Dialed In

A ton of cell phones and smartphones are released in a year's time. Trust us, we've seen most all of them. However, not all handsets are created equal and some are more popular than others. If you're curious to see which handsets people are clamoring for, well you're in luck. We've compiled a list of the top 10 popular cell phones and smartphones for 2009 and put them into a pretty slideshow for your viewing pleasure.

As you peruse the gallery, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the list is based on the most-viewed products to date by CNET users in 2009, and not just those released this year. As such, you'll find a number of older products on the list since they've obviously been on the site longer than the newer ones. Also, many of the models were highlighted on our Top products list.

All that said, it's pretty interesting to see what's still popular these days. Check it out for yourself and see if your phone made the list.

Top 10 most popular cell phones of 2009 (photos)

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

As most Palm Pre owners (and anyone who bought the Palm Pixi, which went on sale Sunday) found out this weekend, WebOS 1.3.1 is now available for download.

The latest version of Palm's WebOS brings new features, such as the integration of Yahoo contacts, calendar, and instant messaging into Palm Synergy; text message forwarding; custom ring tone support; and support for Google Apps and Yahoo Small Business Domain e-mail accounts. In addition, WebOS 1.3.1 offers several of bug fixes, all of which you can find on Palm's Web site.

However, there seems to be some hidden treasures of WebOS 1.3.1. Precentral.net has listed some of the undocumented features that its users have found as well as changes to general performance. Some of the highlights include:

• Snappier response from the photo app
• Delete all option in the Trash e-mail folder
• International dialing preferences
• Signs that video recording capabilities are in the works

There are a handful more discoveries over at Precentral. But what about you? Have you found any goodies? Let us know or just tell us about your general experience with WebOS 1.3.1 by leaving a comment.

The debut of the Palm Pre got the tech world and gadget enthusiasts excited about Palm once again. Long considered dead in the water, Palm's innovative WebOS operating system buoyed it back into the spotlight, and the Pre was certainly a boon for the company as well as Sprint.

While not a complete savior, the two are hoping to create some more magic with the new Palm Pixi. A smaller, cheaper version of the Pre, the Pixi is aimed at a younger audience or for those making the jump from a feature phone to a smartphone. It goes on sale Sunday, November 15 for $99.99 with a two-year contract, but is it worth the price?

Find out in our full review of the Palm Pixi.

Palm Pixi photos

Palm Pixi

(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)

On Monday, Sprint and Palm announced that the Palm Pixi will be available starting November 15 for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Pixi will be sold online and in Sprint stores as well as Best Buy, Radio Shack and select Wal-Mart stores.

The Pixi is the second Web OS smartphone for Palm as well as Sprint and will be an exclusive to the carrier for an undisclosed amount of time. Unlike the Palm Pre, the Pixi features a candy-bar design and includes new capabilities such as the integration of LinkedIn and Yahoo contacts into Synergy, layered calendars, and a dedicated Facebook app.

Targeted to a bit of a younger audience than the Pre, the Pixi doesn't offer quite the same set of high-end features. You lose Wi-Fi and you get a smaller multitouch screen and a lesser camera (2 megapixels versus 3 megapixels) than the Pre.

Given the feature set and considering that the Palm Pre is available for as low as $79 now, we would have liked to seen the Palm Pixi priced around the $79.99 point. That said, we liked what we saw (name aside) when we got some brief hands-on time with the device back in early September. Of course, we'll work to get you a full review as soon as possible but in the meantime, what do you guys think?

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

There's been some debate as of late about whether Verizon Wireless will offer the Palm Pre in the new year. Though Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams said the company plans to sell the Pre in early 2010, TheStreet.com caused a bit of ruckus when it reported in late September that the carrier decided against selling the Pre. Subsequently, analysts called shenanigans on the TheStreet.com's story, and it looks like Verizon has reconfirmed its commitment to the Palm WebOS smartphone.

Responding to a customer's tweet over the weekend, Verizon said through its official Twitter account that it will carry the Palm Pre starting "early next year." Certainly good news for Pre fans, and things are definitely heating up at Verizon with the upcoming RIM BlackBerry Storm 2, Samsung Omnia 2, and the new Droid phone.

(Source: Boy Genius Report via Engadget Mobile)

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

On Monday, Palm set free its lastest WebOS update for the Palm Pre, bringing quite a number of new features to the smartphone and addresses several security issues.

