Palm "bolsters webOS ranks with Eos"

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 1 May 2009 at 14:59

Rumours are growing that Palm is working on a new, lightweight alternative to the unreleased Pre.

Dubbed the Eos, the smartphone is apparently being aimed at a different sector of the market to the Pre.

To that end, it will be a pleasing 10.6mm thin, though it will sacrifice the slide-out keyboard of its 16.9mm thick big brother. Rumours also suggest that Eos owners will go without the multitouch screen of the Pre - possibly in an effort to keep the price down.

Aside from these compromises, the Eos is still expected to offer a 2.6in, 320 x 400 capacitive display, 2 megapixel camera, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

There'll be assisted GPS and 4GB memory built in. Worryingly the leaked specification sheet doesn't give any hint as to whether there'll be additional storage card slots to bolster this capacity.

Still, whatever the hardware shortcomings, the beating heart of the Eos is still the webOS operating system that was the undoubted star of the show at CES this year.

According to Palm, webOS will allow users to run multiple application simultaneously, and offer advanced functions including a meeting planner that will automatically download all sorts of information related to your day's appointments each morning.

There's no confirmed dates on when we'll be seeing webOS-based smartphones, though they're expected by the end of the year.