O'Reilly Releasing Palm webOS Programming Guide
Allen plans to offer a free webcast on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. PT to offer developers a preview of the webOS operating system and development environment, followed by a Q&A session. See here to learn more about the webcast.
The complete book will be published upon release of Mojo, Palm's webOS software development kit (SDK). (To the right is screen shot of the platform's app launcher.)Last week, Palm CEO Ed Colligan announced that the company would no longer user the Palm OS, the mobile platform that started the PDA and (later) the smartphone revolution. Rather, it would focus on building products on the new webOS and Windows Mobile.
The webOS, to the disappointment of many Palm OS loyalists, won't be able to run legacy Palm OS apps. At least Palm isn't planning on adding that capability itself. It did say a third-party developer (perhaps Styletap) may end up doing so.
The company is looking forward, however.
It had been years since Palm (and later Access) updated the Palm OS. Although Palm added many new features and UI improvements to the platform to help keep it competitive, others -- like Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, BlackBerry, the iPhone -- far outstripped it in terms of performance over the years.
To Palm, it was time for a clean break. With that webOS, that's exactly what it achieved.
Rumor has it the Palm Pre could debut as soon as the middle of next month.
Flash in the Hand
In related news, Palm this week announced it would become a part of Adobe Systems Open Screen Project, an industry initiative dedicated to driving Adobe Flash techonlogythe most widely used method of delivering video and animations on the Webacross televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics.
The upshot: it looks like the Pre should get the mobile edition of Adobe's Flash Player, which is due to be released by the end of the year.
This player, which promise to be more full-featured than the Lite edition of the Flash currently available for mobile devices, is due to become available for Microsoft's Windows Mobile (also supported by Palm) and Nokia's Symbian S60 smartphone platforms as well. Adobe says that today 40 percent of all cell phones ship with Flash Lite."We're aiming to bring a rich, Flash technology-enabled browsing experience to Palm's impressive web browser," said Adobe Flash Platform Business Unit VP Michele Turner.
What about the iPhone?
Adobe's been trying to bring its Flash technology to the iPhone for long time now. The lack of Flash support is a real problem for iPhone users, as Flash technology is the most widely used format for delivering animations, videos (YouTube, Hulu, NBC.com, etc.) and interactive applications on the Web.