If you haven't received it already, Palm WebOS 1.2 will arrive as an over-the-air update to your smartphone over the next few days. Notable additions include the integration of LinkedIn contacts, the capability to download songs from the Amazon MP3 Store over a 3G connection in addition to Wi-Fi, and cut and paste for Web pages and e-mails.

Other highlights include being able to search within e-mail folders, download files from the Web browser, and the capability to pause podcasts. We're still awaiting the arrival of prepaid apps, but it looks we're getting closer since you can now store credit card information on your Palm profile so you can purchase apps in the future.

For a full list of included updates with Palm WebOS 1.2, check out Palm's support site. Most notably absent from this update, however, is any mention of a fix to the iTunes synchronization, which was broken by iTunes 9.0. We're still waiting for the WebOS 1.2 to arrive on our Palm Pre, but let us know if the media syncing is still truly disabled and share your experience with the update in the comments below.

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

The Palm Pre got a nice little $50 price cut when Palm introduced its second WebOS device, the Palm Pixi. Sprint now offers the Pre for $149.99 with a two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate, but there's a better deal to be had over at Amazon. You can now get the smartphone for just $99.99 with a two-year contract without any fussy rebates. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

Finally, our friends in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany are getting their moment with the Palm Pre, as Palm and European carrier O2 announced pricing details and availability dates for the GSM version of the WebOS smartphone.

Germany will be the first to get the Pre, with sales starting on October 13, while the U.K. and Ireland will follow on October 16. The various price plans for each country is listed below, and just like Sprint and Bell Mobility in Canada, the Pre will be an exclusive to O2 for an undisclosed amount of time.

The European version of the Pre is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900), tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100) phone, so if unlocked, you could pop in a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM card and be able to make calls, but you'd only get 3G service from AT&T since T-Mobile's 3G network uses the 1700/2100MHz bands. It's not as easy as importing the phone and just popping in a SIM card, though. As Precentral.net points out, the U.K. and Ireland models are SIM-locked to O2, though Precentral readers are saying that the German Pre will be available unlocked.

There have not been any announcements about when the U.S. might see a GSM version of the Pre, though AT&T expressed interest in the device a few months ago. Sprint has the exclusive on the Pre through 2009.

O2 pricing plans for GSM Palm Pre:
U.K.
Ireland
Germany

The Hero is a good move for Sprint.

(Credit: Sprint)

Update: Sprint announced the Palm Pixi the night after this column posted.

Almost a year ago, I wrote about Sprint's lack of identity in the U.S. carrier world. While other major operators had used trendy devices, service, and even marketing slogans to develop distinct personalities, Sprint was wrestling with incompatible networks, a baffling ad campaign featuring CEO Dan Hesse and a relatively mundane product lineup. At the time, I argued that Sprint needed to really distinguish itself from its rivals if it hoped to reverse declining revenue and customer churn.

Twelve months later, Sprint continues to lose money and valuable postpaid customers--not that other carriers are doing that much better--but I believe that Sprint is making a turnaround on the identity front. It dropped that Hesse ad campaign and rolled out a new series of commercials that focus on the Palm Pre and fun factoids about the carrier's network. Admittedly, the surreal Pre ads with the talking head are a little creepy, but you remember them and they do tell you something about the Pre.

Sprint is also making strides on the device front. Last September when AT&T was grabbing headlines with the iPhone 3G and T-Mobile had just announced the world's first Android phone, Sprint was capitalizing on the Samsung Instinct and the HTC Touch Diamond as its flagship products. It's not that they were bad devices, but they didn't have quite the star power of Apple and Google.

Yet, things are changing as Sprint lands devices that move cell phone development forward. In June, Sprint finally got the aforementioned Pre, which offers a number of awesome new features like the Palm WebOS. Sure, we didn't love the Pre completely, but it brought us something new and unique, rather than just repackaging and rehashing every other Sprint handset. Sprint also scooped up the RIM BlackBerry Tour earlier this summer and just last week it announced its first Android device with the HTC Hero. As Taylor Wimberly noted on Android Atlas, the Hero offers a number of improvements over T-Mobile's MyTouch 3G.

So what does all this mean for Sprint? I'd say it's a sign that Sprint is clawing its way back to having a sound identity. The quality of its network and customer service are important for its brand revitalization, but a solid range of phones that includes handsets like the Pre is just as essential. Sprint hasn't completely regained its footing, but these phones are a start.