One of the most popular JavaScript frameworks on the web these days is jQuery. It's used by some 31% of of the 10,000 most visited websites on the internet and companies like Microsoft and Nokia are looking to integrate the framework into their development tools.  Just this past week, the organization responsible for jQuery launched a mobile initiative that aims to bring a unified user interface to a wide variety of web connected devices, and helping to sponsor that initiative is none other than Palm.  Palm has long been a champion of web technologies (their operating system has a web runtime at its core), and this is big news that bodes well for both developers and consumers alike.

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We already noted HP CTO Phil McKinney's welcome to the webOS community, but as promised McKinney has updated the post with a link to the above discussion with two guys that Palm fans know well, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. 

The three chat about McKinney's place in HP, HP's interest in Palm, and more. Oh, the chuckles about smartphones being a "sideshow:" "Our interest is in the phone business, no if, ands, buts about it."

McKinney also mentions slates and "other form factors," which could be taken as yet another hint at webOS netbooks. We also like the talk about HP's scale and how they intend to put that behind webOS - in particular their strength outside the US. On slates: "We think webOS on a slate could be an amazing kind of experience."

Get this: HP has an event called TechCon and McKinney offered free phones to HP engineers who build webOS apps (many of which our readers have already seen begin to pop up in the Beta feeds). 

Last but not least, here's the brief synopsis of what is going to happen to Palm as a business unit: "Palm will become the seat of innovation for global mobile platforms. Our intent is to leave Palm as is. [...] Don't mangle up Palm kind of philsophy." Palm will be an "autonomous unit" within HP but able to take advantage of the resources at HP. 

Source: Vimeo and HP

The fifth installment of Palm’s ongoing Developer Podcast series hosted by Ben and Dion is now online.  The subject matter this time around is Palm’s Facebook application and the Developer Relations team’s experience in developing a production app utilizing the same tools and methods as you developers out there use when you create an application.  The first several minutes are spent summarizing their time spent at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that went down in March (which dates the video), while the rest of the podcast explores the code and methodology that went into making the Facebook what it is today by delving deep into the code and walking you though how they took advantage of the framework, Facebook API's, and much more.

Catch the video after the break.

Source: Palm's Developer Center Blog

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A few days ago, Palm updated Facebook on their beta feed to version 1.1.6. On the Palm Developer Center Blog, the team posted an interesting article on it. Evidently, there were 2 central issues they discovered during development, that could prove useful for third party developers to learn from.

The first issue was that if service requests don't get assigned to a variable, there's a chance the javascript garbage collector might scoop it off into oblivion. Kevin Decker has written up a very informative article discussing a solution that is not only effective, but also memory efficient.

The second issue has to do with multi-stage applications and reminds developers that some old habits, like referencing the document directly, or using prototype to get a document's element, may cause trouble. The team found a few workable alternatives that will hopefully save other developers some time debugging.

The Developer Relations team assist developers with issues on a daily basis. Their work on the Facebook app has been a testament to that. Makes one wonder what the future of the Facebook app may hold.

File under "Coup:" Today Palm announced the addition of Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer to head their developer relations team. Why is this a big deal? Consider: the Palm webOS' core is HTML, AJAX, and Javascript. WebOS will only be successful if Palm is able to take that core and help developers extend it in surprising ways (don't forget about WebGL, guys). If you were to name a team of guys who can make these technologies not only do more, but help others make these technologies do more, there's a very strong chance you'd come up with Ben and Dion, founders of Ajaxian.com and creators of the very cool Mozilla bespin project.  Sincerely, developers: be excited.

Both took some time to write about their path going forward on their respective blogs. Dion Alamer discusses the hire:

I have long been frustrated with the status quo with certain platforms, and as I thought about what makes me happy as a developer, it is freedom, choice, and information flow. I feel passionately about bringing these values to mobile, and carry my Web DNA with me. When Palm came to Ben and I, we were curious to see how much they understood what it really meant to have a “webOS”. The management team impressed us, and persuaded us that they understand how important the principles of the Web are, as well as the crucial role of developers. By giving us the honor of this responsibility, they signal their intent.

Not clear enough that Palm is positioning webOS as the 'open' standard up against Apple's non-open philosophy? Check out how Ben Galbraith discusses the mobile landscape:

However, my enthusiasm for this amazing new world is tempered by some unfortunate decisions made by some of the players in this space. It seems that some view this revolution as a chance to seize power in downright Orwellian ways by constraining what we as developers can say, dictating what kinds of apps we can create, controlling how we distribute our apps, and placing all kinds of limits on what can do to our computing devices.

Jon Rubinstein wasn't kidding when he said that (and I paraphrase) they're looking to pack Palm to the gills with some of the most talented folks in their respective fields during his interview on the Engadget show. 

Thanks to everybody who sent this in!