PalmSource Announces the ACCESS Developer Network

Hopefully Access will sell off the development rights to Garnet and PalmOS iself

Not much reason for them to do that. They can just keep licensing the rights and make more money that way.

May You Live in Interesting Times

>> "ALP is sed to have a palm OS GUI layed over the top of linux so what are you woried about"

Where on Earth has that been said? I don't know where you ever came to that notion, but Access has stated publicly, sever times, that ALP will not retain the PalmOS GUI we all know and love. ALP will be a completely new visual environment that bears little resemblance to PalmOS. ALP isn't going to the OSX of PalmOS. It's going to be a whole new, radically different platform. As I've said many times before, it's wrong to even think of this as the next version of the palm operating system.

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PocketFactory, www.pocketfactory.com
Elitist Snob, www.elitistsnob.com

I don't get why they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. The Palm OS UI is the best thing about the platform - it's whats underneith that needs to change. Instead they are changing everything. So the UI that IMHO is one the main reasons that the Treo is so popular in the smartphone market, is being tossed out? I think that is stupid - not just from a consumer / Palm user point of view - but from a marketing / biz perspective. They should be playing up the Palm OS UI and it's success in the smartphone space. Yes the UI needs to change in terms of flexibility, skinnability (i.e. they need to make it sexier) but the overall flow and use paradign should not change. In otherwords: they need to do what Apple did with OS X. Sadly - they are not.

Neither PalmSource nor ACCESS has ever said anything about ALP having a "completely new visual environment that bears little resemblance to PalmOS."

The available ALP screenshots show a UI which is distinctly and massively unlike anything that Palm OS currently offers.

Really, there's little indication that Access cares about Palm OS continuity at all. Since the buyout, how often have they referred to ALP as a successor to Palm OS, or to Palm OS in a development context? Aside from the half-hearted attempt to throw in the PACE layer that they've talked about, ALP has effectively treated all of PalmSource's old businesses as being dead.

I'd sooner put hopes for a next-gen OS on Palm Inc than expect ALP to save the day.

There was never any intimation that the MAX interface was far enough along in February for us to see what it looked like.

Funny, I always thought that when you were demonstrating a platform, you were expected to be, you know, demonstrating a platform. Why else, pray tell, would they have even been showing off the device, if that weren't at least a rough sketch of what the finished product would look like?

Uh... like, practically every other word that comes out of their mouth.

Perhaps my memory is failing me at the moment, but it seems to me that while they may have thrown aroud a few references particularly with regard to software compatibility and vague generalities, they've failed to say in any clear way that ALP is going to maintain any significant amount of the classic Palm look, feel, interface... in fact, they seem determined to indicate the contrary.

I think the Access strategy regarding app development is to make ALP attractive to as many different factions as possible.

Obviously, the MAX framework looks like a good option for C programmers with good levels of Linux experience.

Ghost is there to help give an instant base of legacy apps as well as to allow the shrinking base of Palm OS developers to expand the audience for their warez without having to jump ship just yet.

Then the work they are doing with Orange (and no doubt other service providers) helps them provide major carriers with a more bespoke offering.

Seems like Access are making the right kinds of noises - will be interested to hear what folks make of the ALP dev kit on Wednesday! (And whether details of any Western licensees are revealed - or else why should Western developers get excited when they have no prospect of devices or a local user base).

KultiVator

I somewhat disagree on the Symbian issue.
I did work on it a couple of years ago and while the learning curve was a bit steeper than usual, it wasn't so difficult to get results. Of course the mandatory use of C++ plays a role. But on the other hand the object model was quite usable and understandable.
Java is much better, but AFAIK personal profile is not available yet on Symbian (I may be wrong though).

One problem I do remember were the occasional crashes that came out of nowhere. Since on device debugging was not available on the default programming environment, it was nearly impossible to track them down.
IMHO, the problem with Symbian has much to do with perception (it's a feature phone). Otherwise the platform is not more problematic than PalmOs.

