webOS PDK Beta Now Available
Palm, Inc. has announced that a public beta version of the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center. Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016).
The PDK complements the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK), letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app. The PDK enables new functionality, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform. Developers can download the beta PDK and start developing today, but distribution of games built with the beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update.
"Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks," said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. "We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it."
Source: Palm Inc. Press Release.
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RE: Playing to Win
> the platform.
IMHO, any developer worth mentioning, even ones who enjoy developing FREE software, have gone elsewhere.
You simply can't fight against a CEO saying end-consumers aren't buying devices very well.
No consumers, no developers.
RE: Playing to Win
RE: Playing to Win
1. Partner up with 2or 3 companies to license WebOS. Heck, even ONE solid hardware partner ala HTC would be a huge improvement. The question is who is left after the recent slate of Android obsessiveness amongst all the hardware firms?
2. Release a limited run (relatively) of NON-PHONE WebOS devices. Doesn't matter if it's a new formfactor, or a rehash of the TX or simply a Pre with the radio innards removed. Sell these otherwise fully functioning handhelds for $199 on your website in a "developer pack" to Mike Cane/Gary Mayhak types and curious users who don't want to commit to a 2yr contract + data plan. Also, give these suckers out like candy at MWC, CES etc alongside the SDK and some documentation to every past Palm OS developer and current iPhone developer worth their salt. If there's any hope whatsover of rekindling ANY developer interest, it'll be this way.
3. Produce a Droid/Nexus One/HD2/Supersonic style "bet the farm" device. 1Ghz CPU, 4" OLED screen, 32GB storage, microSD slot, superb build quality, possibly WiMax etc as we have discussed here before.
4. Drop either the Pre OR the Pixi. My vote is to kill the Pixi. Get out of the commodity, zero-margin, entry-level handset business (maybe dump the final lot on T-Mobile??). Instead, take the basic Pixi formfactor but revisit the Treo Pro concept. Have a midrange business-oriented device with a comfortably-sized keyboard, screen, and a capacious battery to resurrect the Treo branding.
5. Put that perpetual Garnet license to good use and introduce a "Classic Pack" for WebOS that actually replaces the default WebOS PIM apps with updated versions of the Garnet versions.
6. Push like hell to get AT& T and T-Mobile agreements in place and units shipping ASAP and get the "Plus" units out ASAP overseas and with Sprint. The moment of critical mass (presumably early summer 2010), right before the WebOS market implodes completely, prior to the iPhone 4th gen launch and while Palm still actively has their full line on all four domestic carriers IS THE TIME to sell out for whatever EP are willing to accept!
Anyone have any other suggestions to add to the list?
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid
RE: Playing to Win
yeah - rearrange the deck chairs on the way down.
RE: Playing to Win
No. There's no room in my life for a Third Device.
1 - Apple iPad
2 - Archos 7 Home Tablet (AVI DiVX/XVid video is why)
No room for Palm.
And Palm is in a worse spot than you think. As Apple vs Google progresses and they snap up all the puzzle pieces, webOS devices will be shunted to the side with less capabilities than either iPhone OS or Android OS.
It's Apple and Google.
Not even Microsoft has a damned chance -- unless that Apple vs HTC suit does something *very* unexpected to the Androidscape.
RE: Playing to Win
FWIW, after months of frustration, I am slowly learning to make do with Android on my Droid. PIM is still ultra-shitty, *especially* the calendar, but I've gotten my contacts list tidied up and sorted out reasonably well. Non-Gmail is still hopeless, unfortunately. Google wants to force EVERYONE onto Gmail, whether they like it or not! So they intentionally cripple the regular Mail app to try to force your hand.
P.S. Had Palm hit the market just 6-9 months earlier with WebOS, I honestly feel that Android wouldn't have stood a chance. The time between CES '09 and the Pre launch in June '09 was lone enough. But the time between CES '09 and the VZW launch in Jan 2010 might as well have been a decade as far as far as Palm's fortunes are concerned. In less than one year's time they went from being the darlings of the industry with tons of good buzz to having vultures circling overhead. If Bill G. says that death comes swiftly to a market leader, then how fast does death come to a a market has-been??
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid
RE: Playing to Win
Patent portfolio. The investors should sell the Palm to HTC, so that HTC can use Palm's significant patent portfolio to counter-sue Apple. The ability to force a settled patent truce between Apple and a Google/Android device maker should be worth a lot to somebody. Maybe even Google, indirectly or directly... (didn't some of the Cobalt team end up there?)
RE: Playing to Win
They need to go back to basics regarding device design:
make the screen larger and higher resolution.
put in a much much faster CPU with more RAM.
produce a version of the pre without a keyboard.
hkk - re: Android Gmail App
are you saying Gmail on Android is better than Non-Gmail on Android? does it use a different app for each??? what/how? the Gmail App is good?
RE: Playing to Win
A precedent of a settled-patent dispute is the $600 million from RIMM to NTP. Assuming the "Palm patent portfolio", evidence of the value of which I have NEVER seen, is what could prevent someone from getting sued by someone (like Apple), then it could be worth THAT much minimally - and maybe multiple times more - say three-ish!
