Manufacturers brought the industry radical new ways to build PCs in 2008. Here are some of the coolest components we came across in 2008.
From gaming to business, retail to commercial, Wi-Fi to WiMAX, 2008 was the most cutting-edge year ever in the history of mobile computing.
From iPhones to BlackBerrys, 2008 saw the emergence of touch-screen titans, the first LG smartphone to hit the U.S. and the first device based on Google Android. Here are the 10 coolest smartphones that hit the market in 2008.
Palm Treo 850 Details Leaked, Pulled
9:31 AM EDT Mon. Aug. 18, 2008
While it remains to be seen whether the leak was a stunt by Palm to generate interest for the Palm Treo Pro, which isn't supposed to debut until next year, the details circulated the blogosphere well before Palm could take them down.
According to the leaked specs, the Treo Pro 850 features a 2.4-inch 320 x 320 resolution square touch screen, a microSD memory card expansion slot, a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2 megapixel camera. The device also offers Wi-Fi connectivity, a micro-USB jack, a built-in radio and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The Palm Treo 850 Pro will run on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1.
No release date is set for the new Treo.
Palm, which found success with early versions of the Treo but later fell to competition from Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd.'s BlackBerry line and Apple's iPhone, is staging somewhat of a comeback in recent months. Palm's Centro, a device geared toward the first-time smart phone buyer with a price tag of just under $100, has sold 2 million units in less than a year and, more recently, Palm and Sprint Nextel unveiled the Treo 800w, a leaner and meaner version of its signature handset.
When Palm released the Treo Pro 850 it will have tough competition. BlackBerry has already released its latest smart phone, the BlackBerry Bold 9000, in several markets, with a U.S. launch coming later this year. Early reviews of the Bold have been positive. BlackBerry is also fending off rumors that its first ever touch screen device, the BlackBerry Thunder, is not too far away.
Palm will also have to continue battling against Apple iPhone and the new iPhone 3G, which has sold well over one million devices since its launch last month. Another potential rival for Palm are devices slated to come out of the Google Android project and the Open Handset Alliance, Google's open source device initiative. According to recent reports, the first Android-powered device, the HTC Dream, aka the HTC G1, could be available by mid-September.
Along with those tough competitors, Palm must also duke it out with a host of other devices the industry has dubbed iPhone clones, handsets looking to steal some of the iPhone's success and become iPhone killers.
