That said, I’ve seen a few other interesting things:

– INQ Mobile, which makes social networking-centric handsets. They’re owned by Hutchison and have launched already on 3 in the UK and Australia, and are working to get operator deals in the US. This is the direction many handsets will be going: tightly integrated with sociial-networking sites like Facebook and communications channels like MSN and Skype, and making easy access to them a top priority.

– Zhiing: As I sat talking to a couple of guys from this company this morning, after several minutes, I thought I had to be missing something, because “all” they’re doing is sending locations to phones. So if we’re having I meeting, I can Zhiing you, and you’ll get a message that calls up the location in a mapping program and gives you directions (or, if your phone can’t handle that, you can get an SMS with directions). I scratched my head for a minute, then I sort of realized that even though that seems pretty simple, it’s actually quite difficult. For instance, if I want to send an address to my phone, I still have to manually enter that address in a mapping program to see it on a map and get directions. Zhiing automates that, making it much simpler. For instance, they offer a Firefox plugin that recognizes addresses on web pages you visit, and allows you to easily send them to your phone.

But what’s also cool is that Zhiing wants to create a standard for sending location information around for mobiles, both to and from them. One possibility could be, say, a taxi-ordering application that sends a Zhiing to a cab company’s dispatch with your location, which then sends another one down to a cab, where it generates a position on a map and directions on how to get there. Stay tuned for more on Zhiing, I’m sure I’ll write more about them in the future.

– Nanonavi: combines a friend-finder type of service with social networks and some neat mobile mapping features, as well as asset tracking. While friend finders are old hat, I wonder if combining more privacy features with social networks like Facebook make it more compelling.

Spotted on a sign in The Venetian.

I think the Pre is pretty damn cool.

The Pre alone won’t be enough to save Palm, but it and the new webOS platform are a solid foundation upon which the company can build. If the Pre is the beginning of the innovation, not the end of it, Palm will have saved itself. It’s a radical departure from the company’s previous MO, which was not only much-needed, but pretty brave. And the results are pretty great.

I want to revisit a few things I wrote yesterday in my liveblog:

“I have a feeling that the significantly changed OS will alienate a lot of Palm’s most hardcore fans.”

So what? People who think Palm OS is still the best thing on earth (there are still some out there) aren’t representative of the wider market, and if reaching more people means leaving some of those hardcore fanboys behind, that’s a good thing, since these people’s support wasn’t enough to lift Palm out of its last few years of poor results. What Palm has needed to do for some time is to leave the Palm Pilot legacy behind, and catch up to a very different computing, social and mobile environment — and they’ve done that.

I think that’s what Palm has done here. They’ve generally met the bar set by other software platforms, not raised it.

Honestly, if this is where the bar is, it says a lot about the state of the handset business. Also, plenty of other handsets fall well short of this level, so it’s nothing to sniff at. There are still other handsets with superior hardware in some ways (camera, video functionality, expandable memory and so on), but the software here does an excellent job of marrying social networks, email, IM and other info with the contacts list. Other people are doing this, too, like INQ, but a lot of people either aren’t doing it, or are making a real mess of it.

Many of the apps also have a very strong likeness to the iPhone…

Again, so what? While I am weary of people claiming to be the first to offer something, it’s sort of irrelevant. Taking ideas that work from other people and building on them is how the business works (and rightly so). Knowing that Qix on Symbian offered similar on-device search functionality is the sort of thing people like me care about, not your average normob. The device’s functionality, not whether Palm is the first to offer it, is what people will care about.

“Gestures”= The redux of Graffiti, ie somehing that most people won’t bother to learn?

Nope, I think the touch UI on the Pre is more intuitive than the iPhone.

still going on about “Synergy”, now talking about it in email, where it aggregates all your email accounts and contacts. Again, nice, but hardly seems to be the innovation they think it is…

Actually, this is pretty innovative. It’s something that I (and plenty of other people) have been talking about for a while. But it’s something that very few people are putting into practice. Also, it doesn’t look like Palm is trying to force people into siloed services, it works with all of their current internet favorites. One thing that really struck me today was hearing Palm’s VP of design answer a question about syncing by saying the Pre isn’t designed to have to sync to a PC, it just grabs all the relevant info from a users’ social networks, email/Exchange accounts and so on. That’s the sort of talk that may alienate some of the older Treo hardcore, but it’s the sort of thinking that reflects the current internet and mobile environment. The mobile isn’t an adjunct to the PC, it’s the center of its users’ social lives. Palm has also integrated various communications channels together in a very intelligent way

I still have some reservations about the Pre. I still think that Sprint’s brand is pretty damaged in the eyes of many US consumers, so the exclusivity will hamper the device. I’m also curious about just what third-party developers will be able to do in webOS. Like Mike Rowehl, I’m curious to see how creating native apps with web technologies will work, in particular, how those technologies will access device functions. But in all, I think those are relatively minor concerns in the face of what’s a very exciting device.

