Hasta La Gadget!

When Palm introduced its new Palm Pre phone earlier this year it also showed off a nifty wireless charger called Touchstone.

Now a company representative has reportedly said that the Touchstone brand represents a new family of accessories for the Pre.

The first Touchstone charger uses magnetic inductive coupling to charge a Palm Pre phone that is placed on top of it. A magnetic cover attached to the back of  the Pre phone helps connect the phone to the dock for charging.

Palm has been extremely tight-lipped on the future of the Touchstone family but here are some ideas on what else could be a part of this new line of products.

• Wireless Car Charger: This one seems like a logical extension of the Touchstone product. A wireless car charger would allow the Pre to be dropped on a Touchstone-like car dock.
• Wireless USB Dock: Already accessory maker Kensington has a wireless USB docking station that allows you to plug upto five USB devices including keyboard, mouse, printer and access them. Palm could offer a similar product under the Touchstone line that extends the functionality of the Pre.
• Touchstone Sound Dock: Take the Palm Pre with its music player and it set it on a sound dock whenever you have the urge to blare out some of your favorite tracks. It could be a nifty way to turn the phone into a music device and along the way take a bit of the sheen off the iPod.

Palm can also take the basic Touchstone model and offer variations of it in terms of colors or sizes to make it convenient to charge in different places inside your home.

Any other ideas for Palm that takes advantage of the wireless charging capability of the Touchstone? Tell us in the comments.

[via Pre Thinking]

See also:
Wireless Chargers Puff Up Their Green Credentials

Photo: Touchstone – Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Dong turns to Tony Horton to help lose his gut.

(Credit: Beachbody.com)

We got the bromance threesome this week as we are joined by fellow CNET Labs member (of the NY variety) and co-host of Digital City podcast, Joseph Kaminski. Joe joins us this week to talk his trials …

Originally posted at Inside CNET Labs Podcast

Apple has posted the top-20 paid and free iPhone apps that netted the most downloads since the App Store’s launch in July.

The list includes games, social networking tools, everyday utilities (e.g. weather and movie listings), novelty apps and musical instruments.

A combination of luck and clever marketing enabled developers to climb to the top. Among the top free apps is Tap Tap Revenge, a rhythm game that has singlehandedly created a new distribution channel for music, enabling artists to promote their tunes and gain exposure.   

Another game, iShoot, sits on the list of top paid apps. The game earned its developer Ethan Nicholas $600,000 in a single month. Recently, Nicholas told Wired.com he has surpassed the $800,000 mark. To boost sales, Nicholas developed a free version of the game — iShoot Lite — and used it to promote the paid version. The strategy worked: In January, users downloaded the free version 2.4 million times, which led 320,000 satisfied iShoot Lite players to pay for iShoot.

All-Time iPhone Apps [iTunes]

See Also:

• iPhone 3.0: Will the Gold Rush Continue?
• iPhone App Store Approaches 1 Billion Downloads
• Coder’s Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still …
• Apple: 100M iPhone Apps Downloaded in Six Weeks
• iPhone Developers Go From Rags to Riches
• Failed iPhone Developer Shares Woes on FMyLife.com

Despite General Motors’ problems, the company has affirmed, reaffirmed and swore on its life that the Volt would hit the highway in 2010 come hell, high water or insolvency. That said, we reckon coming through on that vow is going to get a lot tougher without a few more billion from the United States Energy Department. You see, GM had applied for $10.3 from the entity, and $2.6 billion of that was to be set aside for building the all-electric sedan and two derivatives of it (as well as a third hybrid model, we’re told). Unfortunately for it, all that cheddar is being held up due to its inability to pass a “financial viability test in order to simply survive.” Not surprisingly, GM is assuring the world that the government’s final decision won’t stop the Volt from going on sale this November, but it also said that bankruptcy wouldn’t be needed just a few months ago. Ahem. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

Filed under: Transportation

GM’s request for Energy Department funds on hold, Volt looks really afraid originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Credit: Monster.com)

Is a job listing for an “experienced engineer to lead the gaming platforms team” final proof that Netflix’s Watch Now streaming video service is coming to the PS3 and Wii? That’s the question Crunchgear is asking after it recently got a tip from a reader

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