After reports earlier this year of very disappointing webOS results on Verizon, the CDMA giant has been surprisingly supportive of Palm and their two webOS devices, bundling in the wi-fi hotspot functionality for free and offering the devices in-store at drastically reduced prices sans mail-in rebates. Now it looks like the writing is finally on the wall for the Verizon version of the Pre Plus, if the latest Engadget report is correct.

According to some screenshots and internal documentation received by Engadget, Verizon is set to EOL a number of 3G modems and smartphones, the Pre Plus among them. Somewhat surprisingly, the Pixi Plus is not set for "phase out" status like its more powerful Pre Plus sibling. Whether this is a move designed to merely clear Pre Plus stocks altogether or making way for a "Pre 2" successor device as rumored is as of yet unknown.

Several recent Verizon Wireless corporate store visits revealed the Pre Plus to be in stock but the Pixi Plus was on display and tagged as a 'special order' item.

During todays Hewlett-Packard FYQ32010 Earnings call, HP Exec Todd Bradley outright confirmed that a webOS Tablet product is in the works for sometime in early 2011. When asked during the Q&A session if HP would be participating in the Tablet category, he replied:

Well, as we look at tablet sales and slate sales that was a big part of the reason we acquired Palm. You'll see us with a Microsoft product out in the near future, and a webOS-based product in early 2011.

While the post-HP Palm world has been completely devoid of both new products and new rumors, there have been a few rumblings about forthcoming WebOS products for the fall holiday season.

PhoneArena has a huge scoop on Verizon's full roadmap for the remainder of the year. They claim that their source is "trusty" but of course nothing can be completely confirmed at this point. According to the report, a so-called Palm Pre 2 is reportedly in the works for October, but no other details such as which version of OS will be onboard are available. This report could tie in nicely with last week's report on the so-called RoadRunner device reportedly packing WebOS 2.0. Of course, reports and sightings of Palm's mythical C40 have been circulating for a year now, so until some blurrycam photos emerge of actual new hardware, all rumors should be taken with a sizable grain of salt.

Rumor: As has been gossiped since HP hit the Palm scene, new reports this week are adding even more credence to the webOS tablet drumbeat. Engadget is reporting that during an all-hands internal employee meeting this past Monday, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley (and former Palm CEO) confirmed and disclosed a few small details about such a project.

Mr. Bradley reportedly remarked that the mythical webOS tablet is indeed in the works and is known internally under the code name "Hurricane" as has oft been whispered and even strongly hinted at via the PalmPad trademark filling. Furthermore, Engadget also claims in their article that the device is on track for a Q1 2011 release target.

Palm has released a new system update for Sprint Palm Pre and Pixi users. The update notches the current webOS version number up to 1.4.5 and mostly includes a few minor bug fixes. The update is available now via the on device software update.

Palm details the short list of feature changes on its support site. Changes include the addition of PDK (advanced gaming) support on the Pixi and some minor changes overall, some security fixes and a couple of web browser tweaks.

After months of stories about the exodus of Palm's executive personnel leaving before, after and during the run up to the HP buyout comes the mass exodus at Palm continues. TechCrunch is the latest to report on the latest series of passages, stating that primary Pre designer and 11 year vet Peter Skillman (VP of Design) has left the company.

Skillman coincidentally joins two other fleeing VP's from Ruby's hand picked team reported this week, Katie Mitic (VP of Marketing) and Jeff Zwerner (VP of Brand Design). The latest departures leave a lot of empty seats in the Palm VP bench, with only former CEO Jon Rubinstein and CTO Mitch Allen remaining. So many have left in such a short time that Palm has even removed its longstanding management bio page.

HP today announced that Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd has decided with the Board of Directors to resign his positions effective immediately. The Board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak, 51, as CEO on an interim basis.

Hurd's decision was made following an investigation by outside legal counsel and the General Counsel's Office, overseen by the Board, of the facts and circumstances surrounding a claim of sexual harassment against Hurd and HP by a former contractor to HP. The investigation determined there was no violation of HP's sexual harassment policy, but did find violations of HP's Standards of Business Conduct.

Just a few short weeks after the surprising release of a Graffiti app for Android, Access Co., Ltd. has already released two updates. Checking my Android Market this past Friday revealed a new v2.0 update for Graffiti. Today has already brought another update to version 2.0.1. The app remains a free download for users of all versions of Android.

Straight from the Market description, version 2.0 adds the ability to toggle between Japanese and English character input sets. In addition, several welcome features have been added to the standard English library such as word suggestion, auto-capitalization at sentence start, word learning and error correction. Access has also added a direct link to their own YouTube tutorial videos for those struggling with their Graffiti skills to the app.

A post on the Aceeca message board responded to a member's request for additional information on the memory available for use by the user on the new Garnet-powered PDA32 handheld. Aceeca employee HDey states that the PDA32 currently ships in a 64MB RAM configuration, with ~38MB available app storage, with the remainder reserved for system and application usage.

For those disappointed to read about this relatively sparse amount of memory, HDey does indicate that a future version of the PDA32 could ship with 128MB memory, a figure previously only enjoyed by the Tapwave Zodiac 2, Palm TX and Sprint Centro refresh.

HP's Radul Sood, CTO of HP's "advanced computing group", but likely better known to PC gaming aficionados as the founder of boutique PC builder Voodoo, sat down with Palm's Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer on their Palm Developer Podcast to discuss all things gaming, WebOS, and HP.

Rahul has some very high praise indeed for WebOS and HP's vision for a fabulous gaming future for WebOS. A promo HP video from 2006 is available on his personal blog as well as some additional WebOS thoughts to suggest that a WebOS-like immersive gaming initiative was on HP's mind years ago.

Palm's developer site has announced the list of apps for the various cash prizes for their WebOS Hot Apps competition. The winners of the $100,000 grand prize are YouView Visual Voicemail Client for the paid apps category, and Pandora Radio for the free apps category.

The full list of winners in the $10,000 and $1,000 categories can be found on Palm's Hot Apps page.