The Palm Pixi has officially arrived, and if you’re an avid reader of Engadget (you’d better be), this device should look a little bit familiar to you. We first broke specs and images of the phone — codenamed Eos and the alternately-spelled “Pixie” — back in April, when we nabbed what appeared to be a leak of a new, Centro-esque phone headed to AT&T. Today, Palm has announced that the Pixi — a tiny, sleek webOS-based handset — will be coming to Sprint this holiday season. The phone will hit shelves sans-WiFi (EV-DO Rev. A only here), with 8GB of storage onboard (a nice bump up from the rumored 4GB), 2 megapixel camera (with flash), a full QWERTY keyboard, and a minute, 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display.

Along with the new handset, Palm will offer five artist-designed back covers in the “Palm Pixi Artist Series” — similar to Zune Originals and Dell’s Design Studio laptops — which can be purchased separately… of course. Touchstone owners take heart: those backs, as well as a separate black backing that you’ll also pay extra for, are all compatible with the accessory. In addition to the hardware, Palm will be introducing a native Facebook app when the Pixi hits, as well as new Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration for Synergy. Right now no date for launch has been set, though Palm says the phone will be ready in time for the holidays. The company is also mum on price, but coupled with the news that Sprint will be slimming the Pre’s entry point down to $149.99, we have to assume it’s going to be in the $99-or-less ballpark. We had a chance to play around with the new phone, so read on after the break for our initial, early impressions.

Gallery: Palm Pixi official shots

We’ve been wondering when Panasonic would do something a little more interesting with a Micro Four Thirds sensor than simply pack it into an SLR-style body, and it looks like the new Lumix DMC-GF1 is the first step along that road. First leaked early last month, the spec sheet aligns pretty closely to the similarly sweet-looking Olympus E-P1, although most of the numbers max out a little lower: 12.1 megapixel Live MOS sensor with ISO 3200 sensitivity, 720p 30fps AVCHD Lite or Motion JPEG video (sorry, no mic input), three-inch LCD, and HDMI out. (In terms of size it’s a wash: the GF1 is less wide, but it’s a tick taller, and they’re both about the same thickness, although the GF1 has a built-in flash.) Ready for the bad news? Panny’s going to be selling this thing in two kits come October, one with a 20mm/f1.7 “pancake” lens and the other with a 14-45mm/f3.5-5.6 zoom, and both are priced at $900 — not including the optional viewfinder attachment. Yeah, that’s a lot of scratch, especially since the E-P1 has slightly better specs and lists for $800. We’ll see what street prices look like after a couple months, but for now we’re, oh, let’s say, “waiting to be convinced.”

Update: Well, what do you know? PhotographyBLOG has a nice gallery of sample shots up to give you a solid idea of what this bad boy’s capable of.

From engadget