This year's CES is noticeably more subdued, smaller in scale, but... I don't care, I've just been waiting to hear what Palm was announcing. I've been using the Palm OS for so long, been through so many Treos and Centros that I refused to believe that there wasn't a cool smartphone left in Palm that would outsmart the iPhone. Maybe, just maybe, they've done it.

The Palm Pre. There's a big beautiful touchscreen, and a slider QWERTY keyboard. A brand new OS, the webOS. 3 megapixel camera with flash. There's a "gesture area" which eliminates buttons and lets you touch-scroll through apps and menus. EVDO-REV A (meaning this will be on Sprint, most likely, and on their fastest 3G network), and GPS (probably with Sprint Navigation, which is full turn-by-turn).

The OS keeps your contacts organized in a new way- all your texts, emails, calls, web searches (cyber stalking, anyone?) with someone is consolidated into one conversation.

Very exciting. This is probably THE product of CES 2009. Details still breaking, so updates will be coming with full release information, and pricing and availability.

Photo from Engadget's always top-notch coverage.