. The Deck of Cards feature truly makes multitasking on your smartphone a breeze, and the Synergy functionality pulls in all your personal management information (e-mail, contacts, and calendar) from various sources into one place. Sure, other devices and operating systems have made similar attempts, but from what we've seen, the Palm Pre is the first smartphone to truly deliver on this in a seamless way.
We also liked the best-of-breed design, as the Pre offers a multitouch screen that rivals the iPhone and even one-ups Apple's smartphone with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. The list of features is long and impressive, including a full HTML Web browser, a full range of wireless options, and multimedia capabilities. Palm will also offer an App Store, and since the Palm Web OS was built with developers in mind, we expect the smartphone's capabilities and uses will only expand.
It's pretty evident that Palm put a lot of thought into the user interface, design, and features, as everything seamlessly works together to offer the best user experience, making the smartphone a really useful tool in your daily life. Obviously, this is a huge win for Palm, a company that has come under harsh criticism for its lack of innovation and struggles to keep up the competition, but it looks like Palm stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. It will be interesting to see where the Palm Pre stands in a year and whether it delivers on all this hype, but for now, we'll let Palm bask in its victory. Congratulations to Palm and all the Best of CES winners and finalists.
Check out CNET's full coverage of CES 2009, including the complete list of Best of CES category winners.
(Credit:
Erica Ogg)
As day two of CES 2009 came to a close, The 404 wrapped up the day with a solid audience of tired, dreary-eyed show goers desperate for some much needed entertainment.
Today Brian Tong joins the show to talk about the worst of CES, primarily the men's bathrooms, crying babies, and recycled floor tape. Best of all, we add a new segment to the show called "Sexy Press Release."
Be sure to catch us live again tomorrow from the CNET stage at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
EPISODE 255
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Happy New Year! This week we bring you a special Dialed In podcast live from CES in Las Vegas. Listen in to hear all the highlights of the show and a complete rundown of the nominees for Best of CES in the cell phones and smartphones category.
Palm's new Pre smartphone quickly emerged as one of the hottest items at the show, and you'll get Bonnie's full take on this intriguing device. And there are plenty of other nifty handsets on the show floor. Nicole got the chance to try on the LG Watch phone and Kent scooped out the new models from Sony Ericsson and Motorola.
Earlier in the week, Kent also went to the Macworld 2009 keynote sans Steven Jobs. For the most part it was a snoozer, but there was a bit of iPhone and iTunes news.
Listen now:
Download today's podcast
Best of CES cell phones nominees:
Full CES cell phones and smartphones coverage
Apple activates iTunes downloads over 3G, but with a caveat
Palm Pre
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)Phew! Thursday was a long, action-packed day thanks to Palm. I'm just now getting to sit down and gather my thoughts on the Palm Pre and Palm Web OS announcements, and I have to confess that I went into the press conference with some skepticism. It's no secret that Palm's been struggling to keep up with the competition and has come under heavy criticism for its lack of innovation and delays in releasing its new operating system. So can you blame me for thinking that Palm might disappoint again?
Well, I'm happy to say that I was wrong. My CNET News colleagues Ina Fried and Tom Krazit did a great job of covering the press conference and reporting on the basic specs of the Palm Pre, but I wanted to put my two cents in on what I think of the Pre and Palm Web OS and what kind of impact it will have on the market.
User interface and OS
To me, the real highlight of the Pre is the user interface and OS. The UI reminded me a little of HTC's TouchFlo interface, with the various swiping gestures and cool animated motions, but Palm certainly put a fresh take on it. It's beautiful and smooth, and just plain cool. It's pretty evident that Palm put a lot of thought into the UI, as everything seamlessly works together to give you the best user experience and making the smartphone a really useful tool in your daily life.
Synergy on the Palm Pre
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)The smartphone makes multitasking easy with the Deck of Cards feature that lets you scroll through various applications and toggle between them without having to open and close windows. It's slick, but most importantly, it's easy. I also think Synergy is a huge player, since it brings all your e-mail accounts and contact and calendar information from various sources into one place. Again, it's about simplicity and whether you're a consumer or business user, you have to love that.
Design
To facilitate all this is a best-of-breed design. First, you've got a multitouch screen that's absolutely sharp and brilliant in color with its half-VGA (320x480) resolution. Not only can you use the screen to navigate, there's a gesture area right below the display where you can use finger swipes and touches to launch menus, toolbars, applications, go back, or advance. Of course, my favorite part might be the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. I've made it no secret that I'm a huge texter and need physical buttons, so I was more than delighted when I saw that the smartphone had a keyboard. The Pre's keyboard is similar to that of the Palm Treo Pro; the buttons are a little on the smaller side, but there is a good amount of space between them to reduce any problems.
Again, looking at the design of the phone, I could tell time and thought was spent on the device. The hardware feels solid and not as plasticky as the Palm Centro. When you slide open the Pre, it has a slight curve that makes it comfortable to hold against your cheek when talking on the phone or even when typing out messages. Also, going back to the touch screen, it felt responsive and--hooray!--on Web pages, you can pinch the screen like the iPhone to easily zoom in and out of pages.
