Hasta La Gadget!

Success! For all you developers hankering to get in on the webOS and Pre action (or at least see the action), your wishes have come true. Today Palm announced on its corporate blog that it would be making the Mojo SDK beta and accompanying documentation available to anyone who is interested… effective immediately. Furthermore, the company says it will begin taking submissions for new applications in the fall — so if you’re planning on getting something in, it’s time to start cranking. For those of you haven’t already torrented the previously available leak of the kit (or just want some real docs), this news should be music to your ears… er, eyes. Well what are you waiting for? Get downloading!

Read – Palm blog post
Read – Palm’s developer site

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm makes Mojo SDK beta and docs publicly available, officially opens developer floodgates originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were hoping for more system sound configurability, better notification control, or an equalizer in the music player (heck, we’ll settle for bass and treble), your wait might be nowhere close to over — but the good news is that it appears there’s some sort of update on the way for Pres in the field that’s significant enough to justify a 0.1 bump in webOS’ version number to 1.1. Corporate types will get all fired up over better managed Exchange policy integration with support for device wipe after failed PIN attempts, auto PIN lock, minimum password complexity, and a bunch of other things that your average Pre owner isn’t going to give a flying iPhone about. Perhaps more interesting to everyone else is the claim that additional built-in apps are a possibility for 1.1, though there’s no detail there — it could be best-of-breed stuff culled from the App Catalog, new first-party apps, or a combination. PreCentral’s hearing “within 30 days” for the release, so go ahead and get your firmware upgrade pants on now just in case.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

webOS 1.1 rumored to be on the way to Pres shortly, sounds boring so far originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You knew it was on deck, and at long last, here it is. Your one and only shot (okay, so maybe that’s a gentle stretch) to tell the world — and Palm, since it’s a part of the world — exactly what you think about the Pre. Since going on sale to the general public just under a month ago, some analysts have suggested that some 300,000 or so units have been moved. We’re quite confident that at least some of that bunch have their eyes peering at this here post, so we’d like to formally ask for your opinions in comments below. Is there anything you’d like to see changed on Palm’s Pre? Is the build quality up to snuff? Is webOS everything you thought it’d be (and more)? Is the QWERTY keyboard doing it for you? Do you wish it supported something that it doesn’t? Unleash your wrath below — we’ll keep your true identity a secret. Maybe.

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change the Palm Pre? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s one thing to bury something like developer mode — a mode that the average Pre user will never need — behind a cute-but-exhausting throwback Konami code, but it’s quite another to hide useful stuff that way. A PreCentral tipster discovered that entering “RocknRollHax” on the keyboard (and yes, capitalization is important here) while in the email app enables the previously missing capability to use it in landscape mode; presumably Palm hid it from end users because they thought it was too buggy or weird for mainstream use, but it certainly works alright for us. Worst part is that the code needs to be re-entered each and every time the email app starts, so you’d better really want it — but at least you don’t have to root to get it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Dieter over at PreCentral, real, honest-to-goodness usable apps are starting to “trickle out” for the Pre / webOS. Apparently utilizing a loophole in the operating system which allows unsigned apps to be sideloaded through email, homebrewers have taken to the interwebs with small utilities like the tip calculator (pictured above). This comes just a day after a group of DIY’ers figured out a workable solution for getting software onto the phone without rooting, so obviously Pre hacking is moving along at a healthy clip. These are — of course — very early applications, so don’t expect perfection, and there seems to be some concern that Palm might want to patch up this hole, as it leaves the phone vulnerable to less altruistic endeavors. While the latter point is reasonable to consider, we do have a piece of advice for the folks at the front of this movement: don’t wait and worry on how Palm will react to this stuff. It’s important to push platforms like webOS, and the Pre needs all the love it can get on the development side right now.

Read – Right now: Install a Homebrew App without Hacking
Read – Homebrew Apps Tricking Out, but be careful

Filed under: Cellphones

Homebrew apps come to the Palm Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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