Rahul Sood, founder of luxury PC maker Voodoo, HP’s CTO of gaming and recent champion of webOS has finally sat down with Palm’s directors of dev relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. Discussion in this rare, audio only podcast includes: Rahul’s background with Voodoo, his passion for design, what HP has to offer the webOS community, his thoughts on where mobile gaming is going, and more.
Great to see execs like Sood fired up about Palm and webOS!
Source: Palm’s Developer Blog
We just finished watching a rare solo appearance by Palm Developer Relations’ Ben Galbraith at MobileBeat 2010 in a "fireside chat" with VentureBeat’s Matthäus Kryzkowski. The discussion was fairly general about where webOS has come in the past year with a few hints at where it might be going, including another mention of the cloud-syncin’est database technology known to mobility, DB8, which we reported on past April. It was a "fireside chat," and so not the venue for big announcements, but still illuminating to those looking to get a feel for where the thinking inside HP’s newest subsidiary is right now.
The seventh installment of Palm’s ongoing developer podcast series is now online, and the subject this time around is the browser-based Ares development tool. Ben and Dion (who helped to create Bespin while at Mozilla, on which Ares is built) sit down with Matthew McNulty, Palm Director of Developer Tools, to discuss the history of the development tool from its inception to its public release and where Palm hopes to take it in the future. The podcast continues (after a somewhat humorous editing gaffe midway through) with McNulty walking us through some of the features in Ares and giving suggestions on how you might include the Ares in your tool chain.
Ares is a fascinating and exceedingly well executed concept, and many a developer (webOS or not) would be smart to catch a glimpse of where development environments will be headed in the future by catching the video after the break.
Source: Palm Developer Center
We’ve already given you the heads up that we’re going to be reporting live from VentureBeat’s annual MobileBeat conference in San Francisco starting on Monday, where the theme will be "The year of the Superphone and who will profit". There’s quite a line up of presenters from many of the major players in the field, and HP CTO Phil McKinney is set to kick things off by giving the keynote speech for the event.
McKinney won’t the the only HP employee active in the event, as Palm’s developer portal blog lets us know that they’ll be there, too:
Palm and HP will be participating in MobileBeat 2010. First, Phil McKinney, VP and CTO of HP Personal Systems Group will be giving the keynote address Monday morning. Then Ben Galbraith, Palm’s Director of Developer Relations will have a “fireside chat” with moderator Matthäus Krzykowski on Tuesday afternoon. They’ll be discussing the future of webOS and its developer program.
In addition, Ben is one of five judges of the Startup Competition in the Consumer Applications category on Monday from 9-11a.m. Ten finalists have been selected in the “Consumer Applications” category, and Palm will be awarding them with Pre Pluses. Each finalist will have 4 minutes to present their startup company and idea for a killer app. Congratulations to those who made it!Look for Lisa Brewster and other Palm reps to be on hand, raffling devices and generally having a great time. Hope to see you there!
It’s a sweet event that just got a little sweeter with the addition of Palm folk, and it’s still great to the still-intact Developer Relations team out doing what they do best. If you’re thinking of attending the event and haven’t bought your ticket yet, be sure to follow this link and use the promo code “SmartphoneExpertsVIP” to receive a sweet 15% off the normal admission price. If you are going to be there, drop us a line!
Otherwise, keep it locked here for the latest from Palm and HP at MobileBeat 2010.
Source: Palm Developer Portal Blog
Palm’s Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, directors of developer relations at Palm, took some time near the end of the third episode of their Palm Developer Podcast Series to talk not only about the Palm Developer Day event, but also the announced HP acquisition.
After a bit of silliness (hawking HP printers, ink and even paper), they both spoke extremely positively about what the HP deal might mean for the company and its developer community.
Ben: “We couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities that this merger opens up for developers. We are…really thrilled about what’s possible here….“If the deal goes through, we will be with the largest technology company in the planet.”
Dion: “webOS is this amazing but very young operating system, and now, with a parent like HP, if all of this goes through, we’ll have the runway to do amazing things. You guys have kind of gotten in in the ground floor, and I think where we take things from here, is going to be an amazing fantastic way.”
While they also pointed out that, “thanks to the legal system being what it is,” they couldn’t say much more, they seemed genuinely enthusiastic about HP and its plans for Palm. (Dion’s offer at the end of the video, “Use webOS, get a free HP printer,” should probably not be taken seriously, though.)
The discussion starts at about 44 minutes into the video, after the break!
Palm has released the second installment of its developer podcast series featuring Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. You caught the first installment of the podcast series last month, which gave you a high-level look at Palm’s vision going forward, and why Ben and Dion decided to leave Mozilla to work at Palm. Episode Two gets a little bit more into the nitty gritty, offering a crash course geared towards beginner developers on the platform, showing how to install the necessary tools (such as the SDK and the emulator) to build an application, how to develop an application from scratch and tweak it, and how to deploy that application to the emulator or device for testing. It’s the perfect primer for folks that have been pondering making the jump into developing for the platform, as all of the basics to get up and running are covered here. Video is after the break!
