Some of the notes have been taken out of context, so we wanted to clarify: We started with a talk on the the future of the mobile Web. This talked about the potential of the Web as the platform for devices, and why we were excited to join Palm... We don't comment on our specific SDK plans, and while we are personally excited about the Web gaining GPU acceleration via technologies like WebGL and CSS Transforms, and we would like to see webOS gain these capabilities to allow web developers to better leverage our fantastic hardware, we were answering a question about our personal opinion on what we'd like to see happen to the platform. We don't believe the term "immediate" was even mentioned by us, and we are sorry that people have read too much into this particular topic.

Too bad. But hey, don't despair! webOS 1.3 will be bringing other goodies to the table. We're going to report on them shortly...

In a demonstration at the conference, a Palm engineer created a search application for the Flickr Web photo site. Using a simulation of the WebOS phone interface, he dragged logos, a search field and button, a list widget and other components onto successive screens of the application. To link the new application to Flickr, he used an Ajax request that called a Flickr API.

Palm has been strongly pushing the ease of webOS development as one of its biggest selling points for developers. The release of a GUI tool should help strengthen this claim to fame.

As PreCentral.net notes, there are some other regional factors which may be influencing the aggressive price moves. Chief among them is Bell's switchover and transition from a CDMA based network to a GSM format. In addition, the carrier is also set to offer the iPhone 3G this week with similar pricing deals.

Enter wIRC, the brain love child of WebOS Internals developers Ryan Hope, Brandon VanBelle and Eric Gaudet. Powered by a native C background service and sporting a delectable Mojo front-end, wIRC is already mightily impressive even in its' current 0.0.0.0...... .0.1 alpha iteration. Read on for some sexy screenies and fabulous features!

This means that owners of the slightly-backward webOS 1.1.3-toting GSM Pre - such as your correspondent - can now safely install patches from Preware, knowing they're going to work seamlessly. And everyone will be able to enjoy the benefits of a slightly-less-ridiculous 100MB free space (in the /var partition) limit, rather than the palty 64mb-total Palm saw fit to grant us. Download the stand-alone installer now!

A number of interesting bits and pieces are contained within, but the one that has really set hearts racing is a quote from Dion that acknowledges webOS' current issues with "UI latency" - i.e. the dreaded tapping and dragging lag that afflicts many apps. Quoth the raven:

On ease of use, multitasking has been great; UI latency is still an issue even though the hardware is comparable to [iPhone] 3GS. The problem is the path to the GPU didn't exist, but now with CSS transforms, that will be solved in the immediate future

Many of the responses were as expected, but there were a few interesting tidbits scattered throughout - for instance, the Pixi will have slightly better battery life than the Palm Pre, you won't be able to use the same Palm Profile simulatenously on both Pre and Pixi, and you probably shouldn't talk on it the rain. We've reposted most of the Tweets after the break.

Reports are already out that some developers have already been seeded with webOS v1.3.1. While there is little known about this new version at this time, the latest rumors claim it may be released shortly before the launch of the Palm Pixi on Nov 15th.

Personally, I'm going to be asking when they plan to release the unlocked GSM model in Asia-Pacific. I expect a lovingly detailed reply with all the information I could hope for. Now if you'll excuse me, I must tend to my unicorns.

With such an experienced hand at graphics on board, this hopefully means that Palm is finally going to get started on putting that painfully under-utilized Pre GPU to work. Right?

So far there's no details on which aspect of the USB ID chain that Apple is checking this time, but they must be running out of options. The real question is: once Palm is spoofing every aspect of the iPod's ID, will Apple take the extra step of issuing iPod/iPhone firmware updates to keep Palm locked out? The battle is about to get interesting again - and your correspondent is willing to bet that'll happen when webOS 1.3 is pushed out. Say, November 15?