PDK Basics

The PDK is a tool Palm has created to allow developers to create applications in C and C++ that have access to the GPU embedded in the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi devices.  In addition to allowing for 3D graphics using OpenGL ES the PDK includes support for the Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL), which provides access to audio, keyboard, mouse, 3D through OpenGL and 2D graphics.  In short, the PDK gives game developers the tools they need to create immersive native 3D applications.

The PDK gets its name from the model that Palm has used to develop webOS.  As many of you may know most existing webOS applications are developed using Web technology.  In fact, applications are run inside a WebKit browser.  For the native applications to interact with webOS they are designed as browser plug-ins, just like Flash is a browser plug-in for your desktop browser (and how it will be for webOS when it’s released!).

Getting Started with the PDK

If you’re a developer interested in getting in on the PDK beta program then head over to Palm’s Developer Center portal and select the PDK link.  There you will find links to download the PDK as well as view an introduction and a FAQ.  The requirements for the PDK are very modest:  A Windows (not 64 bit!) or Mac PC.  For Windows, the PDK includes a project for use with Visual Studio.  On the Mac, the PDK includes an Xcode template.  Neither Visual Studio nor Xcode are required but you should read the Getting Started section for more information.  Note:  Mac owners beware, there is a bug in one of the scripts to launch the sample code.  See this forum post for details getting the sample running.

WebOS Internals Development Kit

For quite some time an open development kit for native development has been available:  WebOS Internal’s Development Kit (WIDK).  Built using the same technology that forms the basis for Palm’s PDK, the WIDK allows for the same style of development.  Rod Whitby, founder of WebOS Internals, tells me that the WIDK is best thought of as a superset of the PDK.

Another difference between the two is the environment:  The PDK currently runs natively in Windows and Mac OS X whereas the WIDK runs natively on Linux or as a virtual machine environment on Windows and Mac (using the same the VirtualBox emulator that powers the Mojo SDK emulator).

Rod further explains that the WIDK will support apps developed targeting X11, Qt and Elementary (Enlightenment widget set), allowing applications from other platforms to be ported easily to webOS.  The PDK is currently tuned towards developers porting games to webOS whereas the WIDK also supports porting and developing other types of applications, including webOS services.

Bottom Line

There can be no doubt that the release of a beta PDK will mean many more games coming to webOS.  We can hope that it will also mean more elaborate apps, such as complex word processing apps (perhaps the long-awaited DataViz Documents To Go?).  Do note that you won’t be seeing any of the new PDK beta apps soon, as this note from Palm explains:

Note that distribution of apps built with the public beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update, to be released during the middle of this year. The current version of webOS supports limited distribution of games built with the private early-access PDK, but the technologies and processes that enable this limited distribution don’t allow for wider distribution.

We can hope that this will mean the next release of webOS (1.5?) will be coming soon.  According to Palm’s site it will be in the ‘first half of the year.’  I think they may have learned about setting dates too firmly!

Update: Removed potentially confusing information about compilers.  Update 2: Added warning about bad Mac script.

When you get into your little car, the front end of the car is the one with wider more rectangular windshield. My first race involved me going the wrong way and straight into the grass. The grass, by the way, is like a golf green. The farther away you go, the darker the color and the more difficult the recovery. So don’t go too far off track. After mumbling and yelps of “No, no, bad car!”, I was able to finish the first track.

Another reason to not go off track, you can’t finish the race! If you go too far off track or the wrong way, the game will show you a dot on the track you have to return to in order to complete the race. But if you still have trouble, fear not! You can change the sensitivity of the tilt steering under Preferences in the menu.

One of the thing I really like about the game are the three race modes. The first race you do is always an initial time trial for the track. After that you can race the ghost of your best time trial for the track. The third option is available after your first race and only if you have online score sharing turned on: Race the ghost of the next best player’s time trial. The score board is pretty fun, too. It shows you the top racers, racers nearest you, and the worst racers.

While I didn’t unlock any of the challenging upper tracks, the challenging progression of tracks and the global scoreboard shouldn’t leave you bored anytime soon.

