Palm unveils smartphone, OS

Palm revealed its new smartphone OS and a new touch-screen smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Dubbed Palm Web OS, the new operating system features support for multi-touch input, as well as applications that can be built using HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

Every application designed for the OS will use the web in some way, and the OS has been designed to help integrate applications into a single browsing experience, the company has revealed.

The new handset, the Palm Pre, features Bluetooth stereo, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and GPS. It's powered by Texas Instrument's latest OMAP 3430 processor and also features 8GB storage, a 3.1 inch display with 320x480 resolution and an accelerometer.  

According to the official Palm Blog, the phone will link communication to a person rather than a technology medium. So if a user goes offline while communicating with a person, the device will automatically switch mediums to SMS.

The new products are almost certainly a last throw of the dice for the struggling company, after years of flops. It has just received a $100 million fundraising injection to keep it afloat.

Palm shares jumped nearly 35% following the announcement to $4.45.

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