Palm device owners have little to complain about when it comes to webOS; not after enduring Garnet and empty Access promises for so long. Still, that OS which relies so heavily upon web technologies like HTML 5, JavaScript, and CSS can be surprisingly sluggish when compared to other smartphone OSes. Now we have a hint as to why thanks to Palm's Ben Galbraith and Dion Almae who made an interesting admission Tuesday related to the Pre's UI latency compared to the iPhone 3GS -- a phone based on the same ARM architecture. According to the duo, "the path to the GPU didn't exist" in webOS, something that will be solved in the "immediate future" using CSS transforms to modify visual elements thus freeing-up CPU cycles for other tasks. Hmm, immediate future sure sounds like a webOS update to accompany the Palm Pixi release on November 15th.

[Via Everything Pre]

Apple's taking a pretty lackadaisical attitude toward one of the most easily avoided security flaws in recent memory, calling the iPhone's passcode lock bypass a "minor iPhone security issue" and saying that a fix will be rolled out in September. Thanks, Apple; we suppose it'd be a little too much trouble to ask for a fix sooner, even though you already fixed it once in 1.1.4. For what it's worth, a company spokeswoman is quick to point out that the flaw can easily be hidden by changing the home button double-click functionality to take you to the home screen, but most users don't know that, now do they? Way to show some hustle, guys -- cookies and gold stars all around.

Unhappy G900 users will be enthused to hear Toshiba has their back and has patched the early G900 issue. As we reported a week ago, the handset wasn't waking once put in standby -- which is a huge pain, resetting a handset a dozen times a day is no fun. Sorted with a simple patch issued yesterday, users simply have to hit the Toshiba support site, download the fix, and after patching can really start putting this thing through it paces. Keep in mind, if you hard reset your device in the coming weeks and months, you will need to reapply to keep your drowsy G900 from flaking out again.

[Thanks, Paul]

Apparently, HTC's P3300 Artemis microSD-handling capabilities fall well short of its ability to look good (yeah, it's hot -- this one definitely left a lasting impression on us when we saw it at last year's Fall CTIA). Users have been reporting a variety of issues with the P3300's slot, ranging from an inability to correctly read directory structures on expansion cards all the way to data corruption. Help's on the way, though, in the form of a freshly-released update straight from HTC itself that should clear those pesky microSD woes right up. If you're into trackballs, navigation, and a Palm V-esque form factor, you probably own one of these things, so go patch 'er up, will ya?

[Via the::unwired]

If you've been a bit paranoid of late after hearing that a blatant security hole was found in the now-deceased Palm OS, help has unofficially arrived. Reportedly discovered by Symantec, the vulnerability entailed a hole that allowed the operating system's Find functionality to be accessed even when the device was set to Locked, allowing ill-willed hackers to sift through text message history, calendar entries, tasks, etc. The hole had been confirmed on the Treo 650, 680, and 700p, but now users of the handsets can rest a bit easier after applying this patch. As expected, the update simply disables the Find feature, which essentially closes off the last remaining security loophole and protects prying eyes from seeing that backlog of steamy Valentine's Day texts. So if you're looking to unofficially patch things up with your Palm, be sure to hit the read link and get that install completed, but we're not the ones to come crying to if something goes awry.

[Via PalmInfoCenter]

"All Treo 680 users should install the Camera Update." That's the official directive booming down from the Palm heavens this week as the first software patch for the stubless, Palm OS-based smartphone has gone live. While there's nothing terribly interesting going on here, the update seems pretty critical nonetheless -- if you value battery life, that is. The shipping software apparently has a tendency to leave the cam enabled even when the device is in standby, leading to a rather staggering power draw. No new features, no interesting changes, just one rather important fix. We can almost hear those overtaxed 680 batteries breathing sighs of relief already.

[Thanks, Matt]