Is there hope for Palm in the 2010 smartphone wars?

How Palm wasted the good vibes the Pre's initial announcement gave them. This blog wonders if they'll be bought by RIM (BlackBerry); it doesn't believe in the Microsoft option.

Palm | Permalink

Mobile Cross-Platform Development: Palm Pre

How to port a W3C Widget to the Palm Pre - or How Palm implemented its own stuff for nearly everything.

Palm, W3C Widgets | Permalink

Who Can Save Palm?

An interesting, though possibly too pessimistic, article about Palm's webOS and its difficulties in gaining tractions. The author concludes that Palm's best bet is to be acquired by another player for its webOS.

Another thing that has always amazed me is that Palm, while betting everything on web technologies, did so little to get in touch with web developers, who form the only group that already knows how to use web technologies. With Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith becoming Palm developer relations manager a first step is made towards solving this problem.

Still, Palm has lost precious months.

Palm | Permalink

Introducing the Palm Mojo SDK early access program.

Palm now allows you to apply for a beta version of the webOS SDK, which includs the Mojo library. Maybe interesting; currently I'm wondering if I should sign up. (I wouldn't have the time to create a full app anyway, and I'm wondering what the SDK is worth without access to an actual Palm Pre.)

Anyway, I continue to be mildly impressed by Palm's wholesale gamble on the world of web development.

Libraries, Palm | Permalink

Palm's Secret Weapon for the Pre

Interesting article about the way Palm positions webOS with developers (and it seems they mean more than just web developers). Apparently developers will have to save Palm's bacon. And if the Pre is good enough, who knows?

Palm | Permalink

Overview of webOS

An interesting overview of Palm's new webOS:

Palm webOS is Palm's next generation operating system. [...] webOS integrates the power of a window-based operating system with the simplicity of a browser. Applications are built using standard web technologies and languages, but have access to device-based services and data.

[...]

You can think of webOS applications as native applications, but built from the same standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript that you’d use to develop web applications. Palm has extended the standard web development environment through a JavaScript framework that gives standardized UI widgets, and access to selected device hardware and services.

Sounds like fun, no? And we'll have to teach a large amount of mobile developers to develop web.

Palm | Permalink

Palm pulls the plug on Palm OS, bets the future on Pre's webOS

Palm thinks web developers are the key to success in the mobile space. Some of its stakeholders agree:

"The programming models for your developer, rather than being C or Java, is really just HTML and CSS and JavaScript," [Pandora CTO] Conrad said. "So you can take developers who have been developing Web applications and quickly get them productive in the webOS SDK, leveraging their familiarity with these Web-based standards. [...] We were able to take one of our star Web developers – someone who has never touched the Palm webOS and not done mobile development before – and have that person be immediately productive because it's all based on systems that the person is familiar with from Web development."

Will the mobile web cause front-end engineering to break through to an even larger degree?

Palm | Permalink