Verizon Wireless announced Jan. 25 availability of two modified versions of Palm's WebOS-based smartphones, the Palm Pre Plus and the newly WiFi-enabled Palm Pixi Plus. Meanwhile, Palm announced that its WebOS developer program is now open to all developers, and plans to launch a WebOS plugin development kit, says eWEEK.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless have released Palm's upgraded 1.4 version of the Linux-based WebOS for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones. Ofering much-anticipated video capture and editing functionality plus improved messaging features, WebOS 1.4 arrives shortly after Palm announced lowered investment guidance due to disappointing smartphone sales.

"Jon Rubinstein just made it official during their financial results conference call, folks: Palm is only going to develop webOS devices from now on. Say goodbye to Palm-branded Windows Mobile Devices..."

Palm announced its WebOS Linux platform yesterday, along with a smartphone to run it. To be sold by Sprint in the first half of 2009, the 3G-enabled Palm Pre features a slide-out keyboard, WiFi, GPS, 3-megapixel camera, 3.1-inch touchscreen, and Palm's homegrown "WebOS" Linux phone stack.

From my view in the cheap seats, Palm has come out swinging with its new mobile operating system, webOS.

For me, the story of webOS is, up to this point, a sad tale. But what does Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm and the guy responsible for webOS, think?

To comply with the GPL, Palm has released the source code packages for its Linux-based WebOS used by the new Palm Pre, which has been on sale in the US since the beginning of June.

Palm's Linux-powered Foleo has potential, but only if Palm can stop denying that the device is actually laptop, reckons Sascha Segan of Gearlog. Palm has positioned the Foleo as a "mobile companion" for itinerant workers needing only email, document prep, and PowerPoint capabilities.

Palm, and it's Linux based WebOS, are being acquired by HP in a $1.2 billion deal