Gallery

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with , author of a number of programming books.  Recently, Frank’s book Practical Palm Pre webOS Projects was released by Apress.  Read on to learn more about him than you ever wanted to know!

Frank, you’ve written quite a number of books on programming. Can you tell us about your background and how you became interested in programming and, specifically, about writing about programming?

Well, let’s see… I’ve been programming in one form or another for over 25 years now. I started back in 4th grade (don’t remember the exact year and I ain’t doin’ the math!). My school wanted to start up a “computer program.” They picked the top, I think, 5 students, of which I was one at the time (that didn’t continue too much beyond 4th grade!) and asked if we’d be interested in piloting the program. We said sure… I remember the first thing we did, on an old Commodore Pet, was write a program to calculate the area of a triangle… of course, I had NO idea about the math at the time, but being able to make these machines do what I wanted was really cool. I remember finding another kid (named Frank ironically!) in the lab one day and he was writing a program to make a guy do jumping jacks, all character-based graphics. I thought it was the most awesome thing ever! Long story short, a few weeks later every other kid quit the program except me, I was totally hooked I then started doing sort of the typical “old-school” kind of stuff: writing games on old 8-bit machines, starting with the Timex Sinclair 1000, moving up to an Atari 800XL and finally a Commodore 64, which is a much larger topic for another day. I spent a lot of years doing straight Assembly coding, really getting down and dirty.

Flash-forward to some time around 1992 when my “professional” career began. A few consulting gigs, then a regular full-time position that I’m actually still in. I started out doing Windows development, VB, VC++, FoxPro, all that stuff. I even did some mainframe work, COBOL and EasyTrieve, that sort of stuff. Some time around probably 1995 I discovered this “Internets” thingie. I got permission to create the initial Web presence for my company, and they were thrilled even though, as you can imagine, it sucked pretty bad Soon after that I created our first intranet site, which is where I really started to learn a ton of stuff because I pretty much was allowed to do whatever I wanted! All sorts of new technologies and learning tricks and whatnot.

Now, the book… that’s a more recent thing obviously. A few years ago Apress came to me, based on some articles I had written and put out there, and asked if I wanted to write a book on AJAX. Of course I said sure, why not, having no idea what the hell I was getting myself into! Now, I’ve never been a best-selling author or anything, but I guess my books sell well enough that they keep asking me back. I somehow have gotten up to six published and am getting ready to sign a contract for two more. Some day I’ll sleep again, but I have no idea when.

When did you first hear about the Palm Pre and webOS?

I first heard about the Pre early last year, I’m sure around the same time as everyone else. Apress again came to me and asked if I’d be interested in writing a book on it, given my previous experience with both Web development and Windows Mobile development. I had heard whispers about webOS before then, but that’s when I really started looking into it.

So, what were your first thoughts upon getting your hands on webOS?

My first thought, not to be melodramatic about it, is that this could really, seriously be a game-changer. Not to toot my own horn, but I know I’m not the only person that can say this: the idea of what is essentially an operating system built on a browser engine is something I’d thought of before. It’s a pretty natural evolution in my opinion. Palm really delivered on that vision in a big way. It’s kind of a shame that Google gets all the press for ChromeOS when Palm really beat them to the punch. I thought that the development model webOS presents is really something special that could have a huge impact. The idea that developers can take their existing, current skills and almost immediately be productive on a whole new platform is a huge deal. Not to mention the fact that webOS is pretty darned sexy to look at and use too!

I’ll be honest, I’ve always been a fan of Windows Mobile (or PocketPC, as I still like to call it). In fact, two things I miss big-time from my WinMo days is being able to fully work on Office docs on the go and voice memo recording, two things webOS is currently missing. But, it was pretty obvious in short order that even though not having those things is a trade-off, it’s ultimately one in webOS’s favor. So, my first thought was simply “wow, this isn’t just another mobile platform, this could really change things.” Time will tell if that initial reaction was accurate or not, but I’m definitely a believer.

