I’m mightily impressed with the Palm Pre. Folks are saying things like “Palm’s hail mary” and “Palm’s iPhone killer” and they’re definitely heading in the right direction!

Until today, I was thinking that I’d probably move to an HTC Touch Pro/HD later in the year but seeing the ideas that are in place in the Palm Pre is definitely making me keep an open mind to switching to Sprint to get on this phone!

First, the shape: touch screen with arched slider to a portrait keyboard. Looks comfy and I’m already used to the portrait keyboard.

Second, their "webOS” and Synergy system to synchronize calendars, contacts and messaging so that you can see everything in one place. One contact holds the information from Outlook, Gmail, IM services and phones and it keeps it together. Apparently, the messaging is such that you can start a conversation via text and finish via IM or vice versa!

Third, apps run in the background and you can easily switch between them, whether they are multiple apps or multiple webpages.

I’ve been on AT&T for so long that I don’t even know if Sprint coverage is good enough for me. Oh well, neither pricing nor availability have been announced so there’s time for these things to work themselves out!