Our buddy Derek to the PreCentral has shown from a few screenshots from 3.0 webOS emulator today received today from an anonymous source. It certainly looks like great news for fans of WebOS, and some things there will make Android fans do a double take.
We're not going to sit here and tell people copied other people - there are only so many ways to do the right thing, and it looks like a WebOS 3.0 is to do some of them. There is a nice full-screen browser with a minimalist navigation and control areas at the top, and a virtual keyboard looks good spacing and capitalization does not force on you when you do not want it. The application looks very nice chat. This is a multi-pane interface with a large area for the content of your messages, and we assume that your friends list will fill the left. Google has done the same to the original Talk application in the Honeycomb, and work really.
Regional Settings quickly bring an interesting idea - you can see the influence of Matias Duarte has been on both webOS 3.0 and Honeycomb. They are not exactly the same, but there are many similarities there (check out the comparison after the break). It's not a bad thing, because they both look great. Easy access and functionality combined with sleek looks is something fans of both platforms can appreciate.
The last thing to note, and not surprising given HP's strong relationships with Microsoft, is that WebOS 3.0 uses Bing for their maps application. Like it or hate it, HPalm will make for a strong partner for maps Bing, and Derek speculated that HP can partner with Bing in the search space as well. Anyone who has used both Maps and Google Maps Bing knew it was lose them, and I'm not going to get rid of optimized tablet webOS version 3.0 directly from Google Maps if the market is big enough to justify it.
All in all a similar 3.0 WebOS nice upgrade to the platform, and even I was curious to see how it runs on HP's new touchpad.
webOS quick settings Honeycomb quick settings