Palm shows its hand with Pre features

In one of the more anticipated chats at the D: All Things Digital conference, Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein showed off the Palm Pre and talked about several features of the smartphone for the first time.

Rubinstein showed how the device can search Amazon's MP3 store and download songs directly to the device, a feature mentioned at the Pre's unveiling at CES in January. The Pre is scheduled to go on sale 6 June in the US.

He also showed a "media sync" feature that lets users grab non-protected media files directly from iTunes without any special software. In addition, the universal search feature will search Google, Wikipedia and also Twitter.

Palm also demoed an App Catalog that the company says will launch with the product in beta form. About a dozen programs will be there at launch, Palm said.

Rubinstein, when asked whether iTunes maker Apple will be unhappy with the feature. "[Apple have] gotten much more open," he said. "They've gotten rid of the DRM."

Venture capitalist Roger McNamee, whose firm is Palm's biggest shareholder, said he sees the media sync feature as an acknowledgment of iTunes' power.

"I find it hard to believe they are going to get bent out of shape," McNamee said.

Rubinstein did acknowledge that the Pre is going after the Apple iPhone, along with the BlackBerry devices from RIM.

"Clearly the primary competitors are Apple and RIM," Rubinstein said of the Pre.

Before the Pre demo, Rubinstein talked about the steps that got the company where it is.

"We hired a lot of new people into the company," Rubinstein said. "It's a new company today."

Asked what he brought over from Apple, where he had been a hardware guru, Rubinstein said, "I hope I've learned a little bit of taste. I've also learned how important great marketing is."

On the business side, Rubinstein said, the Pre not only has ActiveSync to get Exchange mail as well as the ability to look up addresses from a corporate directory and remotely wipe a lost phone. He also acknowledged that the security and other business features of Windows Mobile aren't there, pitching those concerned with that toward Palm's Windows Mobile-based Palm Pro.

Among the Pre features, Palm showed a media-synching feature that transfers unprotected music directly from iTunes

Original article: Palm shows Pre at D from CNET News.com