With all the headlines that Palm's Pre handset grabbed, it was easy to forget for a moment that Palm wasn't just building a device, it was building a whole new platform. That platform is, of course, the Linux-based webOS, which gets its "web" moniker by allowing for application development with traditional web tool and technologies. On top is a candy-coated, gesture-driven shell, with a "card" metaphor for flicking through multiple tasks and flinging away unneeded ones with a dramatic upward finger swipe. The platform isn't without its drawbacks, of course, particularly when it comes to high end applications like 3D games, but Palm says it's just getting started.
