iPhone beware: Palm Pre has entered the stadium

O. M. G. ? Has an actual iPhone killer finally (FINALLY) been introduced? And from Palm, no less. PALM?? (It's about time. The company has sorely lacked a real smartphone contender since the debut of the ancient Treo.)

Indeed, the rumors are true. Everyone was gabbing about Palm possibly introducing a new hifalutin? gizmo, which they did this morning at a press conference at CES. Okay, without further ado, I?d like to present the new Palm Pre.

photo via CrunchGear

Already, media types are thinking this may be the ?it? gadget of CES.

Here's the dirt:
The Pre has a gorgeous 3.1-inch touchscreen (320x480), slider QWERTY keyboard (yay!), a new OS (called Web OS), 8 GB of storage, accelerometer, 802.11b/g Wifi, 3 MP camera WITH FLASH, EVDO-REV A (which is?you guessed it?bound for Sprint), and GPS. Finger flickers will love the ?gesture area? below the touchscreen, which handles navigation and app control.

The new smartphone also has a revolutionary way of organizing contacts: peeps in Outlook, Google, and Facebook all get merged into one list. SMS messages and IMs are also combined, so various chat methods are seamless. It also melds calendars from Google Calendar and Outlook, so you don't have to jump back and forth.

According to Ed Colligan, president and chief executive of Palm, ?The default thinking of this platform isn't to hook up to a desktop PC, it is to connect to the cloud? (i.e. storing stuff on the Internet). The device emphasizes Web features, allowing users to multi-task with online functions. So IMs, texts, and alarms show up at the bottom of the browser while you're cruising.

For me, the cherry on top is the way the Pre charges itself. It uses a wireless charger called TouchStone. You set it on top and forget it. No cord.

But is it enough to revive the dusty old Palm brand? Or is it too far gone for even this winning device to resuscitate, especially in light of today's iPhones and BlackBerries? Can David, even if he's old and kinda decrepit, still beat Goliath?

Stay tuned.


EDITED TO INCLUDE LINKS TO PICS:
Not feeling what all the fuss is about? Check out the sweet images from the conference over here, courtesy of CrunchGear.)