Palm Announces Pre Plus And Pixi Plus For VerizonPalm Announces Pre Plus And Pixi Plus For Verizon

The biggest news coming from Palm today at CES is that it will be offering two new(ish) devices exclusively from Verizon Wireless. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus bring new features to each device plus a cool mobile hotspot application.Both of these revised devices will be available from Verizon Wireless on January 25. Pricing was not disclosed.

The Pre Plus differs from the original in that it has a redesigned exterior, improved navigation, two times the storage (16GB), and it will now ship with a Touchstone-compatible back cover.

The Pixi Plus now includes Wi-Fi, which was not previously available on the Sprint version.

Both devices will have a new application exclusive to Verizon which turns them into mobile hotspots. Similar to a Novatel MiFi, it uses Verizon's 3G network to connect to the Internet. It will then allow up to five other devices to tether via Wi-Fi for Internet access.

Neither device is amazingly more compelling than the original versions of the devices. The evolutionary hardware updates combined with the evolutionary software updates coming for webOS will make them, hot sellers for Verizon Wireless, no doubt. Palm needs this extra distribution channel, though it would have been nice to see genuinely new hardware.