I Got a few things to say, So here I go :

1. The announcement of Portrait mode coming in PR1.2 in the OPs links is just pure speculations, he tried leaked PR1.2 Found out he can rotate with the shortcut and decided it's coming in PR1.2.
2. Then, in the middle of the article he says "maybe PR1.3?" - So honestly we don't no anything. It might come, it might not, it might be just a hack for developers that will actually get disabled in PR1.2!
3. @ Kingoddball - There was an official (as official that it gets) post by qule in TMO, the he managed to get one of nokia reps to say PR1.2 is coming in a month period. There are too many risks with Leaked PR1.2 to take, when you know it's only 1 more month to wait. Just wait it out!
4. I don't think portrait mode, if it comes, will render vertsms useless, as it's concept is different from full featured VKB, vertSMS might be more convenient for 1 hand use, or typing will driving.

OFF Topic Alert :
My Girlfriend got an Iphone 3gs 2 days ago, I have some quality time with it and here are my impressions.
Pros :
1. Visuals are silky smooth.
2. Appstore is sick.
3. Everything works in Portrait mode.

Conns :
1. Virtual Keyboard sucks.
2. Selecting and deleting text sucks.
3. Cannot set mp3 to ringtones without all sort of hacks, with didn't even work so far...
4. No Flash.
5. Cannot minimize apps to start / stop music / make phone call. LAME. (without jailbreaking it ofc).
6. Battery survives far less then N900.
7. Cannot take battery out to replace.
8. Cannot copy music out of it like a normal MP3 player.
9. Cannot manually connect and disconnect to 3g network AMG.