Your book Practical Palm Pre webOS Projects was the second webOS programming book (behind Palm webOS by Palm’s own Mitch Allen). Was it difficult writing about a technology that was evolving so quickly?

Yes it was! I think the bigger problem I had though was simply dealing with inaccuracies in Palm’s documentation or things simply not being documented yet. This is completely understandable given the timing of writing the book, but it definitely made matters… interesting! I don’t doubt there are some errors in my book as a result of this. I wound up diving into the Mojo source code a bit more than I would have liked at times because I felt like I had a responsibility to the reader to at least try and disambiguate things that I felt weren’t clear coming from Palm. It’s possible I got some things wrong though, and that’s something I’m never happy about when I write. But, it’s all a direct result of, as you say, writing about something that is changing rapidly.

I got lucky in that there was only one SDK bump during the writing of the book and it was fairly minor, didn’t lead to many revisions. There’s one or two things that I’m sure I didn’t cover simply because there wasn’t time to revise that much, but the situation wasn’t too bad. I should also point out that Mitch Allen was quite helpful during the writing of my book. I only bugged him maybe twice with questions because I didn’t want to be THAT guy. But he put me in touch with an engineer once or twice to get some questions answered, and he helped solve one sticky problem pretty quickly, so I definitely should thank him for that. So yes, it was difficult… but at the same time it was very fun!

One of the things that I really love about webOS is that it’s so new, people are still figuring it out, finding the boundaries and how to push past them. This is especially true of game development, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. It’s a bit like the “good old days” in that regard: what can and can’t I do, and how do I then make the impossible happen anyway? Being Web technology-based makes the development cycle a lot easier too, in fact I’ve often worked on a piece of code on a desktop browser and then quickly and easily ported it to webOS. Makes life quite a bit easier.

You mentioned that you had to look at the source of Mojo (the framework that webOS applications use). How important do you think it is that the source for that framework is available for developers to look at?

I think especially at this point it’s VERY important. Palm’s documentation has been steadily improving, which is what you’d expect and is great to see, but it’s still lacking in places. Even if the documentation was fantastic I think there would still be value in being able to examine the source. There will always be things that the documentation doesn’t tell you that the source code does. In some ways it’s a larger question… I know recently that there was some debate over at Ajaxian about whether the time of “view source” is over. I’m on the side that says the web became as successful as it is because people can look at each others’ source and learn from it.

The same is true of Mojo. The same also, I think, is true of applications themselves. Of course, as it stands now, it’s extremely easy for a developer to look at the source for others’ applications. Palm seems, based on the cryptofs stuff added in the 1.3.5 update, to be moving to block that. I for one hope they don’t. I can understand developers wanting to protect their IP, and of course stop piracy as much as possible. But, I think the trade-off is maybe a bit too much. If you see a neat trick in an application, being able to understand how it’s done is very valuable if you want a platform to be successful.
It’s a tough question for sure, and I certainly see the other side’s point of view too. But yeah, being able to look at the Mojo source code AT LEAST is very important I’d say.

Who is your book aimed at?

The book is aimed at people who already have a decent knowledge of CSS, HTML and JavaScript and have at least played around with webOS a little bit. You don’t need to be an expert in any of these things, but it’s not really meant for absolute beginners either… In particular, if you’re a beginner at JavaScript you’ll probably have to spend time jumping back and forth between the book and some online references to fill in the gaps. You also have to be the type of developer who learns best by looking at real code and tearing it apart. If you are looking for short, targeted, contrived examples of specific things then this book is definitely not for you. Instead, it will give you the whole picture: how you create an entire application, how all the pieces fit together, etc. You’ll also be able to see all the problems that I encountered as I wrote the code and how I overcame them, which hopefully saves the reader a lot of time and effort! The things you learn will be learned within the context of the larger application… There’s no section on all the details of implementing a List for example, but you’ll see all those details as the applications are explored.

