WebOS Gets One Good App, One Boring App
Posted by Jeff Morgan (07/29/2009 @ 4:42 pm)
At least they’re new, right? Right. I’ve been waiting to see Palm’s App Catalog update for some time and now it has finally happened. Today Palm announced two new apps on their official blog. The updates come several weeks after the release of the WebOS SDK, and no doubt has Pre users salivating for more.
The first app, OpenTable, is what I consider the boring app. It provides you with real-time integration with the website, giving the user access to reservation data near your location and calendar integration. A whole lot of meh if you ask me.
The other, called Fliq Bookmarks, is an application that works with The Missing Sync to provide sync capabilities from your Mac’s Safari bookmarks to your Pre. For now it is Mac only, though PC should be coming soon. Maybe they’ll toss the Firefox users a bone, too? We can always hope.
Posted in: Apps, News
Tags: fliq bookmarks, mojo sdk, no more homebrew, opentable, palm, palm app catalog update, palm homebrew broken, palm pre, pre, pre root, pre rooting, webos sdk, webos update
WebOS SDK has its Limitations
Posted by Jeff Morgan (07/18/2009 @ 2:58 pm)
Palm has finally released their WebOS SDK, giving developers a chance to enter a totally virgin app market. You can bet there are droves of programmers hoping to port their popular iPhone or Blackberry apps to Palm’s web-based OS and maybe make a quick buck. A few of them are already expressing some distaste with the SDK. Some of those developers may even be abandoning the platform before it gets started.
Why you ask? There are two glaring problems. The first is no OpenGL support. Palm was clear that the Pre was not going to be a gaming device. They plainly stated gaming would not be a focus for the phone any time in the near future, in fact, so this isn’t a huge surprise. It still sucks though, in that it limits games to some seriously ugly graphics.
The bigger problem, at least in terms of the number of applications affected, has to do with the phone’s accelerometer. For now, the SDK only allows accelerometer polling at 4Hz. What that means to the layman is the phone only checks its orientation 4 times per second. For smooth graphical transitions you need something on the order of 20Hz, bare minimum. For more advanced applications, like the kind that can measure velocity, you need 50-100Hz. An iPhone application called gMeter currently provides this function, and its actually the gMeter developer, Craig Hunter, who’s pointing this stuff out.
Both of these issues could be updated at some point down the line, but the future may be too late. Limiting a developer’s options doesn’t mean they’re going to find creative workarounds. For a lot of programmers, it means they won’t bother. And that sucks, because Palm has the first truly fresh app store in a couple years, something they could easily use to woo hungry developers.
The silver lining here may be that the App Catalog won’t even release new material until fall at the earliest. Maybe by then Palm will be ready to make some changes. From what they’ve done so far, though, you won’t find me holding my breath.
Posted in: Apps, Mobile
Tags: mojo sdk, no more homebrew, palm, palm homebrew broken, palm pre, pre, pre root, pre rooting, webos sdk, webos update
webOS 1.0.4 Fixes Security, Breaks Homebrew
Posted by Jeff Morgan (07/01/2009 @ 1:06 pm)
This is one app decision I understand from Palm. They released webOS 1.0.4, which fixes the security hole that made homebrew apps available. Yes, that also means homebrew apps are no longer available.
This one’s probably a good thing, because that security hole was kinda huge. It allowed users to install applications via a link in the email. Still, it sucks to kill the simple homebrew scene when the SDK for the app still isn’t live.
Users can still use previously installed homebrew applications, and of course there’s always rooting if you want to install your own applications. You can find a quick guide on rooting your Pre, with a quick and dirty Linux tut, at the pre dev wiki.
Posted in: Apps, Mobile
Tags: mojo sdk, no more homebrew, palm, palm homebrew broken, palm pre, pre, pre root, pre rooting, webos sdk, webos update