SUNNYVALE, CALIF.: Palm’s answer to the iPhone is rolling out in June. The Palm Pre won kudos at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and is said to be an improvement on the iPhone. It features a new operating system that allows seamless movement among several applications running simultaneously, similar to a desktop. The Pre will be priced at $199.99 after a $100 rebate.
Pre features include a sliding QWERTY keyboard, touch screen, Web browser, WiFi, integrated GPS, stereo Blutooth, a three-megapixel camera, video playback and 8 GB of internal storage. It supports MPEG-4, MP3, AAC, AAC+ and several other video and audio formats, and features a 3.1 inch, 24-bit color HVGA display.
The Pre will be paired with service packages from Sprint, offered at tiers of $80, $90 or $100. All come with unlimited text, picture and video messaging, and unlimited data. Pre’s features make it capable of streaming the type of TV content available at Hulu.com in addition to Sprint’s on mobile video service, creating one more competitive element in the mobile TV market. -- Deborah D. McAdams