Web
Pre's Web browser
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)Speaking of the Web, the Pre's browser is pretty outstanding. It renders sites onscreen as you would see on your desktop, and quickly at that. When asked about Flash, Palm said they were not commenting on that at this point. We do know that there will be an app store, and Palm will release an SDK to developers. The company reiterated throughout the press conference that the Palm Web OS was built with developers in mind and based on HTML, CSS, and Javascript, so that's all one really needs to know to develop apps for the Pre and other Web OS devices.
Multimedia
As far as multimedia, the Palm Pre offers a 3-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap any photos, but early reports say that the quality is pretty good. Disappointingly, the camera won't have video recording capabilities at this time, but those could be added in the future. In terms of music, like the T-Mobile G1, Palm has partnered with the Amazon Music Store, so you will be able to purchase songs over the air from your Pre.
The rest
The Palm Pre offers so much that I could write on it forever, but I'll save some for when we actually get the unit in review. (By the way, I'm not sure when that will be, but I don't expect it to be anytime soon. I know. I'm sad, too.) Just to cover some quick specs: the Pre offers integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 (with support for stereo Bluetooth), EV-DO Rev. A, and GPS. There's 8GB of storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and high-speed USB 2.0.
Outlook
The Palm Pre and Palm Web OS isn't necessarily going to revolutionize the smartphone market, in that it doesn't offer any crazy, new features, but it definitely brings a fresh look into the way you interact with a device and how it organizes information. It also brings innovation and life back to the struggling company and has certainly set the tech world abuzz. Palm's undeniably taken a beating from the media and general public, so it's good to see the company respond and take action.
As much as the Pre is important to Palm, the smartphone will also be a key player for Sprint. It needs an iconic phone to compete with the likes o AT&T and the iPhone and Verizon Wireless and the BlackBerry Storm, and Pre could certainly be the one to do this for Sprint. Pricing will be key of course, but I suspect the Pre will be priced competitively with the iPhone and Storm. I also think its chances of overtaking the Storm are pretty high. It offers a better user experience and has more consumer appeal. There are still some unanswered questions about everything that will be offered with the Pre; in my opinion, and I know these words are thrown around a lot, but I think the Palm Pre could truly be the stiffest competition for the iPhone.
Palm took a bit of a gamble announcing the product early at CES 2009 and not closer to its release date, which is expected some time during the first half of 2009. Both Palm and Sprint will have to be careful to deliver on their promise and not delay the phone. (You can pre-register for Palm Pre at Sprint's Web site.) Still, the Palm Pre and Web OS has certainly gotten everyone excited and I can't wait to get some quality hands-on time with the final product. You can check out of Palm Pre photo gallery and of course, we'll update you as we get more information, but for now, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Palm Pre and OS.
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Even before CES 2009 began, Palm created quite a buzz by announcing that it would introduce its new operating system as well as the first device of the family. On opening day of the show, the company finally introduced Palm Web OS and the Palm Pre and crowd was wowed. Check out our hands-on gallery of the smartphone.
Nokia E63
(Credit: Nokia)Back in November, Nokia introduced the Nokia E63 and we figured we'd be waiting awhile for the smartphone to make its way to the United States. However, the wait wasn't that long as the company announced at CES 2009 that the E63 would be available in the United States in the coming weeks for an unlocked price of $279.
Now, while the price is still expensive when compared with other subsidized smartphones, it's really quite a drop and much more affordable than Nokia's other unlocked phones, which range from $500 to $700. Nokia's hope is that the lower price point will draw more consumers to buy the device, whereas previous E series smartphones, such as the Nokia E71 and Nokia E90 Communicator, have been aimed mostly at business users.
The U.S. version of the E63 has many of the same features as the European version. The Symbian S60-based smartphone also includes support for Microsoft Exchange, POP/IMAP e-mail accounts, basic personal information management tools, and a music and video player.
Like the E71, you can toggle between two different home views on the E63, depending on whether you're at work or at home. Other highlights include 2.3-inch, 16-million-color QVGA display, and Nokia Ovi support. There's a full HTML Web browser with Flash support and wireless options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and yes, it will support U.S. 3G bands (850/1900MHz HSDPA bands, meaning you'll get the 3.5G speeds with an AT&T SIM but not a T-Mobile one).
The Nokia E63 will be available in two colors (red or blue) and can be purchased at Nokia's flagship store or through online retailers.
QR Code, Datamatrix code, Microsoft tag
(Credit: Started Something)According to Microsoft, Tags create unlimited possibilities for making interactive communications an instant, entertaining part of life. They transform physical media (print advertising, billboards, product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images)--into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.
This is all possible after installing some software and using your smartphone's camera, which in turn allows you to interact with these 2-D multicolored triangles in forming a square-like bar code (HCCB format). But unlike traditional tag readers, MS tags don't store the information, but a unique ID that it sends to Microsoft's servers. This allows much more information for both sides. The user can receive current information and the vendor/publisher can get a tally of how many times it has been scanned. You can even create a tag.
The software is free and available for download via your mobile smartphone browser @ http://gettag.mobi/ . We've come a long way from the old-fashioned black and white bar code.
Smartphones never take the main stage at CES, but that doesn't mean they go unnoticed. While there weren't any surprises this year, CES 2009 served up some tasty smartphone treats, including the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900, the HTC S743, and the T-Mobile Shadow. We got a hands-on look at all these device, plus the coveted Nokia N97, at the Digital Experience media event on Wednesday night. Check out our photo gallery of CES 2009 smartphones and pick out which shiny gadget you want next.