I’m impressed with the Pre, but tying it to Sprint’s flag will hamper its success, and I have a feeling that the significantly changed OS will alienate a lot of Palm’s most hardcore fans. Will it be enough to rescue Palm? I’m not so certain.

10:57 PST: I’m here at The Venetian waiting for the big Palm event to start, the one in which they’re supposed to announce their latest and greatest platform and device. This latest update to the Palm OS has been a loooooooong time coming. I was trying to remember when it was first mentioned — I’m sure it was several years ago, but honestly, there have been so many false starts and delays and corporate chopping and changing that I really can’t remember. In any case, I’m curious, and so are the scads of other people in the room.

I should disclose at the outset that I’m not expecting much of anything, and honestly, I’m here really to see if anything emerges that confirms my grim outlook for Palm emerges. I will keep you posted as things unfold…

10:59: Palm’s placed SmartWater, “Urban Detox” and “Brain Detox” drinks, and “Renew” Chocolates on tables throughout the room. Dunno if it’s coincidence, but I find it sorta amusing.

11:01: Jon Rubenstein, Palm chairman takes the stage. Lots of hooting and hollering, seems like there’s lots of Palm fans in the house.

11:05: “You need the right platform, one that’s forward-looking, not based on yesterday… I can’t think of any company better to do this than Palm.” Erm. CEO Ed Colligan takes the stage.

11:06: Colligan’s talking about the Palm Pilot and the innovation of it’s launch. Look, it was a good product, in its time, but you get the feeling Palm’s still living in the past. Talking about the Palm Pilot competing with pen and paper, and rolodex.

11:09: Now going on about the greatness of the Treo. Again, let’s move on, Ed… 10 minutes in and all hot air so far. Look, everybody in here gets mobile and the internet and how our lives are online… what have you got?

11:12: Man, this is all fluff so far. Now saying they’ll unveil “Palm webOS” in a few minutes… saying it was made with developers in mind and if you know HTML, CSS and other Web tech, you can program for it.

11:14: Rubenstein back with the Palm pre device. Looks like an iPhone ripoff crossed with one of the little HTC WinMo touchscreens.

11:15: EV-DO only. 3-megapixel camera. Specs not very impressive so far. Rubenstein highlights removable battery and gets lots of cheers.

11:18: 3.5mm headset jack — at least they got that right!

11:19: Slide-down QWERTY keyboard. When closed, it appears to be smaller than the silhouttes of the iPhone and Blackberry Curve. No idea on width yet.

11:21: Wow. Showing the OS and the contacts app. Looks really REALLY like the iPhone.

11:22: They’ve added lots of multitouch features they call “gestures” to navigate through the device. I feel like I’ve seen this before…

11:25: “Gestures”= The redux of Graffiti, ie somehing that most people won’t bother to learn?

11:26: It looks like you might be able to finally multitask. The UX head is showing how you can navigate between open apps and activities. He likens it to a deck of cards you flip through… I think most people will liken it to Apple’s Coverflow. There’s also something that looks a hell of a lot like the Dock on the Mac to call up apps.

11:28: “Synergy” — a contacts app that aggregates contact info from multiple sources, ie work contact info, Facebook, personal info. The calendar app also will aggregate from different sources (Outlook, Gcal, and so on), and let you view only particular calendars. This is definitely nice… but is it that innovative?

11:33: still going on about “Synergy”, now talking about it in email, where it aggregates all your email accounts and contacts. Again, nice, but hardly seems to be the innovation they think it is. Also stressing how the “Cards” feature lets you flip between apps without losing info. Isn’t that the same thing as multi-tasking, that lots of smartphones have offered for a long time?

11:39: Now touting the ability to start typing on the QWERTY keyboard, and the pre will search the device, then the web. Just like Quicksilver or Spotlight on Mac OS, or Qix on S60 4 years ago. Also, you can pinch to zoom in the web browser. Pinch me, once again I feel like I’ve seen this before.

11:48: Demo over. What Palm has done is catch up to the iPhone (very literally), Android, S60 and plenty of other platforms. The pre is a nice device, no doubt, but Palm hasn’t raised the bar, they’ve just reinforced the one that other vendors have set.

11:49: Now introducing “Touchstone”, a wireless induction charging accessory.

11:52: Will be a Sprint exclusive at launch.

11:53: Sprint CEO says he finds it amazing that you can check your calendar and send an email while you’re on a call on the speakerphone. Just for emphasis: the CEO of a major US operator is amazed by a phone that multitasks. The mind boggles.

12:00: Says it’s will be available from Sprint in the first half of the year… by which time I fully expect other manufacturers to have raised the bar.

So, again, where are the Android phones? And how will Google’s plan for mobile domination proceed without them?