Palm Pre Plus
Photo: Palm

Palm today announced it's revamped its two exclusive phones for Sprint, and sent them packing for Verizon on January 25th.

The Pre, now called the Pre Plus, doubles its memory to 16 gigabytes and loses the trademark hardware button for closing apps, leaving that job to a swipe on the gesture bar. The Pixi becomes slightly slimmer and gains Wi-Fi capability. Another cool feature for the Verizon-bound phones is Palm Mobile Hotspot, which will enable both the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to act as a 3G modem for up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as laptops or iPod Touches.

No word yet on pricing for the new Verizon phones. Meawnhile, Sprint Palm Pre and Pixi owners will also have something in which to rejoice:

Video capture. Some time in February, all Palm webOS phones will get an over-the-air update that will give these devices the ability to shoot and edit video. An editing tool in the bottom righthand side of the screen will break up your video into bite-sized segments, in a way similar to what iPhone 3GS users can do now. After the video is shot and edited, you’ll be able to send your clip directly to Youtube or Facebook, or to attach it to an e-mail or multimedia message with one push of a virtual button.

Better video playback. There will also be an upgrade to Adobe Flash 10, which will enable all Palm Pre users (though not Pixi owners) to view a wider range of videos on the Web, including movie trailers.

3D games. Palm also announced that there would be more games on webOS. Also, several new 3D games, including Seven 3D games, were today added to the Palm App Catalog for Palm Pre customers. Those include EA Mobile’s "Need for Speed" and "Sims 3," as well as Laminar Research’s “X-Plane."

Easier app development. Eschewing Apple's iron-fisted system for developing and distributing software, Palm has opened up its application development programs to allow developers to create and even sell their own apps for Palm devices. Developers can now build their apps in a Web browser and now have the option of integrating data between disparate apps, such as Facebook and Linkedin, to make them more practical to their users.

I’ll have more on these significant developments over the next few days.

—Mike Gikas

As expected, 3D is the ubiquitous feature at TV manufacturers' booths this year at CES, with most major brands announcing some TV model or models that will let you watch movies, sports and more from the comfort of your living room.  Reporter Jim Willcox is breaking out the plastic glasses to bring you the latest in 3D TV news from CES's show floor.  Here's some of what he's told us so far:

• Plans by ESPN and Discovery Channel to release 3D channels this summer and in 2011, respectively.
• Vizio is upgrading its brand with a line of 3D TVs that can network wirelessly and download Internet apps. Among them: a massive, 72-incher.
• A rundown on the myriad 3D TV offerings from Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, and LG.

For more 3D TV news, keep checking back for Jim's updates from CES.

I'm a klutz. So, it's not uncommon for me to drop things. Last year, I accidentally dropped my cell phone into a big puddle of icy slush full of road salt. Needless to say, the phone was a goner. But here at CES, I found a phone that would have laughed at the cold salt-water bath. In fact, it would probably laugh at IEDs in Iraq too.

The Sonim XP-1 is a ruggedized GSM cell phone, similar to the Toughbook-series of laptops made by Panasonic. And like those tough laptops, the "tough phone" XP-1 adheres to the exacting military standards (Mil-Spec) required for all gear used by the U.S. armed forces.

The entire candy bar-shaped phone is wrapped in a tough rubber/silicon jacket, which makes it completely waterproof and shockproof. Even its display screen, capable of 128×160 resolution and 65,000 colors, is made of Gorilla Glass, a toughened glass made by Corning.

How tough is the phone? Check out the video (after the jump) where I use the phone—specifically, its display screen—to drive a steel nail through a piece of hard wood!

Despite its heavy-duty construction, the XP-1 weighs a mere 4.5 ounces and it comes with a three-year warranty from Sonim. It will work with any GSM carrier such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

But how many folks will actually need such a battle-ready cell phone? Enough, apparently. Sonim execs told me that approximately 15% of all cell phone purchases in the U.S. are replacement phones. Stll, at $500—the price of Google's Nexus One without a service contract—the XP-1 is quite an investment. 

What do you think? Are there enough extreme sports enthusiast, James Bond wannabes and other fumble-finger phoners (like me) who would really want this phone?

—Paul Eng

At CES 2010, the keynote events got kicked off with Microsoft’s usual dog and pony show. Undaunted by a pre-show power outage on stage that required rebooting all of their computers that weren’t battery-powered, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated his company’s successes in 2009. Chief among them was the introduction of Windows 7, which had been anxiously awaited due to the general public’s disenchantment with Windows Vista. Though it’s difficult to say whether the uptick of PC sales we’re seeing stems more from a recovering economy or the new Windows, 7 has met a much more positive opinion from users.

