Though there are a lot of cool ways to improve photos captured with your cell phone—see the Griffin Clarifi write-up in last month's Objects of Desire—you're not buying a phone to take pictures, you're buying it to help organize your photography business. And for the most part, the latest offerings from Blackberry, Apple and others offer a lot of great tools to keep everything running smoothly. But there's always room for improvement and that's where the new Pre from Palm comes in.

Palm was once king of the smart phone/PDA market but its star has fallen in recent years as its creaky, old mobile operating system has really shown its age. So instead of just building a new phone—would anyone have really cared about a Centro II with a rehashed interface?—Palm smartly decided to rebuild its operating system with successful results. Called webOS, the mobile platform provides the user-friendly architecture behind the new Palm Pre which is a pretty well designed phone in its own right.

One of the best features of the webOS is the ability to run multiple applications at the same time and flip through them like a deck of cards. We also like the unobtrusive alerts which pop up on the screen without interrupting what you're doing. For instance, if you get an email from a client while checking your images on the Web or updating your calendar, the notification will appear at the bottom of the screen where you can either ignore it for later or respond to it right away.

Like the Apple iPhone, webOS has an instinctual multi-touch interface (it's so similar to the iPhone's, Apple is considering a lawsuit); a layered calendar feature so you can view all your work and personal appointments together or separately; and Linked contacts which let you access your Gmail, Facebook, and Outlook address books all at once. Palm's webOS also has the ability to copy-and-paste, a feature which has been noticeably missing from the iPhone.

Though the Palm resembles the iPhone, there are some nice style touches to the Pre including a smooth, rounded design that feels great in your hand. If you're slow at typing with the iPhone's touchscreen, you'll love the Pre's physical QWERTY-style keyboard which slides out at the bottom of the phone and resembles the keyboard on the Palm Centro.

Other pluses to the Palm Pre include a removable battery; integrated GPS; a nice 3.1-inch touch screen; and a cool light sensor which automatically dims the display if you enter a dark area such as a movie theater. We also really like the optional Palm Touchstone charging dock which wirelessly charges the Pre. And yes, the Palm Pre has a built in 3-megapixel camera with an LED flash which might be good for scouting locations and sending shots back to the studio but is not recommended for your next magazine spread.

Cost: To Be Announced Further information: www.palm.com