Interestingly, I myself generally don’t learn as well this way! I tend to prefer those simple, contrived examples of specific concepts. Then again, I’ve been doing this programming thing for a LONG time now, so the bigger picture is something I don’t typically struggle with, but the details obviously change all the time and that’s usually what I’m after.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my interview with Frank Zammetti.

First released on Palm OS devices in 1998, Epocrates started out as a prescription drug database for physicians.  It included dosing information, contraindications and a list of adverse reactions. It has since ballooned into a much more comprehensive reference tool for healthcare professionals and has gone beyond drug reference to incorporate a CME credit portal, a medical calculator and so on.  In fact, once you demonstrate proficiency in this app in medical school they let you graduate! … I kid.

After the break, I’ll walk you through my impressions of Epocrates for webOS, and how I think it could be tweaked to be the BEST version of Epocrates for ANY platform.

I’ve been a loyal Epocrates user since I was a medical student back in 1999 on my trusty Palm III. Such an Epocrates loyalist  was I, that I bought the Palm Classic Emulator by MotionApps as soon as I bought my Palm Pre, just to have Epocrates. It was that important to me! While it gave me all the functionality of Epocrates that I wanted, I definitely longed for a much more “tap-friendly” solution.

Why is it so important that webOS has it? It’s used by almost a million healthcare professionals every day, including 1/3 of all doctors in the U.S. I also think it’s cool Epocrates did not forget its loyal Palm users from back in the day. Think about it:

Epocrates for iPhone was released 13 months after the iPhone launched.

Epocrates for Android was released 18 months after Android launched.

Epocrates for webOS was released only 8 months after webOS launched. Not bad at all.

Okay so enough of that. Let’s dive right into this.  I had the pleasure of beta testing this app and on the surface it’s changed very little. Underneath, I think Epocrates did a great job of cleaning up their code as the app loads faster and no longer seems to consume as many resources.

Features

Right now Epocrates for webOS includes Drug Rx, MedMath and Tables modules.

Those of you accustomed to the Palm OS versions of Epocrates will be both pleased and disappointed.  Bad news first: the feature set is rather slim compared to the Palm OS version of Epocrates.  Formulary compatibility, for example, doesn’t exist yet. This sucks for me as many of the medications I prescribe go on and off of insurance formularies like musical chairs. The lack of this feature alone forces me to use the Palm Classic version (but hey, I’m getting my money’s worth, right?). Also, the nifty CME credit module seen in the free version is non-existent. I expect these and other lacking features (such as herbal and OTC meds) to show up in future updates and paid packages.

The good news: we Palm OS users never had the joy of using Pill ID. And it is a joy.  No longer am I forced into a corner when I have a patient try to describe a medication to me.  I just need to fire up Pill ID, tap some key descriptions, and bam! There’s my list of meds. Love it.

User Interface

Getting around Epocrates for webOS is wonderful. For starters, it’s fast. Wicked fast. Tap a category, and boom. Menus and submenus pull up. Scrolling hardly ever hiccups, even with long descriptions. And since webOS 1.4, the app takes a hair under 5 seconds to load. Nice.

Next, it’s very easy to navigate once you play around with it.  The layout is very nicely presented, and although not as pretty, easier to navigate than the version I had on my iPhone. One thing I really like is the “Universal Search” function: when you type a search, not only does Epocrates (QUICKLY) pull up drug names, it also (QUICKLY) pulls up any tables or math equations that match your request. Very nice!  Finally, rather than hunt through submenus for a specific math equation or medical table that you use often, you can save it to your Favorites on the homescreen. A nice touch.

What don’t I like? My biggest complaint is the fact that I have to TAP the text field to start a search. C’mon, guys. This ain’t the iPhone. I have a perfectly good keyboard and I should be able to just start typing without activating the text field.  After that, it’s only minor niggles: like the big ol’ “quick tips” banner in the middle of the home screen… it’s quite useless and takes up precious screen real estate. I also don’t like having to use the smallish on-screen buttons for the on-screen calculator. Finally, I can’t seem to rearrange my favorites to my liking once I’ve added them. Am I missing something?

