New Palm Pre features show it works with iTunes

Palm has revealed new features for its eagerly anticipated Palm Pre device at the All Things Digital conference.

The Pre, which many believe will rival the iPhone's market dominance, includes a media manager that enables the user to download music from both iPhone's App store, as well as Amazon.

The inclusion of a Twitter universal search function, along side additional search engines such as Google, and also 8 GB of hard drive make the Pre a formidable force, and certainly a challenger to iPhone's share of the market.

Palm chairman Jon Rubinstein said he "wasn't worried" about Apple reacting adversely to such a challenge. Indeed, rumours are circulating that a new iPhone could be released as early as 8 June.

Additionally, Palm have developed their own internet-based store that will distribute software for the Pre device, which runs Palm's new Linux-based operating system, webOS.

According to a statement made at the All Things Digital conference, Palm plans to build on its newly developed OS, stating it was "designed to work across a variety of platforms."

The UK release date is still unclear. Early rumours suggested that Vodafone had snatched the honours. However, more recent speculation suggests that O2 is closing in on the lucrative rights.

Other features include an App catalogue featuring AP News, City Search, Fandango, Pandora, and uLocate, as well as the ability to have several screens or programmes running simultaneously - making it a serious business or personal device.

Pandora founder Tim Westergren said, "we're gonna put a bet on Palm Pre."

He added: "Our engineers are saying that it's easy to knock around on, and it's got a pretty high performance OS. It also has a good audio system. It's something you'd want to listen to music on."