$2 billion. (gack! No, I don't really believe that!)
So divide $2,000,000,000 by 240,000,000 and you get $8-ish/share, ignoring debt and cash etc.
RE: Playing to Win
This is a company run by marketing majors. And poor ones, at that.
RE: Playing to Win
Note, however, that sometime in the NOT too-distant past Palm mentioned acquiring a company for "strategic purposes" - I would assume THAT company had one or more patents that are part of this "patent portfolio".
RE: Playing to Win
...any time within the past 20 years, thereabouts. (but IANAL)
Around 10 years ago, Palm & Handspring pretty much owned the small tablet computer & (nascent) smartphone markets, as well as a large portion of the innovative technological basis for making those products successful.
RE: Playing to Win
Remember back when Ruby supposedly canned all of those devices Palm had almost ready to launch? I bet some of those devices could have helped keep the ship afload from '08 into '09. I'd love to see what was canned. A Treo Pro running Garnet? A Garnet-based 320x480 smartphone? A dual-mode CDMA/GSM global Treo? We'll probably never know!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid
RE: Playing to Win
The crap Nokia phone hardly even counts as ONE device.
At some point there might be an iPhone, but that's not a 3rd device in the way I mean -- 3rd OS.
RE: Playing to Win
How about giving developers the ability to DIRECTLY access the calendar, task and contact data. If I understand this correctly its not like what Palm OS or even WinMo apps can do. 3rd party apps cannot just feed off your PIM data.
For example, I checked out a cool looking contacts app the other day...I had to MANUALLY ADD each contact I'd like to display in that app. What the hell is the point?
If that's as good as it gets then I doubt we ever see a respected PIM developer take a run at bring their app to webOS. If I am wrong then somebody set me straight :)
Oh yeah...bring back categories fer cryin' out loud. What WERE you thinking!
Sharp Wizard->Palm IIIx->Casio EM-500->Dell Axim x5->Sprint Mogul->yet another prodigal son trying to find his way home
RE: Playing to Win
Android has two email programs: Gmail and Email for anything not GMail. If you have a gmail account already, you'll love the gmail app, it is essentially the web version in mobile form. The email app is a bit weak, though not terrible IMO.
@HKKlife:
Have you tried the Pure Calendar widget? I know it won't solve most of your issues with the calendar, but it certainly is light years better than the regular calendar widget. It also works with Astrid and GTasks, so you can slap your tasks in with your calendar if you want.
RE: Playing to Win
qfear -
1. yes i'm all about the Gmail. i use Thunderbird with Gmail on PC and Versamail with Gmail on my Centro. Both IMAP. good to hear that Gmail on Android is sweet.
2. i'll have to check out this Pure Calendar.
3. do you use an FTP app with Android? can you recommend a good free one?
4. can any Android stream -
a. Bloomberg?
http://www.bloomberg.com/streams/audio/radio_live_a.asx
mms://a1042.l2489851244.c24898.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1042/24898/v0001/reflector:51244
(yeah i know this stream haunts me from platform to platform)
b. Hot 97?
http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WQHTFMAAC.pls
5. what about Contacts? is there a Pure Contacts? how is the stock Calendar App?
thanks.
RE: Playing to Win
it's too bad that Palm didn't acquire we-com a few years ago for a measly few million when they had the chance. they could have gotten their hands on one of the most valuable patents of all - the we-com e-com virtual wallet with e-knarr prototype. they could have hired the entire we-com crew to develop new innovations and new prototypes and would have taken the market by storm leaving Apple, Google, and Microsoft in the dust. but, alas, it was not to be and history has all dealt us a heavy blow. just think what might have been.
the lesson here is that brain strain leads to brain drain which is a consequence of intellectual genocide. The oppression of innovative people usually starts with a war then for reasons still unknown continues to affect the people battling for peace via innovation.
RE: Playing to Win
Gekko wrote:
it's too bad that Palm didn't acquire we-com a few years ago for a measly few million when they had the chance. they could have gotten their hands on one of the most valuable patents of all - the we-com e-com virtual wallet with e-knarr prototype. they could have hired the entire we-com crew to develop new innovations and new prototypes and would have taken the market by storm leaving Apple, Google, and Microsoft in the dust. but, alas, it was not to be and history has all dealt us a heavy blow. just think what might have been.the lesson here is that brain strain leads to brain drain which is a consequence of intellectual genocide. The oppression of innovative people usually starts with a war then for reasons still unknown continues to affect the people battling for peace via innovation.
Either you've been hacked, or you've been reading too much of E-T's posts. Maybe drinking the we-com moonshine?
RE: Playing to Win
Holy crap!! The syphilis has reached Gekko's brain already! That was faster than when Idi Amin had it.
RE: Playing to Win
E-T
RE: Playing to Win
Gekko wrote:
qfear -1. yes i'm all about the Gmail. i use Thunderbird with Gmail on PC and Versamail with Gmail on my Centro. Both IMAP. good to hear that Gmail on Android is sweet.
2. i'll have to check out this Pure Calendar.
3. do you use an FTP app with Android? can you recommend a good free one?