Special Request to Epocrates:

While playing with Epocrates for webOS a great idea hit me like a ton of bricks… get this:  EPOCRATES IN MULTIPLE CARDS! … I’ll let that sink in for a little bit.

Say you’re prescribing Bactrim for a pediatric patient.  Being the good doctor you are, you want to use the dosing calculator to write for the correct dose. You open the calculator but then you want to double-check that the dosing calculations you entered match the indication. If I had multiple Epocrates cards running, I could easily flick to the other card and verify the information.  Come to think of it, I’d just leave the dose calculator on all day in one card and search medications in another. It’s brilliant!

In other words, Epocrates, take advantage of the beauty of webOS! Can’t be too hard to do, right?

Conclusion:

Right now, there’re precious few other professional medical apps for webOS. LexiComp is probably the most comprehensive of all of them and is a fantastic app, but for quick reference, their Lexi-Drugs module is simply too much. It’s also rather pricey:  the Lexi-Drugs database alone is $115!

In short, Epocrates’ foray into webOS did not disappoint. I’m looking forward to future updates and more features.  If this great start is a sign of things to come, I’ll have no problem in buying their paid packages.

Gallery

So if you stepped away from the intertubes over the weekend and are just getting back into the swing of things, you may notice things look a little different around here. With all the changes and new faces around here, we decided that the site needed a new look to accommodate all of the extra content that we are delivering nowadays.

From the getgo, you can see that the front page is much more useful. Gone are the little tiny boxes that didn’t even show you the full title of a post. Also gone is the ginormous feature graphic that didn’t really do much except take up a whole lotta space. In place of that, we have created a space to let you see all the latest news, review, and tips. Furthermore, consuming the content (aka reading) is much easier now because, as you can see, we display them on the front page.

If you are a new reader, or someone who is looking for something specific, we have created a new page called Explore. This page is another way to get at the content you want quickly. Say you are looking for a new app for your phone but you don’t want to spend more than $5. You can visit the Explore page and click on the $1 – $5 category to get all of our reviews brought right to you. If you are interested in our editorial pieces or interviews, they are only a couple of clicks away. Now, of course, if you know exactly what you are looking for, we still have the good ole search in the upper right corner.

Another new feature is the Top Buzz box to the right. This is a live feed from appRoundup so you can see what apps are the hottest on the web. While this alone is pretty darn cool, this is just the beginning of our integration to appRoundup.

In all honesty, there are dozens of little changes here and there that we have made, and all of them have been done with the sole purpose of making webOSroundup even better than it has been in the past.

Now, we have been slaving away here trying to get all the wrinkles out, but there are sure to be a few that we have missed. So if you notice anything that looks a bit funky, or doesn’t seem right for one reason or another, please help us by shooting us an email and letting us know.

We hope that you are half as excited about the changes as we are. The coming days and weeks are going to be chock full of awesomeness: interviews, new contests, editorials, and, of course, more great reviews to help you pick the best apps for your phone. We hope that you will join us for the ride and spread the word!

We hope to have it all cleaned up and ready to go by Monday when we have our “Grand Opening”.

Hope you all like the new look.

Other than that we have some nice variety…games, readers, and some music apps. Just reinforces the fact that you can do just about anything with your Palm device.

• Tweed
• Guitar Hero 5
• MONOPOLY
• Facebook
• Twee
• Scoop
• Spaz
• The Sims 3
• Foursquare
• Grooveshark

That all changed when I bought my Pre on launch day.

Back in June, the Pre’s browser and the Brightkite website didn’t get along as well as I wanted. I preferred my Centro’s browser for mobile sites. Add the fact that there was no character counter in texts, and I often went over my 140 character limit. And then I fell in love with Tweed, and the whole idea of messing around with SMS’s and mobile sites just went away. And so my Brightkite account went dormant.

Then Parafoil came out. It took me a while to decide to purchase it. It’s March, I haven’t used Brightkite regularly since July, why am I spending money on this?

Let’s take a look.

It took me no time at all to figure out the basics. The first thing you’ll notice is that when you launch the app, you go straight to your Friends time line. I like this.

