It looks like Palm is no better at protecting its secrets than anyone else.  Both Apple and Windows Mobile have become notorious for the amount of leaks their operating systems have faced in the days, weeks, and even months leading up to a new update.  Typically, by the time the new version is officially released, power users have been studying (and yes, reviewing) it for months.  Now, Palm has earned that same treatment, but the strange thing is that the leak came directly from Palm itself.

A few days ago, one lucky reader of Palm Central activated a setting designed to return his Palm Pre to the factory default settings (a hard reset for you Windows mobile fans).  Rather than doing so, however, the Pre upgraded itself to the as-yet unannounced WebOS 1.2.

The leak has since been plugged at its source, but in the short time it was available, it seems there was a lot to like, including:

• Account information in the App Catalog, implying direct purchasing of paid apps will now be available
• Improved web browsing
• Improved search
• Improved cut and paste

It looks like the real purpose of this upgrade is to finalize the app Catalog, which really excites me.  I cannot wait to see that.  I am glad, though, to see that Palm is taking advantage of this opportunity to improve some minor annoyances and make other necessary tweaks.

What really impresses me is the speed with which palm has been pushing updates.  The palm Pre and WebOS were released only three months ago, and this is already (I believe) the fourth update for the operating system.  That truly is a fantastic sign of things to come.  Now, if they could only find a way to do something about the lag many Palm Pre users (including myself) have reported.

Stay tuned, hopefully WebOS 1.2 wil be available to Palm Pre users everywhere in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Pre Central for even more pictures of WebOS 1.2.

[Via Pre Central]