First, a little about the phone: it has a touchscreen, syncs to calenders, email, etc., has a slide out keyboard, plays video and music, and yes, makes phone calls.  Will it replace the iPhone?  Heck no.  Does it look a little like the iPhone (and about a dozen others)?  Yes.  Will anyone other than tech heads or Apple fanboys care about the minor differences (yet another new operating system for mobile devices called webOS) introduced in the Palm Pre?  No.

The reason this makes for a dinner topic, however, is the creator of the Pre, Jon Rubinstein, was hired away from Apple in 2007, where he had plenty of input into the creation of the original iPod.  Now at Palm (the company responsible for that $300 electronic address book called a “PDA” currently sitting in your junk drawer), Rubinstein is trying to recapture a little magic with another new device.  The problem this time is that the “new” device (just like everyone else’s “new devices” of late) is not new – it’s just a retread of an Apple product – possibly better, possibly worse, but not new.  In fact, Rubinstein used his Apple experience on the Pre so that the Pre can sync through iTunes, something Apple may look to contest down the road.

Simply, sales of the Pre (thanks to a lack of supply among other things) will barely dent the iPhone’s market share.  Twelve months from now, the Pre hype will fade, alongside the Samsung Instinct, the HTC Touch (what? exactly.), and a handful of Blackberry phones with one-syllable names.  Whether you have an iPhone in your hand or one of the aforementioned models, you will be content with it, and at least now you’ll have a story to tell when someone brings up “the next iPhone killer.”

(Palm Pre image taken from www.uncrate.com/men/gear/cell-phones/palm-pre/)

Read on:

Bloomberg.com – Palm Pre Supplies Are Scarce in Phone’s Debut Weekend

AllThingsD.com – Palm’s New Pre Takes On iPhone

Palm.com – Pre

Bing is Microsoft’s latest attempt at a search engine to rival Google.  It’s prettier and has a few extra bells and whistles, but at the end of the day, it’s a search engine.  The challenge with new search engines is getting people to change their habits.  Microsoft is hoping some of those bells and whistles (page previews and even video previews with a simple “mouse over,” etc.) will translate to new users.

The most unique thing about Bing is also what makes it worth visiting daily: each day, a new photo is used as the background, and there are several spots on the photo listed relevant factual information.  For trivia fans and Cliff Clavin wannabes, it’s a nice feature.

Read on:

Bing.com

WSJ.com – Microsoft’s ‘Bing’ to Take on Google

WSJ.com – Review of Bing