With Spotlight on Apple, Palm Unveils Pixi

Rubinstein will be new CEO as company goes after iPhone

(NEWSER) - Palm shuffled its top leadership today as it continues to zero in on Apple and the iPhone. Jon Rubinstein, who led Apple's iPod division before jumping to Palm in 2007, will take over as CEO and chairman from Ed Colligan, who is resigning after 16 years. "Colligan's departure means Palm is severing one of the last remaining ties to the company's days as a pioneer of the handheld market," writes Erica Ogg on CNET. More»

...a cheaper version may be on the way

(NEWSER) - Ignore the reports you’ve been hearing: There are currently no plans to make a smaller version of the iPhone, insiders tell the New York Times . Apple is working on a new version, likely for release this summer—but it’ll be about the same size as the iPhone 4. As for what Apple is possibly cooking up next? A cheaper version that's capable of understanding voice commands. More»

Critics love the awesome camera, screen, and new features

(NEWSER) - The iPhone 4 hits tomorrow, and tech reviewers everywhere are incredibly impressed. Here's what they're saying:

• The iPhone 4 is “a major leap over its already excellent predecessor,” writes Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal . The new features work very well, and the redesign “manages to make the 3GS appear bulbous by comparison.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times almost doesn’t bother reviewing it. “What’s the point?” he writes. They’ve already sold tons of these. “The public seems perfectly capable of sniffing out a winner without the help of tech critics.” But for the record, yes, the iPhone 4 is "sweet."

RIM dominates in sales, but the iPhone has big advantages

(NEWSER) - The iPhone has become a cultural phenomenon, but RIM sells way more units than Apple does. Why, then, does the BlackBerry have such obvious flaws? Wired lists five improvements RIM needs to make:

1. Browser. The web looks much the same on an iPhone or Palm Pre as it does on a PC. But the BlackBerry presents a bare-bones mobile version of most websites—and is slow, to boot.
2. Touchscreen. The BlackBerry Storm's "clickable" screen was supposed to feel like a real keypad, but it just made typing slower.

(NEWSER) - Until recently, the iPhone ruled the smartphone roost, but a new crop of competitors could threaten Apple’s bottom line, Jon Fortt writes for Fortune. AT&T, the sole iPhone carrier, pays Apple $300 for every new customer. Until now, paying for the privilege made sense, because AT&T monopolized the “high-value data junkies.” But “these new iPhone rivals,” Fortt writes, “are bound to alter the math of the phone wars.” More»