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10:54 Five minutes to go. The room is actually pretty modest in size for a CES press conference. There’s big display screen with a Palm logo in the front of the room, and a podium and not much else. 10:57 Almost time. I’m all a-tingle. 10:59 CEO Jon Rubinstein walks on stage. Amazing year for Palm, he says. They won lots of awards, he reports. First, he’s going to review what has happened over last 12 months. WebOs everything we imagined, and more, he says. Since launch of SDK in July over 85,000 downloads. More than 20,000 registration for Aries developer program. 11:02 At Palm he says, they care about keeping people connected, and making sure you never miss a thing. Delivered on those, he says. Activity card UI allows multi-casting. Card flicking. Notifications. All the things they talked about last year. 11:03 He move on to talk about previously announced devices, Pre and Pixi . He says Pixi is perfect for consumers seeking their first smart phone. And he is talking about the Touchstone charging dock, again, a previous product. 11:05 Carriers: Started with Sprint . Pre now in 7 countries worldwide. He shows a video discussing the reception for the phone in Europe. 11:07 Rubinstein is back. Today, announcing new European partner: in France, they will add SFR in the second quarter. SFR is 56% owned by Viendi and 44% by Vodafone . The SFR CEO is here, talking about why they chose Palm. He says the Palm brand awareness is very high in France. Very positive buzz around the products. Very enthusiastic about the products. And he also thinks they share the same philosophy. - the consumer experience. SFR has over 800 retail stores. The company is targeting 50% penetration of smart phones in its customer base. Shipping should begin in Q2. 11:14 SFR guy flies off to France. Rubinstein is back. 11:15 Katie Mitic , SVP for product...

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