Chances are, you’re not looking to check-in, and so no time is wasted with GPS. Parafoil gives you three main time lines to choose from: Friends, Nearby and Public. You can click on statuses in any of these to leave comments. Or, you can click on a profile picture to go to that user’s profile. Down in the corner, you have options to check-in, post a comment or see your in-box.

Checking-in

It takes a little while to pull up all of the data, but that’s okay as it informs you of what’s happening. Once you’re located, you have a scrollable list of venues. After you choose the one you want, click “Privacy”. This will open up a tab to specify who gets to see your post; including Twitter and Facebook (Make sure you have sharing enabled on the site, as Parafoil can’t override those settings).
One thing I’d like to see is for Twitter and Facebook sharing to have separate buttons.

I soon discovered that all of the custom place marks that I had set up were not discoverable. I’ll blame that one on Brightkite for now; however, I was rather confused when it came to checking-in to a custom venue. Just last night I tried to create one and ended up checking-in somewhere else entirely. This may have simply been user error, but ho to do this is not spelled out.

Friends

Most of my Brightkite friends are inactive as well. So I headed on over to the Public time line to find posts to play with. Commenting on posts was rather simple and went just as it should. However, when I tried to add friends, send messages or alter friendship details nothing happened.

Notifications

None, but that’s not a necessarily a deal breaker. I use other apps that have unreliable notifications (ed: Guess none is better than wrong, eh?). Brightkite allows you to setup SMS and/or e-mail notifications for pretty much everything. As I have both enabled, I was quickly alerted to any comments that were made. Once you realize that you have a notification, head on over to your in-box. There you’ll find Messages, Comments, and Mentions. My last message was 7 months ago, but I did manage to bug enough people in the public time line to get them to respond to my comments.

Privacy

When dealing with location-based social networking, privacy is a big deal. Sometimes I’m willing to let the world know that I’m at the market, but just as often, I just want to let my friends know, and posting every check-in to Twitter/Facebook can get annoying to your followers.

As mentioned earlier, in order for Parafoil to cross-post, you need to have the option enabled on the main site. This means that you are now relying on Parafoil to obey your sharing commands. There were several times that I did not click to have my status cross-post, and it wasn’t obeyed. I managed to find a work around; before you submit your status or check-in,  toggle sharing to on and then back to off. This seemed to work every time I remembered to do it. But this is one bug that they need to fix fast.

– Update –

After playing around with the cross-posting feature, I can’t guarantee that a post will not end up cross-posting to Twitter. Despite my best attempts, check-ins managed to leak through. I recommend that the developers make this bug their top priority.

Support

One thing I really like in a complex app is a place to go for help, even if it just directs me to a web-site. I had to go back to the app catalog to find a support link. Luckily, @parafoil on Twitter was quick to respond.

I’ve been informed that development was stalled while dealing with Palm, but it has ramped back up and improvements are on their way.
I’ll assume their first priority will be to add functionality to some of those non-working buttons.

Over all, it’s a nice little app. Now that I have it, my activity on Brightkite is sure to increase.

Things I would like to see:

• Privacy issues addressed
• In-app notifications
• Ability to manage friends.
• Clearer way to add custom check-ins.
• Private Messages.
• In-app help menu.

Gallery

CC Photo by {eclaire}

The big news from the last week was quite obviously the release of webOS 1.4.  First, we’ll bring you up-to-date on the story we mentioned last week about the roller coaster Palm’s shares have been on.  Next, we’ll talk about Palm’s Facebook app, which received a major update today.  Then, we’ll talk about a little discovery that makes free apps available without geographic restrictions.  We’ll follow that with news of the release of the webOS 1.4 SDK.  Finally, we’ll catch up the bits and bobs in the Roundup.

