Palm has finally given in to the idea that open development is the way to go on the Pre. At a conference today where the prime topic was the future of WebOS, the company announced that it would be allowing developers to distribute free apps over the web.

I would call this the Pre’s saving grace if it weren’t coming so late in the game, because it’s an incredible idea. Developers simply submit the apps to Palm on a review-/censor-free basis and receive a URL back for full distribution. On top of that Palm is waiving the $99 fee for developers using the free distribution method. Regular app submission for the App Catalog will still cost $50. The last brilliant stroke in Palm’s terribly tardy plan was giving each of the developers at the WebOS conference a free Pre with a month’s service and a Touchstone dock. The whole thing is really a great idea…3 months ago.

At this point developers are working with such a small user base that even free phones and unbridled distribution may not be enough to win them back. The Pre needed to see healthy app growth at launch. Instead the store was stagnant as Palm struggled to get the SDK out on time. This new program could have fostered explosive growth then, but now it will probably look more like Palm’s last flash in the pan.

Source: TechCrunch

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.

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.

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.

I’ve tried to be clear about my feelings concerning Palm’s late SDK release for WebOS, the operating system that runs the Pre. In my mind it’s a terrible, bass ackwards plan that’s done nothing to help Pre sales figures.

There was a bright light today, though, when I saw that the Mojo SDK Beta build had be leaked via torrent. That light’s still at the end of a long tunnel, though, as Palm maintains strict control over the final release build, and certainly won’t publish any apps made with the beta. The good is that developers can finally get their hands on development tools and start polishing their apps for a clean release, whenever that may be.

Palm also mentioned this week that they are adding developers to their early adoption program, doubling their membership this week. They predict the number should double again next week, though without an original stat, this might not be as many developers as I would hope.

At any rate, movement is movement, and at the very least the homebrew community just got a new toolset to fiddle with.