The Palm Pre was hailed as the device that would save Palm, and potentially its carrier partner Sprint, from financial ruins as both companies have been struggling to stay relevant in the mobile space. However, as Palm and Sprint delay the release of the Palm Pre, a device that runs the forthcoming Palm mobile operating system called webOS, the device’s relevance is being questioned as other hardware and software makers catch up to the Pre’s feature. Palm’s major claim to fame is the ease of collecting information through its Synergy engine on webOS, offering users the ability to connect to MySpace and Facebook to pull up contacts, have weather information on their appointment screen, and pull web information when needed. Well, HTC has caught up, in some big ways, and it is (to quote on the financial jargons in this economy), “backed by the strength and security” of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system.

So what exactly is Synergy? Palm touted the engine as something that can pull information from Facebook into your contacts, but not quite integrate it into your contacts should you not want to change your contact’s information. For instance, if one of your contacts has his birthday listed on Facebook, but you don’t have his birthday information on your contacts application. The Palm Pre will display first your contact information as you have entered using Outlook or on the Pre, and then list additional information as pulled from Facebook–in this case, the birthday information.

With the release of the Diamond2, which we have freshly reviewed, HTC has skinned Windows Mobile more to hide some of the complicated settings of Windows Mobile, making it easier to use, in an even more refined version of its TouchFLO 3D user interface. HTC’s TouchFLO3D on the Diamond2 allows users to see weather on their appointments and connect to (at least) Facebook to pull additional contact information if needed. TouchFLO 3D also has “push pages” for the internet where the device will go in at select time intervals and pull the latest version of the website so you’ll always have the most up to date web data on the go, which is useful if you follow the news and don’t want to rely on an RSS reader. You can try that if you have a Diamond2 and set a push page as pocketnow.com.

You can read more about the new HTC TouchFLO 3D enhancements that make it more competitive against the Synergy engine on webOS on page 2 of our review. Additionally, you can also view our software tour video.

All the new HTC features essentially negate some of the main selling points for the Pre.