I’ve seen a lot of watch-mobile-phones over the last couple of months, but most of them look tacky. Another factor that keeps me from trying one of these “Dick Tracy” watches is the issue of radiation – we’re told that holding a mobile phone to your head for too long everyday may lead to some form of cancer; what happens when you have a cell phone attached to your wrist almost 24×7?

Regardless if you get cancer or not, the new LG Watch Phone, which was featured at CES 2009, looks incredibly cool.  Sleek form factor, clear sounding speakers, capacitive touch are just some of the features that make this watch phone stand out from the rest.

Europeans will be the first to show off LG Watch Phones later this year. LG has not released any official dates for when they will be available to the rest of the world.

Via YouTube

Last year, it was all about the iPhone 3G but 2009 looks to be the year that Palm shows the world that it is not about to curl up and die but win back many lost fans and more with its new amazingly fast Palm Pre.

Check out the videos on the Engadget link below and you’ll see how fast it scrolls/redraws webpages and flicks between apps. Truly blazing.

The thing is, the software (apparently Linux-based) isn’t even finished yet and is still undergoing major testing to iron-out bugs and inefficiencies. Wow. Can’t wait to see the end product.

I also like this type of form factor: curvy compact design with slide-out phone keypad.

Features of the Palm Pre:

• 802.11b / g WiFi
• Integrated GPS
• CPU : OMAP3430
• 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480 x 320 display
• Dedicated gesture area below display
• Slide-out portrait QWERTY keyboard
• Exchange email support in addition to POP and IMAP
• IM, MMS, and SMS messaging
• High-performance browser
• 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and “extended depth of field”
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR with A2DP
• 8GB of internal storage
• USB mass storage mode
• MicroUSB connectivity with USB 2.0
• Proximity sensor for detecting when phone is near face
• Light sensor to automatically dim display
• Ringer mute switch
• Removable rechargeable battery
• 59.57 x 100.53 x 16.95mm closed
• 4.76 ounces

My first real PDAs were Palms (Palm C, Palm M505, Palm Tungsten T), so there is a special link I share with the company. Good to see themselves teasing out the innovation and creativity still left within. Go Palm go!

Watch this space. I’ll post more Palm Pre information as it becomes available.

Via Engadget