Jon Rubinstein, the former Apple exec, godfather of webOS and ex-CEO of Palm, has left HP, reports AllThingsD. The move isn't too surprising as the writing has been on the wall since he left HP's Palm unit last summer to move to a lesser role at HP's Personal Systems Group.

Despite facing an uphill battle, former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein was very optimistic about WebOS's prospects today at the Dive Into Mobile conference today, stating that they wasn't out of the smartphone os race yet. I want to believe you Jon, I really do...

As a further incentive to developers, Palm has ditched the $50 submission fee and is even going as far as refunding all the developers who've previously paid Palm to have their apps looked at.

Jon, Jon... a merger? A merger? Maybe you should read our analysis on HP buying your company. [WSJ]

Just as Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein tells people they're going to go it alone, and will survive just fine thankyouverymuch, we discover HTC has pulled out of the bidding race. How very convenient. Now, it's up to Lenovo, claims Reuters.

In another world, the Pre would be available on more than Sprint and Verizon, Palm would've made $22 million last quarter, and their ads would've actually made you want one of their phones. Oh, and Google would own Palm. [Fortune]

With new Steve Jobs emails surfacing everyday, someone thought to send Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein a personal note. His chipper response is not necessarily what you'd expect from somebody who's been watching his company fall apart before his eyes.

When Palm issued a release announcing lowered guidance and sales expectations for this year, Jon Rubinstein didn't even try to cushion it, admitting, "driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than [he] anticipated." OK. Now what? UPDATED

"So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss."—Sun Tzu, The Art of War [All Things D]