Ballmer did a hard sell on Microsoft’s Bing search service, stressing the versatility of its mapping feature, with which he was able to zoom into street-level views that looked at least as good as Google Maps. He did this with gestures on a touch-enabled tablet PC, which is a pretty intuitive way to search a map. Microsoft is heavily partnered with HP, which will pre-install Microsoft’s Windows Live web apps on its new PCs, as well as setting Bing as the default search service.

Other Microsoft products are being updated in 2010, not the least of which will be their Office suite, now available as a public beta. Office 2010 continues the “ribbon” interface, extending it to Outlook and PowerPoint, so, better get used to the ribbon, folks. The Zune HD continues to gain capabilities in Microsoft’s strategy to “mobilize” entertainment content, but continues to take a back seat to the iPod family in sales. Windows Mobile will upgrade to version 6.5, but has increased competition in the smartphone-OS arena with Android-based devices gathering steam. MediaRoom 2.0 aims to take content “seamlessly” from your Xbox 360 to any other Microsoft-equipped screen you own.

Ballmer showed their Blio e-reader software for PCs, with a convincing demonstration of how college textbooks can be enhanced with animations, videos and embedded quizzes. And there was a brief mention of the Uvo in-car system running an embedded version of Windows being developed in partnership with Kia, that, as with Ford’s Sync, looks to be another competitor to GM’s OnStar.

Speaking of Xbox, Ballmer showed some “compelling” (he likes that word) new “games that rival real life” (sic) slated for 2010, including Halo Reach, which will be released in a downloadable preview version to anyone who already owns Halo 3 ODST. An episodic game series called “Alan Wake” aims to create a new, psychological thriller game format. Another effort, called “GameRoom”, lets you create your own virtual arcade composed of classic games from the Pac-Man era and later, allowing you to compete with your friends remotely through their Xboxes (all your friends have Xboxes, don’t they?)

Finally, in a nod to the Nintendo Wii’s body-motion-sensing controllers, Microsoft will have by “Holiday 2010” a 3-D camera for the Xbox that can track the motion of your own, un-wired body to control game play. The possibilities here are “virtually” endless, if it works well enough.

—Dean Gallea

The Skiff Reader's display uses a flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil.
Photo: Skiff

The Skiff e-book reader was previewed today at CES, in both a black-and-white version set to launch later this year and a groundbreaking color version that likely won't appear until 2011.

The device, which will connect to Sprint's data network, is the thinnest e-book reader yet unveiled, at just over a quarter-inch thick, and also has the largest screen, at 11.5 inches; the biggest Kindle model, the DX, by comparison, has a 10.1-inch screen. Skiff also claims the device has a display that uses a thin, flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil that's more durable than "the glass foundation on most electronic screens."

Skiff also promises that its platform will also be available this year on other devices, including smart phones.

While the Skiff Store will offer books from a vendor as yet unannounced, a key emphasis for the device is periodical subscriptions. Two interesting aspects of those subs emerged at today's media preview:

Skiff Reader
Photo: Skiff

Subsidized Skiffs. Skiff spokespeople said they expect to offer the device at subsidies in exchange for contractual commitment to a newspaper or other periodical subscriptions. That might take the sting out of a price that's likely to be sobering. While no pricing has not been announced, the Kindle DX costs $489, for example, and two other 10-plus-inch models announced here, the Plastic Logic Que and Samsung E101, are priced at $649 and $699, respectively.

Dynamic updating of newspapers. A Skiff spokesman promised that newspapers will be dynamically updated on the device, "perhaps several times a day." That's significant, in that a key deterrent to paying for papers from existing e-book readers like Nook and Kindle is that you receive only the morning print edition, which soon falls behind updated content on the paper's online site that's available for free on your computer or smart phone.

The brief demo of the color version of the Skiff—the first glimpse most of us have had of a color e-book screen—was promising, if not dazzling. Using a color e-book version of an issue of Esquire magazine, it revealed full-color pages, and included some interactivity, such as a spinning hexagonal content selector that allowed you to choose a story by clicking its first page as it spun by. The data demands of both color and such interactivity all but guarantee that this second-generation Skiff will connect only to Sprint's higher-speed 4G WiMax network; the first-generation device will access only the carrier's 3G network.

Reporters weren't able to use the Skiff at the preview, or even glimpse it for more than a few minutes after the event. I hope to schedule a hands-on look at the device over the coming days.

—Paul Reynolds