Ex-Engadget editor Ryan Block put it best when he said that Palm’s much anticipated CES announcement “will either mark the beginning of the company’s second coming — or the beginning of the end.” Thankfully, for those like me who were rooting for Palm, it looks very much like the former.
Today the company unveiled its brand new Palm operating system (dubbed the webOS) running on a new smartphone called the “Palm Pre” that features a 3.1-inch multi-touch screen and slide out portrait keyboard.
My initial impressions via both Engadget’s and Block’s live blogging coverage is that Palm has successfully gone back to its ‘organizer’ roots — simple data management and syncing — and updated it for an ‘always on’ Internet age. A mobile device shouldn’t care what services I use or where my data comes from — contacts, social network, IM, calender, media etc. — and should help me stay on top of all that information and communication without having to change the way I do things in order to suit the device. That appears to be Palm’s main aim here and the early signs are that the company has delivered…
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Major record labels to Apple: You can ditch DRM completely in return for higher prices.
No more hesitation, I’m getting a SlingBox. That’s New Year’s resolution number one, especially now that we know that support for Sling Media’s ‘place shifting’ device will be coming to Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch within the next three months.
Steve Litchfield’s 
Regular readers of this blog will know that 
There was lots of activity in the Digital Lifestyle space in 08 with new devices, services and platforms being launched, and some of our favorites from last year receiving significant updates. One notable trend throughout is the way in which these products and services began to converge. Not in the sense of all-in-one devices, although these do exist, but through hardware, services and content playing nicely, often through open standards, platforms or partnerships, with the Internet acting as a conduit. On that note, here’s my pick of the best ten Digital Lifestyle products of 08. 
It’s not very often that I find myself agreeing with a likely overpaid analyst, especially one who admits that they have no “inside information”, but I think Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research could be onto something. 
It was already pretty much certain that Palm will finally unveil its next-generation mobile operating system, along with a brand new device, at January’s Consumer Electronics Show (the press invite reads: “Come to CES to see all that Palm New-ness you’ve been waiting for”) and now BusinessWeek is stirring the pot.