Additionally, Palm has started to post the slides from their Developer Day online – there are currently three sessions available. We expect more to come – and we also hope that video of the presentations will become available online as well.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Since joining Palm back in September, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer have really been accomplishing a lot (dare I say kicking ass?) in roles as Directors of Developer Relations. In addition to the Developer Day (where at, of course, and will be keeping you up to date on the latest happenings) and the on-going podcast series, the two have been giving a 10 week crash course on the future of the web and mobile at a little college in Palo Alto called Stanford University. The school, along with Palm, are making the videos available online for your learning pleasure. Currently on week two class, the first class gives a higher-level overview of mobile and the mobile Web, and the latest video covers some HTML/CSS/JavaScript fundementals (you know, the technologies you need to build applications using Palm’s SDK.)
So while you’re kicking yourself for not heading to Sunnyvale this past weekend, cue up the Stanford videos (which are about 50 minutes in length) and get your learn on.
Those of you who are attending (or thinking of attending) Palm’s Developer Day in Sunnyvale this weekend now have access to the full agenda for the two day event. On the docket for the weekend are hacking sessions, off-site mixers, and speeches from high-level engineering folk such as Graphics Frameworks Engineer Andy Weir, VP of Platform and Tools Joe Hayashi, and of course Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer.
Looking over the agenda, it looks like developers are getting more than their $25 worth, as both days are packed solid with presentations. The first day gives a higher level overview of webOS with presentations starting at 10:00am and ending around 5:00pm. The second day gets down into the nitty gritty with presentations starting at 9:00am with the keynote speech (delivered by Ben and Dion), being followed up with multiple presentations during each time slot, with everything wrapping up with an off-site mixer around 5:30.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
Good news, developers and prospective developers. Palm has taken another step forward in developer relations and has decided to start a YouTube video podcast series.
The first episode of Palm’s video podcast series was posted yesterday and it doesn’t disappoint. Hosted by the well-known Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, the presentation reaffirms Palm’s deep commitment to their developer base.
This episode covered the current status of developing on webOS. Ben and Dion delve into why they love the webOS and their decision to join Palm. Listening to them, it’s hard not to like webOS. It’s also clear that they’re beyond passionate on the matter and want prospective developers to be too.
Ben and Dion continued the discussion, talking about the Plugin Development Kit (PDK) and the inclusive environment they want the webOS to be. Looking at the possible official/unofficial coding options, it seems to show a lot of potential there; normal HTML/CSS/JS webOS apps, native C plugin apps, Qt plugin apps and future Adobe AIR/Flash apps. Palm webOS really does seem to be a "can-do" mobile operating system. Personally, I’m excited to see the fantastic HTML5-PDK hybrid apps coming out once the App Catalog opens up for them.
For a half-hour video, Ben and Dion managed to cover a lot. Everything from Project Appetite and Project Ares (with Project Appetite, we learned the site has a few neat Easter eggs) to app distribution methods and the Hot Apps contest.
It will be very exciting to see where this series goes. From the sounds of it, this could be a very popular, providing both valuable information for developers as well as a great communication tool between Palm and developers, directly from 2 big names in the company. Definitely a sign Palm wants to be involved on a more personal level with developers, welcomed with open arms.
Yes, folks, it’s a Facebook kind of morning here at PreCentral. What can we say, we’re celebrating the new app in style.
Having recently taken charge of Palm’s Developer Relations team, web developers extraordinaire Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer decided it was time to try out their tools for themselves and use them to revamp the webOS Facebook app. The two came into the project with years of web programming experience but none with webOS. They used the experience as away to both become familiar with the tools they push, and to explore the SDK from a developer’s point of view.
Chuq Von Rospach posted about the experience on the Developer Center Blog, noting that, “Working on this application has given us a really detailed look at the current state of our tools and documents. Here in Developer Relations, we’ve been sitting down and evaluating the results and putting plans in place to remove as many of the speedbumps and potholes as we can, as quickly as we can.”
Almaer went more in-depth on his personal blog, diving into the process that went into the revamp. It’s no secret that the version 1.0 Facebook app was a disappointment to many, but the folks at Palm listened and prioritized the updates for this latest version (those being access to Facebook messages and profiles). They also worked to bridge the gap between webOS-style and Facebook-style, designing the app such that it works much like the website.
This is what Almaer and the team hope will be the first of “a regular cadence” of releases. Where they go from here is a question that they want your help answering. The options are many, including birthday integration into calendar or webOS notifications. Both the Palm Developer Center Blog post and Almaer’s own are interesting reads and give us more hope for the future of webOS apps.