While it's not as surprising as the sighting of the first all-touchscreen WebOS device, another newsworthy handset was spotted in yesterday's batch of leaked images on Precentral.

Since its announcement at HP's February WebOS event in San Francisco, little has been said about the upcoming Pre 3. It was widely speculated that a version would be appearing for Verizon Wireless, due to its dual CDMA/GSM radio design. A picture was sent to Precentral yesterday confirming that some variant of the Pre 3 is indeed running on the Verizon Wireless 3G CDMA network.

HP's Wireless Central online store has slashed the price of the transitional Verizon Pre 2 to free with the usual 2-year contract. On top of that, they are also offering free FedEx shipping for new users ($9.99 for upgraders) and including a very generous accessory bundle comprised of a Touchstone charging dock, a car charger, another AC adapter (presumably for use with the Touchstone dock), and a Palm side case.

For users who would rather buy the Pre 2 off-contract, its full retail price from Verizon Wireless has dropped slightly, down to $409.99 from its launch price of $439.99. A Pre 2 purchased directly from Verizon Wireless still costs $150 and does not come with the free accessory bundle, making the HP offer an easy choice for anyone who must have a VZW Pre 2 right now.

After a period of relative inactivity in the world of WebOS hardware rumors, Precentral has emerged with a huge scoop of the first WebOS smartphone without a physical keyboard. The typical grainy, low-res blurrycam is unfortunately in full effect, but a handful of details can still be gleaned from the leaked image.

The device resembles any of the other hundreds of slate-style black slabs on the market, albeit with no visible hard or capacitive buttons. There does appear to be a sensor for either a front-facing camera or a light/proximity sensor. If the gesture area has been retained, it has been relegated to a very small strip below the screen. Otherwise, this will presumably be the initial HP smartphone of a new crop of "gesture area-free" Enyo-ified device along the lines of the upcoming TouchPad tablet running WebOS 3.0.

According to the Boy Genius Report, an anonymous tipster has revealed leaked pricing and release dates for HP's new WebOS 3.0-powered TouchPad. The device is reportedly slated to hit the market by the end of June carrying a $699 price tag. While the exact memory, carrier partners, and radio configuration of this particular TouchPad price point is not specified, it's widely assumed that $699 will represent the 32GB + 3G version, undercutting a comparable-equipped 1st-generation iPad by $30 while bringing a dual-core CPU and a front-facing camera to the party.

This pricing structure places HP in a somewhat odd spot occupying the upper-midrange of the currently available tablets. The reported $699 figure for the Touchpad is $100 to 200 above the lowest-cost Wi-Fi iPads that comprises the majority of the platform's sales volume. Conversely, $699 puts the TouchPad only $100 below the higher-spec'd Android Honeycomb-based Xoom from Motorola. With the annual iPad refresh anticipated in April and the Xoom arriving next week, HP's TouchPad may lose much of its early buzz in the transition from an early February announcement to late June retail availability.

If a four-month delay from announcement to retail shelves wasn't enough to hinder the Verizon Pre 2's chances of market success, arriving at retail after the announcement of its much more potent successor should have taken the remaining wind out of the handset's sails. Now Verizon Wireless has seen fit to add a bit of additional insult to injury by announcing their pricing for the Pre 2 will run $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate through their corporate stores and web site with the usual 2 year agreement. This rings in at a good $50 above the price mentioned last week through HP's Wireless Central where pre-orders are still ongoing.

While carrier-direct pricing is usually higher than that offered by resellers and indirect agents, this still is not going to improve the Pre 2's chances at retail, what with the bulk of Verizon's marketing push going to the new CDMA iPhone 4 and a variety of Android-powered handsets that are available at the same $199 pre-rebate, out the door price. The Pre 2 will be available in-store and online starting Thursday, February 17th.

Responding swiftly to the tragic WebOS 2 update news stemming from Jon Rubinstein's informal announcement to Engadget, HP has posted a WebOS 2.0 update checker for existing devices.

