The iPod Touch is essentially the iPhone without the cellular radios. It has the same WiFi, runs the same operating system, and has many of the same programs. Most important is Safari Mobile.

A major stumbling block to the mobile web is the crappy and disparate browsers. Most don’t do very well with HTML, or, worse, only work with WAP. Programs like Opera Mini and the S60 Browser from Nokia have made great inroads for the mobile web. The release of the iPhone improve user interaction with the web in the mobile space.

Now the iPod touch will bring Safari Mobile to a more ubiquitous space. In a comment on The good, the bad, and the ugly – iPhone edition, I claimed that Safari would never be another Internet Explorer. I stand firm on that, as Safari Mobile is still niche, but it stands to be a much bigger play (and possibly nuisance if these iPhone-only sites perpetuate).

Whatever the case, the mobile web has no become more ubiquitous. I know for certain that I’d pull out my iPod Touch (if I had one) to browse the web with long before I’d reach for my mobile phone. The only drawback is the lack of a cellular radio. If Apple could work out some 3G radio for the iPod Touch to deliver data only and provide it with a very cheap contract, the mobile web landscape would change drastically.

iUI is a JavaScript framework to make coding pages for the iPhone really easy. Joe Hewitt’s (of FireFox, FireBug, and FaceBook fame) small JavaScript library can transform simple lists and links into an experience much like a regular iPhone application.

iUI uses many CSS3 properties with images ripped from the iPhone itself to create the distinctive interface, complete with sliding animations and Ajax page replacement. He points out in a Y!UI Theater video that Safari Mobile lacks many events found on regular browsers due to lack of ways to input those events on a touch screen, as well as having no mechanism to access flicks used to scroll in native applications.

Despite the limitations, knowing such an easy to use solution makes me want to download TestiPhone and write something for iPhone, even though I don’t own an iPhone. I would take Eric Meyer’s concerns into account, however.