Nifty Little Touchstone

At CES, the new Palm Pre and its OS, WebOS, was the talk of the town, it was like watching a celebrity on the red carpet. The Palm Pre was on the spotlight as soon as it was revealed, but it’s nifty charger did not stay behind, it also had a spotlight of it’s own. Can you believe we’re already discussing Palm Pre accessories?

When I first saw the Touchstone, it reminded me of a lip balm case I would use. The charger is black and circular and it looks as if you can just twist it open and find lip balm.  Of course the charger is actually bigger than a lip balm case, it’s more like the size of a hockey puck (palm associates actually referring to it as the Pre puck). Even though there isn’t much cosmetics on this charger, it is more innovative than it looks.

The Touchstone, wirelessly charges your Pre using magnetic induction. You simply connect the charger to a power outlet, place it on your desktop or any other surface and it’s non-slip material will make sure it stays in place. You can then place your palm on the touchstone and magnets in it will automatically align the phone to start charging.  When removing the phone, the charger stays put. Your phone remains fully functional  once its on the Touchstone charging. You even have the option to automatically answer an incoming call by just lifting the phone up from the charger. So the Touchstone is pretty much like a cradle or a charging pod, with only a couple of differences. It charges Your Pre in 4 hours. I’m not sure about most but 4 hours is a long time for me.

The Touchstone, is also being sold separately, and to be able to use it you must have a special battery door on your phone, which is also sold separately. Your phone will come with a regular plug in wall charger and you can always just use that one instead. Although, something tells me that if you are going to buy the latest phone in technology you’ll probably want the charger to go with it too.

Source and Image: palm, informationweek