Photos: Palm previews the Pre at CES

Palm made a big splash at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, announcing its new mobile operating system, WebOS, and a touch-screen smartphone called the Pre (rhymes with "knee").

Here, Palm Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein holds up the Pre for all to see.

Here's a front view of the Palm Pre, which is the first device to run the new WebOS.

A view of the Palm Pre with its slide-out keyboard.

A view of the back of the Palm Pre.

The Palm Pre charges wirelessly while resting on this device, called the Touchstone.

The Palm Pre has a touch screen.

Like the iPhone, the Palm Pre uses a touch-screen with multitouch capabilities, so you can zoom in and out of a Web page or photo by pinching your fingers.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan said at CES that the design of the company's new Pre was based on nature.

You may know him from such roles as "guy at the coffee shop in that black and white commercial," but Sprint CEO Dan Hesse dropped in on the Palm talk. The Pre will be released exclusively on the Sprint network when it launches this year.

Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein credited Palm CEO Ed Colligan, shown here, with attempting to restore innovation at the wireless company.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made an appearance during the Palm presentation, noting that 20.8 million people are now using Facebook on mobile devices. Facebook likes that, she said, because mobile users are generally far more active than those who don't use the site on their cell phones.

Just some of the partners Palm touted during its introduction of its new WebOS and Pre smartphone.