I never would have believed it, but it looks like Palm has figured out
how to become relevant again. They announced the Pré today, and it
looks awesome. Ars has a rather interesting
article, and Gizmodo has videos
of it in action. It has a few slowness problems, but if they fix
those, I may be all over this once they release a GSM version.
This would be beyond awesome if I could run OS X on it. Depending on how well Linux runs on it and the state of Linux's touchscreen support (and handwriting recognition), it might be awesome running Linux. No, I wouldn't be caught dead running Windows. ;) We'll see what reviews say. And what my finances say in the future. I still want a nice small, cheap laptop. (Which is why the MacBook Air is right out.)
The Pulse Smartpen is one of the
coolest gadgets I've seen in a long time. One of my coworkers just
acquired one, and now half the office wants one. For $150, the
ability to have my notes and other things that I write in a notepad
to be connected with my computer is beyond worth it. The advantages
of this over a tablet computer are numerous to me: first and
foremost, there's the price. Also, I can use this in direct
sunlight, something no current laptop screen can do (except the
OLPC, but that's too small for adult hands). Oh, and I almost
forgot to mention that they're going to be releasing an SDK so that
users can write their own applications for the pen. Ok, I think I'm
done gushing about it for now, but it's definitely jumped right to
the top of my wishlist.