Joseph Pecoraro details a multitude of the improvements he’s been making to the WebKit Inspector, with tons of new features for CSS, events, and DOM manipulation.

Android 2.0 Platform Highlights

Google releases Android 2.0 SDK:

Google has released the new developer SDK for Android 2.0 and notes that it now supports HTML5 features like SQL, App Cache, and geolocation—though I’m willing to bet there are even more WebKit enhancements under the hood. Go get the SDK and try it out yourself.

WebSaver:

A WebKit-based Mac OS X screensaver. Use any webpage or JavaScript program as a screensaver. Could be very cool use this in coordination with some of the Chrome Experiments.

“Microsoft has no choice but to make a leap of development faith, by abandoning the IE rendering engine and releasing new WebKit-based desktop and mobile browsers. IE is a dead platform.”

- Joe Wilcox, Microsoft should dig into the WebKit to stop Google from framing IE

Prices and plans design patterns:

Andy Clarke covers the design of a “Prices and Plans” page from concept to code and really demonstrates some great progressive enhancement using CSS3.

A preview of the unreleased and unofficially announced Verizon Droid phone with Google’s Android 2.0.

Google has released a developer preview of Chrome for Mac. It has it’s top tabs, runs on WebKit, and already supports themes. I’ve been running on it since Friday, and I can testify: it is one quick, minimal browser. Also love that it still has the WebKit Web Inspector, a major requirement for any web developer.

“Fast forward a couple years, and it seems Google’s done it.”

- Android thoughts two years later - RussellBeattie.com

RIM is working on a WebKit browser for BlackBerry, and they need help:

MobileCrunch summarizes RIM’s recent acquisition of Torch, and looks at a revealing LinkedIn job post:

Utilizing their expert knowledge in C++ programming, the successful candidate will be working in a fast-paced, dynamic development environment to develop a WebKit-based browser for the BlackBerry Platform.

“The important takeaway for web developers in all of this is that WebKit is winning and that that is a good thing. The dynamics of the marketplace have thus far ensured that we don’t get “stuck” the way we did on the desktop. That is real progress.”

- Alex Russell on PPK’s recent Mobile WebKit study.

Gnome 2.28 was released this week, and one of the more interesting changes was the switch taking place in Epiphany, Gnome’s default web browser. There’s been a change under the hood, with Mozilla Gecko being replaced by Webkit.

WebKit claims another browser

Showcase of Designs Optimized for iPhone:

Smashing Magazine has a great roundup posts of iPhone-optimized websites. Includes some of my favorites, like Nike Lab and Volkswagen.

“All 10 mobile WebKits I’ve identified so far are subtly or wildly different.”

- QuirksBlog: There is no WebKit on Mobile

jQTouch Beta 2:

jqtouch:

The new beta of jQTouch is ready for download with a ton of enhancements and fixes. For those who don’t know, jQTouch is a jQuery plugin which helps create immersive experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch. New in beta 2:

• 8 core page animations (including several 3d options) and the ability to easily add your own. See the animations running like butter in a demo video.
• Support for custom extensions, including 4 built-in sample extensions for geo location, offline support, a “floaty” menu, and automatic title creation.
• A public object now allows you to manipulate jQTouch dynamically with functions like goTo(), goBack(), and submitForm().
• A “fast touch” feature is enabled by default, improving responsiveness up to 500% in some cases.

Check out the new preview on your iPhone and download a copy to play with today!

“Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript”:

Jonathan Stark has posted the manuscript to his forthcoming O’Reilly book, Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, online. I’ve been helping proof the book so far, and I have to say: It’s an incredible resource for anyone interested in WebKit on the iPhone. He clearly describes a variety of new features in CSS3 and HTML5 (including the elusive Cache Manifest), and also explores the use of iPhone web app frameworks, using jQTouch specifically.

“The Page Cache makes it so when you leave a page we “pause” it and when you come back we press “play.””

- Brady Eidson in the first of a two-part series on the WebKit Page Cache.

Introducing Google Chrome Frame: ”an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.”

Thin Text in Safari with Snow Leopard:

Steve Smith shows how to fix the bulky sub-pixel text rendering in Snow Leopard’s Safari, now that the text-shadow trick no longer works.

Google releases Chrome version 3:

The new version brings big speed improvements, HTML5 support, a simplified New Tab page, and stable theme support.