Regarding Alp, my impression is that at least initially, Alp will be a for "linux developers only" thing. May not be as dumb as it looks, since it clearly frames the required skills, and relies on a well established community.

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Hey Admin: Why do we have to keep two profiles?

Apparently, one major network operator (Orange) has seen enough to be a believer in ALP: http://www.access.co.jp/english/press/060814.html

Once you've got operators on board you don't have to worry about getting ODMs to follow. I'd say Mr. Arakawa has good reason to refer to this as momementum for ALP.

Worthy of note: Orange is in Europe, not Asia, which defies all the predictions.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

SeldomVisitor wrote:
It costs a carrier nothing to say "Linux on a phone? Sure, we'll accept a phone with the Linux OS as long as it meets our usability/reliability criteria.

Sure. But if you read the release you can see it's a lot more than that. Orange and ACCESS have entered a partnership to co-develop an Orange-branded application layer on top of ALP:

"Designed to accelerate time to market for ALP-based mobile phones and devices, the Orange Application Package for ALP is being designed to run on top of ALP. This package, containing applications optimized to deliver the Orange experience, will provide handset and mobile device manufacturers with a turnkey mobile Linux platform. This platform can then be used to easily and quickly develop ALP-based Orange Signature Devices."

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Orange and ACCESS have entered a partnership to co-develop an Orange-branded application layer on top of ALP

Is that supposed to be a good thing? A wireless carrier, which already has too much power, also defining the GUI and app layer? Probably restricting it to run only Orange approved/sold software?

AdamaDBrown wrote:
Is that supposed to be a good thing? A wireless carrier, which already has too much power, also defining the GUI and app layer? Probably restricting it to run only Orange approved/sold software?

I don't think so. Orange was a co-founder with ACCESS of the Linux Phone Standards forum, which was specifically set up to avoid that kind of fragmentation. If they go with ALP they have a vested interest in keeping the platform open and consistent. Orange has also been exemplary among operators in making the promotion of third party application development a priority. They even hold Code Camps here in the US to attract and train American developers for developing on their phones.

LinuxDevices.com reports it more like what I said: Orange wants its branding put on ALP (maybe a customized launcher, for example, a custom ROM app or two, and maybe some extra APIs that give access to certain Orange specific service tasks from 3rd party apps) and ACCESS is going to help with the integration. The goal is to make it easier for the ALP licensees to produce Orange-ready handsets.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7533886035.html

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Greenphone? I've seen prettier gall bladders!

If this is LinuxDevices optimism we should be worried:

"The Greenphone appears to be a working GSM/GPRS mobile phone."

"Anticipated applications include... 'unpredictable' applications."

"With Greenphone, the sky is the limit when it comes to creating and testing new applications on a powerful mobile device platform."

As a developer, the last thing I want hear is tht "the sky is the limit when it comes to testing new applications." Been there. Done that. :-p

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

I'm curious which radio they're using and how much documentation there is for the radio.

The radio? Uh uh uhhh. That's not the kind of curiosity the operators want to hear about, Marty. No Greenphone for you.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

I'd call it a medium sized one. Trolltech is first out of the gate with a development platform, but a lot depends on how much it costs to get and how stable it is. Also, the big deal here is going to e which platform, if either, the name players, like Motorola in the US, align with.

The 10k open source developers will be developing mostly for linux and so they give about the same support to Trolltech as they do to ACCESS

May You Live in Interesting Times

PenguinPowered wrote:
a lot depends on how much it costs to get and how stable it is.

Let's face it: a lot will have less to do with technology that with who has relationships with the carriers and ODMs. That's where ACCESS seems to have the edge.

There's also the question of who has the most bandwidth available for supporting operators and device vendors with integration projects like the one ACCESS and Orange just announced. I don't really know how ACCESS and Trolltech compare on that front, but I'm guessing ACCESS compares fairly favorably since Trolltech is newer to developing complete phone stacks than PalmSource or CMS.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog