Chapters 10 and 11 of Palm's official, yet work in progress, webOS programming book are now available. Chapter 10 deals with background applications and notifications, while chapter 11 deals with localization and internationalization aspects.

The book is published by O-Reilly Media and is written by Palm's Vice President and Software CTO Mitch Allen along with Palm's WebOS Development Team. The book is due out on dead tree's on August 15th, according to Amazon's pre-order page.

With Palm being deliberately coy over its actual Pre sales figures, analysts estimates are the only thing we have to go by until the quarterly overall unit numbers hit. The latest guesstimate as to how many Pre's have sold comes from Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder.

Mr. Synder says that his 'channel checks' suggest that Palm has sold above 300,000 units so far and Palm is still trying to catch up with demand. He thinks that Palm sold at least 120k during launch weekend alone. He further goes on to speculate that Palm is producing 15k units a day and will likely reach 1 million sold by years end.

Palm has released another update for the Palm Pre. This latest webOS build comes only 10 days following the previous release. Pre users can manually check for the new version via the built in update app.

The update weighs in at 12 MB. Palm's support document states this release contains several security updates. Forum users at Palm.com are reporting that the update patches the recent homebrew application install method, whereby users were able to side-load unofficial third party apps via an email link.

Seidio has taken the wraps off of their extended batteries designed specifically for the Palm Pre. The Innocell 1350mAh Extended Life Battery provides additional capacity in the same size package. The battery is currently being sold for $44.95 from the PIC store (on order) and Seidio.

Seidio is also currently developing an even larger capacity battery for the Pre. Its extended battery aims to provide 2x the standard capacity and will come with a replacement rubberized back in order to accommodate the larger size.

According to various reports, a copy of Palm's Mojo SDK for webOS has been leaked. The early release SDK was allegedly loosed by someone in the new wave of thousands of accepted developers that Palm is adding to its early access program. It originally appeared on a Sprint server and has now spread to the torrents and beyond.

The version that is currently making the rounds is a Windows based kit, which includes the webOS desktop emulator, sample apps, documentation and other tools for developing applications for the Palm Pre and webOS. PreThinking has posted a screenshot gallery.

Palm shares are up sharply today further extending an after hours rally that began yesterday. Despite losing another $100 million dollars, Wall Street has reacted quite positively to the recent numbers despite the lack of solid information about the Pre's performance.

Palm shares are currently trading at 16.21, up 2.19 for a gain ~16% on the day so far. Tech Trader Daily has a post up that takes a look at all of the different analyst calls and takes following yesterdays earnings call.

Sprint is running a new Palm Pre print ad that is aimed squarely at the iPhone crowd. The company has also posted a copy online to its Facebook account.

The ad shows a Palm Pre snugly resting against an eaten apple. Leaving no doubt as to its target, the ad boldly claims "Your iPhone contact is up. Perfect timing." It goes on to highlight the Pre's multitasking capabilities and the projected $1200 savings one would collect over the course of a 2yr contact by switching to Sprint. You can checkout a full scan after the break.

Palm Inc. today reported their eighth straight quarterly loss as the new CEO Jon Rubinstein led the investor quarterly conference call. Palm posted a net loss of $105 million dollars on total revenue of $86.8 million. Smartphone sell-through came in at 460,000 units, down slightly from last quarter but down a tremendous 50% from the same period last year.

Palm, Inc. today reported that total revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009, ended May 29, 2009, were $86.8 million. Gross profit was $20.1 million and gross margin was 23.1 percent. These results include the effects of subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP. In accordance with this methodology, revenues and cost of revenues for the Palm Pre smartphone are deferred and recognized over the product's estimated economic life.

"The launch of Palm webOS and Palm Pre was a major milestone in Palm's transformation; we have now officially reentered the race," said Jon Rubinstein, Palm's chairman and chief executive officer. "We have more to accomplish, but the groundwork is laid for a very promising future here at Palm. Our senior management team is capable, motivated and focused on execution; there is a large group of developers waiting to build great applications for Palm webOS; and we have a new product pipeline that we think will set a standard for the industry."

18 days after the launch of the Pre, Palm's App Catalog has reached 1 million downloads. The numbers come from mobile analytics firm Medialets, who are estimating the total number of downloads from Palm's own app download counts.

Based on an estimated 150k Pre's sold to date, this works out to about 6 apps downloader per device. With the official developer SDK still under wraps, the total number of available apps in the catalog has grown to 30, up from the 18 at launch.

Sprint has announced, via their twitter account, that they are now taking phone orders for the Palm Pre via their telesales department. Sprint's Palm Pre page now displays a note that says "To order your Palm Pre today, please call 1-866-866-7509"

Unfortunately online ordering is not yet available but at least this new option gives customers on the hunt for a Palm Pre another choice. PreCentral called in to check the wait times for shipping and the rep stated that they are currently working with a "five to seven business days" availability window.