www.webOShelp.net

After toiling every evening for 3 days, I finally completed my write up of the first official webOS tutorial from Palm presented during the webcast by Mitch Allen.  I added links to various helpful resources, meticulously formatted all of the code, broke everything into easy-to-understand sections, even added screenshots from the video. 10 minutes later...it was all gone.  Wiped out by idiotically-designed CMS software.  I opened the article up to edit the title, made my changes and saved it.  Unfortunately, when I clicked "save", the article body hadn't loaded into the editing window yet.  So what did it save?  NOTHING.  That's right...NOTHING except the title I had just edited.  The tutorial I had slaved over for days was gone...just like that.  Now all that's left in its place is this paragraph of bitterness and lament.  And the sample code from the tutorial that I had saved and posted in the forums.

I may try to rewrite it again this weekend, but right now I need to get to bed...it's been a long day. -Ken

For the past two weeks, Palm Infocenter has given a summary of Palm's launch partners that were first introduced by CEO Ed Colligan at the CES 2009 presentation. This week, they conclude their analysis with six more third-party teammates that Palm is assembling for the launch of the Pre.

The final chapter focuses on MovieTickets.com, Fandango, SplashData, AOL, TeleNav, and Chapura. They also touch on the prospects of future connections with Microsoft, Twitter, and eBay.

As one of Palm's launch partners for the Pre unveiled at CES 2009, SplashData plays an important role in promoting interest for the new device, both among new webOS developers and established PalmOS developers. Previously, Palm Infocenter contacted CEO Morgan Slain, who stated in his response that a new version of SplashID and SplashID Live (a web-oriented version of SplashID) would make their way onto webOS.

To continue our webOS coverage, we asked Splashdata's VP of Product Management, Justin Cepelak, about other potential webOS software from Splashdata and his thoughts on the new platform:

1) Does SplashData plan on developing new applications for the webOS platform?

Yes, we are excited about developing for WebOS. We will be porting some of our existing applications that have been staple productivity products for Palm customers over the years. We will likely also develop some new applications for this unique new platform that take advantage of the Web enabled orientation of the device.

Up to now, we have heard very little about Palm's answer to Apple's App Store, which has enjoyed widespread success among the developer community and consumers alike. MyTriniPhone has an article describing a recent study from the Global Intelligence Alliance Group (GIA) that found the iPhone "miles ahead" of competing app stores. Several criteria are included in the study, including time to market, developer appeal, price and availability.

Because the Pre isn't out yet, as expected it ranked poorly in many areas. However, based on the facts so far, we can speculate on what Palm will do to earn them a top spot once the Pre is released. Handsets in the study included the iPhone, Pre, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile (WM), and Nokia devices.

In terms of time to market, Apple and Google both ranked "strong". Apple has been selling software since July 2008 and now has over 15,000 apps available, with over 17 million handsets sold through the end of 2008. The market widens as most apps also run on the iPod touch.

For those of you who missed the webcast and were squinting at the YouTube video to see what Palm CTO Mitch Allen was doing, we are now offering our webcast footage in full 1280x720 widescreen resolution!

If you're wondering about the difference, check out a screenshot of the YouTube HQ version vs. the 720p HD version. Also, if you want to skip the intro material and jump right to when Allen starts coding a simple webOS program, start at Part 2.

In case you missed it, you can read part 1 of our webOS webcast summary, which covers the intro and Q&A portions of the presentation.

Tomorrow we'll post the full, downloadable code from the webcast as the first official webOS tutorial from Palm. Update: Sorry, it's taking a bit longer than expected.  ETA for the tutorial is now Tuesday.

broadcast:

Part 1 (no sound for 1:35)
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

For the Q&A session, head over to YouTube for parts 1 and 2 (no need for high-res)

Part 1
Part 2

Update: If you don't feel like sitting through the hour of video, you can view the tutorial complete with code and commentary here.  Or simply grab the tutorial code here.

Are you planning to develop webOS applications? Do you want to help write the webOS articles and tutorials the world¹ will read?  Are you ready to make the world a better place²?

www.webOShelp.net is looking for skilled, knowledgable volunteers to write the compelling, informative articles webOS developers like yourself want to read. www.webOShelp.net is currently on the first page of results for Google searches on webOS news, webOS resources, Mojo API, webOS API, and is the #1 result for webOS tutorials. Help keep us there and make yourself and/or your company known as an authority in the webOS world.

Earlier, we began compiling a list of informative articles in regards to the Apple vs. Palm debate, the ongoing patent battle involving Apple's multitouch technology. With the release of the Pre nearing, more articles are focusing on side-by-side comparisons of the Pre and iPhone hardware; with detailed charts, webOS and OSX comparisons, and giving reasons why one should be better than the other.

While we may be biased towards webOS and the Pre, that shouldn't keep you from making an informed choice for your next handset. Below is a list of the articles (most recent first) that should be a valuable resource in sizing up these two smartphone heavyweights:

Update: Part 2 of the webcast summary has been posted. Click here.

Earlier today, we were on hand for the webOS webcast presented by Mitch Allen, vice president and software CTO of Palm. The event, titled "Developing Applications for webOS: a Preview" was approximately 1 hour long, and gave us a preview into application development and the Mojo SDK. It also served as a recap for the material introduced in chapter one of "Palm webOS: Developing Applications in JavaScript Using the Palm Mojo(tm) Framework" by O'Reilly.

This article will only be a short summary of the first part of the presentation; we will get into more details later (for now, you can check out our summary of Chapter 1 of the O'Reilly book, which elaborates on much of the same material). Also, full HD video footage is available below in case you missed the webcast.

To begin, Allen gave an introduction on the anatomy of webOS, including basic architecture, cards, and notifications.�

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The application model and anatomy of a webOS Application were then covered, using charts describing differences between the native application model, classic web app model, and ajax web app model (with Javascript).