As promised, Skype has launched a mobile app for webOS 2. Right now it’s exclusively available in the US for the Palm Pre 2 smartphone from Verizon Wireless.

I got a chance to check out a pre-release version of the app a few months ago. The app will let users make free Skype to Skype calls, but domestic phone calls will be routed through Verizon’s network, which means you’ll have to use your Verizon minutes to make domestic phone calls.

The good news is that you can make international calls at SkypeOut rates, which tend to be much better than the rates offered by Verizon or other US wireless carriers.

You can download Skype for the Palm Pre 2 by visiting skype.com/m.

The Pre 2 is the first phone to ship with webOS 2.x preloaded. But it turns out it’s not the only phone that can run the operating system. Despite earlier suggestions that HP would not be releasing webOS 2.x for older phones, that’s exactly what the company did last night.

HP has posted a Doctor image for webOS 2.1 for European Palm Pre Plus handsets. It looks like there may never be an over-the-air update, but all you have to do to install the software is download it to a computer, connect your phone via a USB cable, and run the system update software.

While the webOS 2.1 image is only officially available for European Pre Plus users at the moment, hackers are already hard at work on getting it to run properly on US devices. According to PreCentral, the process is still a little buggy, but if you’re cool with potentially crippling your phone in the name of science, you can indeed install webOS 2.1.

Or you could just wait until the hackers at webOS Internals have had more time to smooth out the process or until HP releases official updates for US phones.

When HP and Palm introduced webOS 2.0 a few months ago, the companies promised that the software wouldn’t just ship on new phones — it would also be available as an update for all existing webOS phones including the Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, and Pixi Plus. But now the company is doing an about face, saying that webOS 2.0 will not be available for any of those phones.

That means if you want webOS 2.0 you’re going to need to pick up a Palm Pre 2 or the upcoming Pre 3 or Veer phones.

Palm head Jon Rubinstein tells Engadget that the older phones just aren’t powerful enough to run the latest version of the OS. There’s an active webOS homebrew community, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see independent developers hack webOS 2.0 to run on older devices, but it doesn’t sound like HP will officially be supporting webOS 2.0 on anything older than the Pre 2.

The Pre 2, by the way, is available from Verizon starting today, but I can’t see any real reason to buy it when the Pre 3 will hit the streets in a few months, unless you’re desperate for a webOS 2.0 phone right now.

You can checkout my hands-on video with a Pre 2 running webOS 2.0 from a few months ago after the break. The new operating system features search and multitasking improvements, tighter integration with online services, and support for Skype and Adobe Flash.

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It looks like there’s at least one hidden feature in webOS 2.0 which HP and Palm haven’t publicized: An on-screen keyboard. Right now every smartphone that runs webOS has a physical keyboard, making an on-screen keyboard somewhat unnecessary (although that hasn’t stopped some people from hacking together their own for use in landscape mode). But now it looks like webOS 2.0 does indeed have an on-screen keyboard which could be useful for touchscreen-only smartphones. It will also likely be essential for the upcoming line of tablets, printers, and other touch-only webOS devices HP is expected to launch.

The keyboard isn’t enabled out of the box. But a member of the WebOS Internals team figured out how to modify one 0f the configuration files in webOS 2.0 to bring up the keyboard.

You can check out a video of the webOS 2.0 keyboard in action after the break and find more details at PreCentral. Note that while the video says you can only bring up the keyboard by using the physical keyboard, you can actually trigger it by using the “Quick Wave” swipe action (slowly swipe your finger halfway up the screen of your phone).

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HP has decided to remove the Palm OS ROM from webOS 2.0 — which means that while anyone with an older version of webOS can install an app called Classic to run… well, classic PalmOS apps on the Palm Pre or Pixi, there’s officially no way to run Palm OS apps on webOS 2.0.

Motion Apps, the company behind Classic has already made it clear that there won’t be an official Classic app for webOS 2.0. But it turns out that all hope is not lost.

It turns out that if you extract the Palm OS ROM from webOS 1.4.5 and install it on a webOS 2.0 device like the Palm Pre 2, you should be able to get Classic to work.

It seems likely that HP and Palm left out the ROM simply because many users didn’t need it, but it was taking up space — or because the company wants to encourage developers to write new apps for webOS and for users to upgrade to new apps instead of relying on legacy apps for Palm OS.

You can find step by step instructions for installing the Palm OS ROM at PreCentral.

The recently released Palm Pre 2 may be the first phone to get webOS 2.0, but HP has confirmed that it plans to roll out updates to all phones that are currently running webOS 1.x.

That means the original Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi will receive updates soon, although it may be up to wireless carriers to decide when and how to roll out the updates to users.

PreCentral reports that the webOS 2.0 updates should be available “in the coming months.”

The new operating system features enhanced search and multitasking capabilities, tighter integration with your contacts from online services including Facebook and Gmail, and support for new apps including Skype (on Verizon phones) and Adobe Flash Player.

Update: HP and Palm have reversed course on this promise. Now it looks like webOS 2.0 will not officially be available for anything older than a Palm Pre 2 phone.

I don’t normally cover smartphone hardware, but today HP started taking orders fro the Palm Pre 2, which is notable because it’s the first device to run the new webOS 2 software.

The Palm Pre 2 is available for $449.99 from HP.com. That’s the price for an unlocked phone. Wireless carriers will probably start offering the phone soon, with deep discounts for customers that sign up for long term service contracts.

The Pre 2 looks a lot like the original Palm Pre and has the same curved design and slide-out keyboard. It has a slightly faster CPU, but the biggest difference is that it runs the latest operating system from HP/Palm — although webOS 2.0 should roll out to older devices soon.

The new operating system packs a number of updates, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and Skype (for Verizon customers). It has QuickOffice baked in for viewing office documents. And it has improved multitasking, better integration with web services such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, and more.

You can check out a short video I took recently looking at some of the new features in webOS 2.0 after the break.

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Skype is coming to webOS phones soon… but there are two caveats. First, you’ll need webOS 2.0 to use Skype, and second the app will only be available to Verizon Wireless customers, at least in the US. The app is designed to let users make free Skype to Skype calls over WiFi or 3G, and make inexpensive calls to international phone numbers from anywhere. If you try to use Skype to make a domestic phone call, it will automatically be routed over the phone network and your normal minutes will apply.

I got a chance to preview the Skype app for webOS 2.0 recently. Unfortunately the lighting at the event was awful so the pictures didn’t come out quite as well as I would have liked. But you can see some of the basic functions in the images after the break, including the dialer, account settings, and option to select when to use Skype and when to use your carrier to make phone calls.

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