webOShelp.net

Yes, it's a bit late, but that's been the norm around here lately, hasn't it?  Well, no more.  After a brief extended hiatus due to moving house to a new country followed by a month-long trip to Nepal and China, we're finally back...and boy did we miss a lot.  Get ready for a flurry of "catch-up" articles, most of which you will probably already know about, followed by some great new content and new community-driven site features!

Also, from now on we're going to really focus on developer-related news and eliminate all the "other" Palm webOS news that other sites with more resources (read: cash) can cover faster and better.

Got an idea?  Drop us a comment below; we'd love to hear from you.

Palm released their latest update to webOS today to Sprint and Bell users, notes Precentral, with the 126MB OTA download bringing the version on the Pre to 1.3.1. New features include:

• Yahoo now fully integrated into Synergy
• E-mail - notification improvements, Google Apps and Yahoo Small Business now supported
• Track scrubber in Music
• Text messaging - forwarding and custom ringtones
• Google contact sync improvements
• Timer for PIN lock

Many bugfixes and minor feature changes to existing apps have also been included in the update. Check out the full release notes for Sprint and Bell respectively. If you're in Europe fear not, the GSM update is expected by the end of the month.

In addition, the Mojo SDK has also been updated to match, and the anticipated native Facebook App is now available in the App Catalog. Functionality is quite limited right now, but like other platforms, new features are sure to be added for the social networking gurus out there. So far you can:

• Read a list of your friends' status updates.
• Comment on their status updates and make them as "liked."
• Update your own status.
• When a friend updates a photo album, you can view the album within the Facebook app.
• Comment on a friend's photo album.

Many other webOS apps have been added recently to the App Catalog; remember you can keep track via the @PalmNewApps feed.

With the release of webOS 1.3.1 today, Palm has updated the Mojo SDK to 1.3.1 with numerous enhancements including some Pixi-friendly ones. Here's the breakdown of what's new:

Tools:

• Emulator ROM updated to webOS 1.3.1
• Emulator now provides a user interface for choosing Pixi or Pre resolution at launch
• Emulator now checks to ensure a supported version of VirtualBox is installed
• The Mojo SDK v1.3.1 officially supports VirtualBox 3.0.10. Earlier 3.0.X versions may work, but you will need to upgrade if you are still using 2.2.X.
• The palm-install command-line tool from earlier versions of the SDK is incompatible with webOS 1.3.1 device ROMs, so the 1.3.1 SDK is required to install apps on a device running 1.3.1.

APIs:

• New StageController.setWindowProperties() method to prevent screen from dimming / turning off
• App Help/Support scene Mojo.Controller.StageController.pushAppSupportInfoScene() may now be auto-generated from info provided in appinfo.json
• File-access restrictions added to the application sandbox environment for increased security

This is in addition to new and revised documents to help you on your way. Check out the full release notes or get it via the download.

PDN Blog

A new teaser page on the Flash website states that Adobe Flash 10.1 is coming to Palm webOS in the first half of next year. This is a positive move from last month, when Adobe demonstrated an optimized version of Flash 10.1 on the Pre and stated that beta should be available to developers by the end of the year (meanwhile, iPhone users still get this teaser page). From the Adobe Max Conference:

Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 is the first runtime release of the Open Screen Project that enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and video across devices...A beta is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year."

So the earlier part of next year for a final, end-user release sounds about right. It's quite possible Flash 10.1 will be released alongside a major webOS update (webOS 2.0 perhaps?) and no doubt will bolster the application and games lineup on the Pre and Pixi with new and established content. Who here is looking forward to the beta?

Engadget

For those still learning the ropes to webOS, Palm will be introducing a new web-based development environment for webOS applications called Ares by the end of the year. The new toolkit, unveiled recently at the Open Mobile Summit conference in San Francisco, is designed to make it easy to integrate components in JavaScript in building webOS apps for the Pre and Pixi.

In the demo, a Palm engineer created a search application for Flikr. Using a simulation of the webOS interface, he dragged logos, a search field, button, list widget and other components to successive screens, and linked the app to Flikr using an Ajax request that called a Flikr API. Ares then allowed him to see a preview of the app in both portrait and landscape view using the phone emulator.

To simplify the development process, the tool will also allow you to package up the completed app, download it to the Pre or Pixi, share it with friends; even submit it to the App Catalog. It will be compatible with a variety of browsers, including Firefox and Safari. According to Palm's senior VP of application software, Michael Abbott, Ares is designed to help web developers make the leap to mobile development, and won't require any downloads or configuration, as well as including debugging and a way for developers to share libraries and APIs.

This looks like a useful web tool that should help streamline the app building process and attract some new talent to webOS. Do you plan to use Ares when it is released?

PC World

Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer spoke yesterday in London about changes in webOS, including CSS transformation and performance improvements that should improve multitasking on the Pre and bring it more in line with the iPhone 3GS:

On ease of use, multitasking has been great; UI latency is still an issue even though the hardware is comparable to 3GS. The problem is the path to the GPU didn't exist, but now with CSS transforms, that will be solved in the future.

Some developers already have webOS 1.3.1 in their hands, and are no doubt experiencing the improvements for themselves. As for CSS transformation, it is essentially animation using CSS (examples here). Palm is also apparently considering options for obfuscating code (to give you more control over who can view your source code). Also, assuming Palm's new ATI graphics engineer hire is already being put to work on the Pre's GPU, we should also see OpenGL support in the not-too-distant future, and with it, more engaging 3D games. In terms of priorities, Palm has implied that it's definitely up there:

They’re evolving the platform pragmatically and they feel other things might have more immediate impact, e.g. OpenGL support.

Some predict this will come in the form of WebGL, which is already in the latest version of the webkit. For those interested, Ajaxian has all the highlights from the webOS developer event in London.

Besides speed improvements, what are you most looking forward to in the next version of webOS?

Precentral

The last time we reported on notable hires at Palm was last month, when Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, of Mozilla Developer Tools Lab were recruited to the developer team. Their latest employee, Matthew Tippett will now be working for Palm as the head of Linux kernel development. An Australian native, Tippett served as engineering manager for Linux Core Engineering at AMD/ATI. Matt's work with ATI's Linux graphics drivers was given high praise, notably that he played a "critical role" in bringing the Catalyst drivers for Linux to near-parity with Windows, among other things. He will be moving from Toronto to Sunnyvale, CA to start work on webOS.

With the new engineer on board and recent focus on game development, will Palm start putting the capabilities of the Pre's GPU to work?

Palm Infocenter

For those worried about future webOS updates inconveniently breaking compatibility with their apps (in the App Catalog), Palm will soon have you covered. Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach writes on webOSdev:

"We are setting up a way for developers with apps in the catalog to have access to upcoming releases of the software to test compatibility of their application. Please drop me an email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with the email addresses of the people you need to have access to the early release and what application you've published and I'll set you up. We're also setting up a private area here on the forums to support this early access."

Other device makers already give early access to updates for developers, so we're happy to see Palm get on the bandwagon. So if you already have an app in the App Catalog and would like to get hooked up with preview builds of webOS, be sure to send off an e-mail to Chuq with your request. It's still unclear though, whether Palm will offer early access to developers distributing via the upcoming web distribution model.

Precentral

UPDATE: That was fast. reports are in that webOS 1.3.1 is already being distributed to select developers!