4. can any Android stream -
a. Bloomberg?
http://www.bloomberg.com/streams/audio/radio_live_a.asx
mms://a1042.l2489851244.c24898.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1042/24898/v0001/reflector:51244
(yeah i know this stream haunts me from platform to platform)
b. Hot 97?
http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WQHTFMAAC.pls
5. what about Contacts? is there a Pure Contacts? how is the stock Calendar App?
thanks.
I don't have an FTP app, but Mashable has a list of apps for developers, including an FTP app: http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/android-apps-web-developer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
I tried both your links but they didn't work. I probably need a certain program, the stock ones couldnt open them. I do download Bloomberg podcasts through Google Listen if that helps....and if you need radio, Pandora and Slacker are free and excellent.
The contacts app is ok. Pretty basic, but does the job. It has timestamped call logs, holds various bits of info, syncs with google and facebook...not bad. While searching in contacts is clumsy, you can download Gesture Search and use that to search for anything on your phone. Much faster.
Shameless self promotion for a moment...you can check out my writeups of Gesture Search and Pure calendar here:
http://www.geardiary.com/2010/03/08/manage-your-agenda-on-android/
http://www.geardiary.com/2010/03/05/gesture-search-for-android-is-amazing/
RE: Playing to Win
This value was created with great minds that share an enthusiasm for innovation and the desire to make our planet a great place to live in peace and harmony as individuals that care.
E-T
RE: Playing to Win
Virtual wallet system
European Patent Application EP0917120
Kind Code:
A2
Abstract not available for EP0917120
Abstract of corresponding document: EP0917119
A system, in which information is the primary asset and in which investments may be made in information, includes multiple data stores for storing different types of a user's information. The safe, secure and properly authorized transfer of information while preserving individual privacy is provided. The system also provides for secure backup and storage, as well as for ubiquitous and nomadic access to information while maintaining the privacy of such information. A first data store includes static identification data about a user. A second data store includes moderately dynamic personal data about the user. A third data store includes dynamic demographic information data about the user. An electronic wallet can be used with the system to download selected portions of the data for use by the user. A method of use of the data includes using the data for billing out forms, providing services to the user and allowing merchants to selectively target users for sales while maintaining user anonymity.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0917120.html
RE: Playing to Win
i look forward to working with more like minded innovative minds to build an interactive we-com industry.
E-T
Playing to win
And the new games are...?
Anybody seen them? Haven't seen any screenshots on any tech blogs - not even the ones that have people at GDC
IIIc -> M105 -> Zire 21 -> Tungsten T2 -> Treo 650 -> HTC TyTN II :(
Palm webOS games get Unreal
http://blog.palm.com/palm/2010/03/palm-webos-games-get-unreal-.html
Apparently this is something Android lacks, so advantage -- of sorts -- to Palm.
RE: Palm webOS games get Unreal
This is significant (and tragic) in that is shows how much untapped potential there is in the Pre hardware and WebOS itself. How is it we can play (at least on the Pre) a widescreen 30fps racing/shooter title that looks like it came from a last-gen console yet Palm cannot get WebOS to switch apps or open windows without sluggishness?
Funny how Palm went from totally anti-gaming last year at CES to furiously trying to play catch-up to Apple this year. All of these games are quite pointless IMO without a decent control scheme. I mean, the PSP has been heavily criticized for years for an underwhelming d-pad and a single analog nub. How can a smartphone with zero hard buttons hope to compete? Every game I've played on a touchscreen smartphone where the developer tried to map "buttons" onscreen has failed miserably.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid
RE: Palm webOS games get Unreal
And yet that is primarily what the iPad Touch is being bought for: games.
So perhaps what's needed is *different thinking* about games.
RE: Palm webOS games get Unreal
But the entire point of Epic's Unreal Engine technology is for eye-watering visuals usually reserved for FPS titles or RPG/FPS hybrids. That kind of stuff has NO place on a handheld device of any type (iPhone/iPod Touch, Pre, PSP, DS etc) due to the control scheme. Hell, I don't even like playing FPS titles on console unless I can do keyboard + mouse instead of a regular controller.
So while this might be an astounding display of technical prowess, I fail to see how it's going to translate into any tangible benefit to users' daily interactions with their WebOS devices OR to Palm's bottom line. Apple has already wrapped up the market tight for non-Sony/Nintendo mobile gaming between the iPhone & iPod Touch. At this stage, there's NO room for any serious gaming-related $ for WebOS, Android and probably not even Windows Phone 7. Unless, of course, Nintendo buys Palm for pennies on the dollar and uses WebOS as the framework for their next-gen portable console based entirely around downloadable content.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid
NO Fanboy sites are talking about the GDC Palm presentation
How did it go?
Was it revealing?
Was the room packed with developers?
Anyone know?
RE: NO Fanboy sites are talking about the GDC Palm presentation
well what do your friends in the yahoo chat rooms have to say?
RE: NO Fanboy sites are talking about the GDC Palm presentation
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Playing to Win
Now is of course always to late these days. But, I have been very impressed with their updates. I know the average Pre / Pixi buyer has not the foggiest notion @ any of this. But fanboys like me and devs sure do.
Gives me confidence to invest in the platform.
Pat Horne