Palm Takes Stock

This last week saw a continuation of the rough times for Palm’s stock.  Last Thursday, the Wall Street Journal Digits blog published an e-mail from Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein in which he outlined the lower than expected earnings.  What’s interesting to take from the letter is that, according to Rubinstein, Verizon is taking some of the blame for lackluster sales of the Palm Pre.  Verizon did seem to drop the ball, not advertising the Pre at all when it launched on their network and there continue to be reports of Verizon sales people pushing other devices over the Pre.  Palm’s plans include something called Project JumpStart, an initiative to get more training for Verizon personnel, and increased advertising, as reflected by more ad sightings.  For our part, we think that Palm is in a good position to grow, particularly with webOS 1.4 generating excitement.  Others aren’t so sure.

Facebook App Update

Dion Almaer posted today about the latest update to the Palm-supplied Facebook app.  Some of the new features include support for viewing upcoming events, an enhanced inbox and a quick navigation grid.  The fine folks at PreCentral have even provided a video of the new version in action (see below).  As of this writing it had not appeared in the App Catalog but does show up as an update if you have installed the previous version.  If you have not yet downloaded the Facebook app you can still do so, then check for updates.

Free Apps Freed from Geographic Restrictions

When developers submit apps to Palm for inclusion in the App Catalog they can choose the region their apps will be available in.  Currently, paid apps are restricted to the US.  However, free apps can target more countries.  Some authors, however, have not selected all countries so some apps are not available everywhere.  Some people discovered that it is possible to directly download the apps from the app catalog, even going so far as to develop a desktop application to download free apps.

There are several thorny issues with this, though.  First and foremost, developers of geographically limited applications have the right to choose where their apps are distributed and this mechanism bypasses that.  Second, some speculate that downloading these apps directly may prevent the downloads from counting towards a developer’s download count for the Hot Apps program.  Thirdly, some paid apps available in the US have been made available for free download in Europe.  As usual, there’s been no official response from Palm regarding this but we strongly urge our readers to respect the copyrights of the developers.

webOS 1.4 SDK Available

It wasn’t too long after the release of webOS 1.4 that Palm officially released the corresponding SDK.  The latest version of the SDK makes available a number of new features for developers, including an updated audio API and support for the new video capabilities.  The biggest change for developers is the move to WebKit 4 and the updated V8 JavaScript engine.  The upshot is faster applications and a more compliant browser.  There are a number of tool changes as well so developers should check out the change list. Palm has indicated that this is, structurally, one of the biggest changes to webOS and there may be rough edges for developers. In particular, there may be issues with apps that use the Canvas element.

Roundup

An enterprising Pre owner created his own commercial for the Pre, taking the opportunity to show off the best features and apps for webOS. Check it out below. A new version of Preware is available for download now.  There were some issues with users attempting to update their patches while the server was overloaded which led to some ‘too many cards’ errors while attempting to launch Preware.  Know someone who’s on Sprint or looking to switch and get a Pre or Pixi?  Sprint recently announced a buy-back program that allows you to trade in old phones for credit.  Read Sprint’s announcement for details.  Got something we didn’t cover?  Drop a note into the comments below or shoot us a message on Twitter.

Update: Check out another commercial from the same author.

It is official. Link can go home now, because the Triforce of Awesomeness is complete!!

Roy Sutton, the founder of the site Pre101.com is known for his great “news roundup” articles on his site, and he is now going to lend his considerable talents to webOSroundup. Combined with Dan Ramirez’s passion, webOSroundup becomes one step closer to meeting our goals of being the premier webOS and Palm fan site.

Roy will be joining the team as the news editor, and will be helping us stay on top of all the excitement of the Palm world. He will also help out on a lot of the behind the scenes work that goes on around here. So if you have been a fan of Roy’s work (and if you aren’t, you should be), keep an eye out because all of his great articles will soon be moseying on over to their new home here at webOSroundup.

I am also excited to announce that webOSroundup will be getting a new look and feel in the coming days and weeks. In an effort to reign in all of the talent that we have gained as of late, the site needs some love. The focus of the new design will be to provide you all with more content that is easier to consume.

As Dan has mentioned on Twitter, we have a lot of exciting news coming soon…this is really just the beginning. Stay tuned…