Depending on the combination of device and carrier, various users are reporting that they receive a "we are working on alternative plans with _____ and will be sharing details in the coming weeks" message whereas some users are simply told that WebOS 1.4.5 is the latest software version available for their devices with no message about the possible upgrade paths alluded to by Rubinstein in his Engadget interview. Some users are speculating that HP may offer some kind of reduced-cost trade-in for owners of existing Pre, Pixi, and Plus devices, though this would likely vary wildly from carrier to carrier and region to region.

The Pre 2 remains the only shipping WebOS with a guaranteed update to WebOS 2. The just-announced HP Veer and Pre 3 will also receive future OS updates OTA after they arrive later this year.

As anticipated, the drastically-delayed Pre 2 is now available for pre-order from HP on Verizon Wireless. The pre-order page on palm.com is now live. The units will begin shipping on February 17th and will also presumably be available in-store on or around that date as well.

The usual $99 pricing on a 2-year contract is in full effect, with the Pre 2's full retail price coming in a bit lower than most other smartphones at $439.99. No word as of yet on 1-year pricing. Either way, free FedEx shipping is offered when purchased from HP.

HP's just-announced Pre 3 contains a notable list of improvements over its predecessors, as well as a list of notable "firsts" for a "Palm" device. Read on as we examine the nitty-gritty specs of this device and see how it compares to the competition and to its older WebOS stablemates.

CPU
The Pre 3 arrives with a 1.4Ghz "Snapdragon" 8x55 CPU, easily making it not only the fastest WebOS smartphone yet but also the highest-clocked single-core smartphone currently available or officially announced by any manufacturer. This definitely seem to be the most future-proof, cutting-edge aspect of this device, just like the TouchPad's 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU.

While no official reason for the lack of a dual-core processor in the Pre 2 was given, I would hazard a guess that WebOS 2.x, like Android 2.2, currently lacks the necessary optimizations for dual-core architecture. By necessity, HP's new WebOS smartphones are more legacy-oriented offerings than the new TouchPad, running WebOS 2.2 instead of 3.0. Therefore, a faster single-core CPU makes more sense in the short term, leaving the core-core parts to the heavier lifting done by the TouchPad and version 3.0 of WebOS. However, one thing that is certain is that the new HP-backed WebOS devices are going full speed ahead with Qualcomm Snapdragons and leaving the TI OMAP 3600-series processors behind.

Engadget sat down for a talk with Jon Rubinstein today and in the process received confirmation of stunning bit of bad news: all of the older Palm-branded legacy WebOS devices-Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, Pixi Plus-will not be receiving an update to WebOS 2.0 despite numerous earlier promises by HP to the contrary. As recently as last month, a leaked WebOS update schedule hinted that the rollout would start by March.

According to Engadget, Rubinstein stated that Palm "missed a product cycle" due to its financial woes last year and that the older devices lacked the horsepower to run not only WebOS 2.0 but any future variants of the OS. This sounds like more of a business and carrier partner-related decision than one tied to specific hardware limitations. At the very least, one would imagine that the Pre Plus' 512mb of RAM would ensure a WebOS 2.0 experience reasonably comparable to that of the Pre 2.

Nearly four months since the initial "in the coming months" Pre 2 announcement, the long-delayed Verizon Pre 2 will finally hits the market today, February 10th.

This quiet bit of news, straight from the mouth of Jon Rubinstein via yesterdays webOS event, is especially ironic considering that the long-awaited iPhone 4 hits Verizon stores on the exact same day. No word as of yet on pricing but last week's reported $100 on 2-yr contract figure seems to be just about right. It's unclear whether or not the free wi-fi hotspot feature found on the existing Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be maintained with the Pre 2.

HP has posted the entire webOS Think Beyond event video to YouTube. The video from earlier this morning includes HP's introduction of the TouchPad tablet, Veer, and Pre3 with executives Todd Bradley and Jon Rubinstein (among others).

Catch the full one hour and fifty minute embed after the break.